Ideas & Tips — Food & Drinks

When you think about food that's popular around this time of year, salads don't usually come to mind. With all the traditional cookies, candy and meat-heavy meals, you could easily go the entire season without touching a leaf of lettuce. However, for those of us who prefer eating healthy, or simply for a palate-refresher after all that heaviness, there are a whole bunch of seasonal salad recipes that combine the flavors of the holidays with essential veggie-borne vitamins and minerals. Here are just a few: Spinach pomegranate salad: For this particularly easy salad option, toss together spinach, crumbled walnuts, pomegranate seeds and...

The thought of a smoothie usually calls to mind the bright colors and tart flavors of the various fruits that are commonly used in blended concoctions, but the smoothie is so much more than that. Namely, the form of a smoothie can be used to convey any number of flavors and ingredients, including thematic seasonal blends. Also, seasonal smoothies are often much healthier than their non-smoothie counterparts, such as pumpkin pie and eggnog, so they are a good choice for people looking to stick to a diet without missing out on the flavors of the holidays. Don't put your blender...

When you spend Thanksgiving at someone's home, you know they've spent all day cooking up a feast and preparing the house for guests, so you'll want to bring something along to show your appreciation of their efforts. When choosing a host gift, it's important to consider your host's particular tastes, but there are a few categories that many good host gifts fall into. Useful in many situations, sometimes even during the meal itself, these versatile host gifts will make your hosts want to invite you back next year: A serving bowl: Oftentimes, hosts who are taking on the Thanksgiving meal for...

Continuing in the Thanksgiving vein, let's talk about the confusing and intimidating process of preparing to host the big meal. Especially if this is your first time hosting Thanksgiving dinner for a large group, the sheer amount of food and supplies needed combined with the exhausting preparation process can leave your head spinning. To make sure you don't find yourself missing some crucial element on Thanksgiving itself, follow this list of things to take care of before hosting: Make sure you have all the necessary cookware and serving items. Once you have your menu planned out, mentally walk through the preparation...

We've previously discussed on this blog how to put together your own bar cart, which adds panache to any home. However, if you aren't a big drinker or you don't always keep liquor on hand, you don't have to be left out of this hot decorating trend! Here are 8 tips for making an at-home coffee bar: Delivery is key: Half of the fun of setting up a bar area is finding a pretty table or cart on which to put it. The same principle applies when you are putting together a coffee bar.  Fresh flowers: Fresh flowers immediately elevate...