Most people find that an interesting hobby can add an exciting dimension to their lives, especially when a heavy work load or a full schedule of study seem to occupy too much of one’s precious time. Hobbies can be relaxing and refreshing, but an extra dimension is added when they are profitable as well. Although ideas are almost without limit, photography is a particularly interesting hobby with real profit potential.

It is possible, of course, to study photography seriously with a view to participating in competitions and art shows. If this is the primary objective, then support and assistance are not far away. Classes, lectures, and workshops are readily available in most communities. Libraries also contain a wealth of information in books and on videos, providing the photography enthusiast with every opportunity to learn how to produce artistic, award-winning pictures. Award-winning pictures are one thing, however; saleable pictures are another.

Enthusiasts who want to turn their hobby into a profitable venture will need to examine what particular characteristics of a picture make it saleable. An award-winning picture sporting the blue ribbon is not necessarily one that someone would want to buy. In fact, most of the photographic pictures sold in North America are family related, whether wedding groups, special occasions, or simply ordinary family portraits. An amateur photographer can easily tap into this market by learning some simple techniques practiced by experienced professionals.

Clients wanting to purchase family portraits or group pictures expect professional results showing interesting dynamics and happy, smiling faces. Professionals invariably insist that this cannot be achieved without correct lighting. It is essential to show full face angles in a soft light, using a flash to prevent unattractive shadow around the eyes. Even outside, it is often advisable to use a flash, though in full sunlight this would not be necessary.

Attractive body positioning is also essential to good photography. Pictures taken straight on are the least attractive and should be avoided if possible. It is better to have small groups in different positions, preferably with heads at different levels. This can be achieved by having some individuals standing, some seated, and others kneeling or crouching. Heads should be slightly tilted and hands shown on side view with fingers together.

Large groups can be more difficult to arrange. Straight on shots can hardly be avoided with a large group picture, but it is still important to pay attention to detail. This kind of picture usually requires the front row to be seated on chairs or on the floor, and if this is the case, attention must be given to the arrangements of legs and feet. Professionals would advise that legs should be crossed at the feet only, not at the knees. This is more artistic, and it is more pleasing to the eye. Other ideas about how to take saleable pictures can be obtained from a variety of sources.

For those who are interested in developing an interesting and profitable hobby, photography is hard to beat. It is not overly expensive to start up, and once a few contacts have been made, a small business can grow very quickly. The best advice is to keep it simple, stay with the hard-and fast-rules, and insist on happy, smiling faces.

Appetizers Set the Tone for Your Meal

As their name implies, the traditional function of appetizers is to whet the appetite of your guests for the meal to come.  Currently, appetizers, or hors d’oeuvres are often served on their own as finger food perfect for a party setting.  While there’s nothing wrong with serving the classic pigs in a blanket or simple cheese and crackers, learning to create elegant and tasty appetizers can take your entertaining skills to a new level.  When creating hors d’oeuvres, keep in mind their intended function.  If they are to precede a meal, serving too many appetizers can backfire by making your guests too full to appreciate the meal.  As party food, be sure to have plenty on hand as you don’t want to run out too soon.

Simply Elegant Appetizers
Hors d’oeuvres don’t need to be complex to be both elegant and delicious.  One of the most common appetizers is crudités (crew-de-tays), which is a fancy way to describe fresh cut vegetables.  Transforming a plain old vegetable tray to a dish worthy of its French moniker is simply a matter of presentation.  Start with a bed of romaine lettuce or spring greens to provide color.  Use a variety of cleanly cut vegetables in assorted colors for the best effect.  For fancy flourishes,  try edging seedless, peeled cucumbers, making radish rosettes or curled scallions.

Another easy to prepare, yet impressive, appetizer is to provide a selection of soft cheeses and pâtés.   While fois gras is certainly elegant, not all pâtés are created from goose liver.   To cater to friends that might be scared off by traditional pâté, try serving common variations such as sun dried tomato pâté, almond pâté or lentil pâté.  Some soft cheese choices include Boursalt , Chaource, Brie, Humboldt fog, and Camembert.  Both cheese and pâté should be served with a selection of breads and crackers.  Rye, pumpernickel and water crackers make excellent choices that will not overpower the taste of the spread.   Both spreads should be served at room temperature to heighten the flavor.  For a traditional presentation, create a “wheel” of cheese and pâté on a cloth covered round platter.

Hearty Appetizers
If you are planning to serve appetizers as your main source of food, you’ll want to be sure to include a few choices that appeal to larger appetites.  Bruschetta is delicious, substantial and very easy to put together.   Start with a baguette (long thin loaf) of French or Italian bread.  Cut the bread into ½” to ¾” slices (some delicatessens and stores will have pre-cut baguettes, but cutting your own is the only way to insure freshness).  Mix together in a large bowl 2 large diced tomatoes, 1 small sweet onion, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 pressed or diced clove of garlic and a teaspoon each of fresh chopped oregano, basil and parsley.  Apply the mixture to the bread, sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese and bake in a 400° oven for 8-10 minutes.  After a brief cool down period, your bruschetta is ready to be served.

Another bread-based appetizer option is cheese fondue.  Fondue sets are once again popular wedding gifts, but most people don’t take the opportunity to use them.  Aside from being absolutely delicious, fondue is a fun food for your guests to experience and is easy to prepare.  Start by tearing a loaf of fairly heavy bread (such as sourdough or hard French bread) into chunks about an inch in diameter.  You can vary the type of cheese you use, but a distinctively tempting option is natural Swiss cheese.

Before starting the fondue mixture, cut a clove of garlic in half and rub it along the inside of the fondue basin.  Next, add two cups of dry white wine (Riesling makes a nice choice) and heat it until it is warm, but not boiling.  Once the wine is warm, gradually add one pound of grated Swiss cheese that has been dipped in flour, continually stirring until it is completely melted.  Add a dash of pepper, nutmeg, and two table spoons of Kirsch (cherry brandy) or brandy to complete the fondue.  Fondue should be served while it is still bubbling.  If the mixture becomes too thick, you can add more wine to make it fluid.

Appetizer Masterpieces
Creating more complex hors d’oeuvres doesn’t require the efforts of a master chef.  There are many simple recipes that will provide you with scrumptious appetizers that only look like the work of a professional.  Mini-quiche in individual pastry shells look like works of art, taste divine, and are fairly simple to make.  Here’s a recipe for roasted red pepper and sweet onion quiche to try at your next event.  Start by gathering the following ingredients:

• Preformed mini-tart shells from your grocer’s freezer (thawed)
• ¼ cup roasted red peppers, either cooked at home or from a jar
• 1 cup Swiss cheese, shredded
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 pkg dried cream of onion soup mix

Set your oven to preheat to 375° and place the mini-tart shells on a baking sheet.  Divide the cheese and peppers equally amongst all of the shells.  Now mix together the eggs, cream and soup mix with a whisk and pour evenly into the tart shells.  Bake these treats for 20-25 minutes and you have an aesthetically pleasing and delicious appetizer ready to serve.

Another elegant choice is filo cheese straws.  Not only are these some tasty pasties, but they offer many unique presentation options and can be served with a variety of dips and sauces.  Start by preheating your oven to 375° and melting a stick of butter in a saucepan.  While the butter is melting, mix together 8 oz of softened cream cheese, a beaten egg, ¼ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese and ¼ teaspoon of salt.  Next transfer this mixture to a pastry bag.  If you don’t  have a pastry bag to work with, you can improvise one by putting the mix into a plastic sandwich bag and snipping off one of the corners.  By this point, the butter should be melted, so you are ready to start working on the dough.  Brush the first sheet of dough with melted butter and pipe the filling along the long edge, leaving about a half inch on either end.  Fold both ends over to keep the filling inside and roll the dough lengthwise into the shape of the straw.  As each straw is complete, transfer it to a baking sheet.  Once all the appetizers are complete, back the straws for 12-15 minutes, at which time they will appear golden.  How you serve the straws is a matter of preference, but one way is to create little trees.  Fill tall shot glasses with about a ¼” of sauce (marinara, pesto, and cocktail sauce work nicely) or dip and arrange 3 or 4 filo straws per glass to create the tree effect.

Entertaining on a Time Budget

In our society of power breakfasts, endless meetings and overfilled schedules, it seems as if no one has the time to entertain guests except for special occasions.  Don’t let the fact that you’re on a limited time budget keep you from enjoying the company of your friends and family.   With minimal planning and preparation, you can host a dinner party on a day’s notice.  Use these tips to plan a get together that will give you and your guests a welcome respite from the rat race we face everyday.

Planning – Keep it Simple
Planning your meal shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes.  Get a piece of paper and write down these 3 things:

1. Number of Guests – Include all possible guests, including significant others.  It’s always better to have too much than too little.
2. Time Frame – You’ll want to decide what time the guests should arrive and what time dinner will be served so that you’ll know exactly how much time you have to devote to preparation.
3. Menu – Arguably the most difficult aspect of any dinner party, remember to keep it simple.  Stick with dishes you are familiar with and that can be prepared quickly.  If you’re stuck on this step, some menu options will be provided later in this article.

Once you have this information, you can do an inventory of your kitchen and decide what you need to purchase.  Create a shopping list being sure to include any decorations and beverages along with the food you need to buy.   Organize the list so that you can move quickly through the store.  You should be able to locate everything you need at any major grocery store.

Invitations – No Need to Be Formal
If your guest list is small,  you can call each guest to issue a personal invitation.  If you’re planning on a larger group, or if you just don’t have the time, email comes in very handy.  There are several invitation based websites that can be used to great advantage when planning a dinner party.  Just fill in a few fields and you’re a click away from reaching all your guests.

Decorations – Nothing Fancy
Sticking with the theme of keeping it simple, decorations needn’t be too elaborate.  Simple candles and fresh flowers are always a great way to go.  Fresh flowers like Astromeria can be purchased very cheaply at most grocery stores.  While not necessary, having a linen tablecloth is always a nice touch and doesn’t require more than minimal ironing.

The Meal – Options and Suggestions
If you don’t know what to prepare for your meal, here are some suggestions for elegant and easy to prepare recipes that will impress your guests.

Beverages – The easiest way to handle beverages is to set up a bar/beverage area where guests can prepare their own drinks.  That way if you are putting the finishing touches on the meal, you won’t be interrupted every time a new guest arrives, you can just direct them to the bar.  Be sure to include ice and glasses with your choice of beverages in the set-up.

Appetizers– Nothing could be easier than providing appetizers like selected cheeses with crackers or a vegetable tray with dip.  If you have the time to cut your own vegetables, you can save money, but precut vegetable trays will save you time.  Pre-made spinach or artichoke dip served with a hearty bread is also a good, quick appetizer.

Salad– Pre-prepared salads come in very handy if you’re on a time budget and can be augmented with fresh vegetables of your choosing if you have the time.  To add a dash of class and yum factor, add French fried onions and cheese (feta is usually a good choice) to your salad.

Sides – The simplest and quickest side options is the basic baked potato.  To create a restaurant quality baked potato, wet the skin of the potato and dip it in sea salt.  Then wrap each potato in paper towel before microwaving it.   After cooking, firmly roll the potato before removing the towel to pull the potato away from the skin. Cut each potato once down the center and it’s ready to serve.  Rice and flavored rice packages are also make quick and delicious sides.

Soup – Many restaurants and restaurant supply companies offer delicious frozen soups that can be quickly heated up for a delicious soup course.

Entrees– There are many recipes available for meat, poultry, seafood and pasta dishes with quick preparation times.  A search of the many available recipe sites on the internet can provide you with a recipe that fits your taste.  Here is one such simple and elegant choice:

London Broil w/Garlic Au Jus

Hands-on preparation time: 20 minutes
Actual time to prepare – 2 hours

Ingredients:
1.5lbs of 1 ½” – 2” thick London broil (top round)
2 cloves of fresh garlic
1 can beef broth
1 cube beef bouillon
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup butter
¼ cup water

1)     In a small saucepan, boil the beef broth, bouillon and brown sugar for 15 minutes to reduce it.
2)     Remove the broth mixture from heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes
3)     Create a marinade by adding the garlic (pressed or diced), lemon juice, and olive oil to the broth mixture
4)     Marinate the London broil for 1 hour at room temperature
5)     Retaining the marinade, broil the meat on a roasting rack for 8 minutes on each side
6)     Remove the meat from the oven and allow to sit for 8 minutes
7)     Meanwhile return the marinade to the saucepan, add water and butter and bring to a boil
8)     Carve the London Broil into thin slices on a slight angle, cover with Au Jus and serve on a platter with the remaining Au Jus on the side.