Tuesday, January 29, 2013

How to Buy Gluten-Free Pasta

Gluten-free diets are popular. Celiacs may have no choice but to follow a gluten-free diet, but more people are giving celiacs company by choosing to follow a gluten-free diet for improving health. As a result, there's a good variety of GF foods these days available at your local supermarket.

If you're on a gluten-free diet, finding tasty GF pasta can be difficult to find. But before we talk about finding great tasting GF pasta or bread, how do you know your GF products do not contain even a trace of gluten? Many manufacturers produce products that contain wheat within the same manufacturing unit. Although there are stringent controls to avoid mixing, chances of cross-contamination cannot be totally ruled out. Here are a few tips to make sure you have a 100 percent GF product:

Look for a manufacturer that does not manufacture other products that contain wheat or gluten.

Look for labels with the words 100 percent Gluten-Free

GF pasta is generally made from any of the following: cornstarch, potato starch, soy flour, brown rice, rice bran, lupin flour, lupin proteins. You can exchange regular pasta in any recipe with any GF pasta. Is there a difference? Not much, especially if you eat it hot. Here's what you can expect from each type of GF pasta:

Rice pasta: This is the most common GF pasta and you'll find several leading brands selling GF rice pasta. Rice pasta has a neutral flavor and therefore blends well with any recipe. It is available in assorted shapes and sizes. Rice pasta has a tendency to become gummy when overcooked so make sure you cook it al dente.

Corn pasta: This has a fairly neutral taste and is often combined with potato or quinoa to give it the right pasta texture. When cold, corn pasta has a tendency to become tough and does not reheat well. One of the advantages of corn pasta is its high in protein value.

Potato starch pasta: Potato pastas are usually blended with other grains like corn, rice, oats or quinoa. These pastas have a good, light texture, but tend to cook soft. They're great for dishes where you want the sauce to totally blend in with your pasta.

Many celiacs feel they are sensitive to corn and other foods as well. It's often preferable to buy pasta products that are gluten free, egg free, vegetarian, corn free, Kosher, milk/casein free, peanut free, soy free, tree nut free.

A few of the high-quality GF brands you'll want to look out for are Le Veneziene, BiAglut, Goldbaum, Tinkyada. Most of these products are kosher and free of common allergens as well. Since gluten-free has become a popular way of life, you'll find several websites dedicated to selling gluten-free bread, bagels, pizzas, candy, and supplements.

A Definitive Guide to Public Relations Writing

Although the internet has changed public relations and made it evergreen, public relations really hasn't changed that much. The purpose of public relations is to connect with your audience, give them news and information about your business, and connect with them in such a way they see your business favorably.

The audience has changed. It used to be that when you wrote press releases, or created press kits, that you were trying to connect with the press, i.e. newspapers, TV, radio, etc. Now, although you still need these things, the focus has changed because now you connect directly with your potential customers. The fundamentals of public relations are still the same.

That's the reason this is such an important book. Learning to write a good press release and press kits, as well as other types of public relations materials, is more of an art than a science. It takes a lot of hard work to get it right. This book will show you how to do that.

You'll learn everything from how to tell whether or not your writing is too scholarly or over the heads of your audience. Then there's how to create press releases, newsletters, press kits, and other related materials you'll need to conduct your public relations campaign. Although this material applies to print, it may be easily adapted for the internet.

The information in this book is solid, and if you are interested in using press releases to market your business, this is the best place to start. This is one of those books you must read if you want to get it right.

Please note that the information in this books relates to doing traditional public relations, i.e. dealing with the press. It does also include a lot of information on actually writing a press release. That's the main reason why this book will help you the most.

The Handbook of Public Relations Writing, by Thomas Bivins, is available on Amazon and other top online bookstores.

Business Magazine - A Guide to Keep Your Business Knowledge Updated

A Business magazine falls under those categories of magazines that deal with information regarding business ideas and deals. News on business strategies and business happening from all over the world are mostly covered in these magazines.

There are various top grade magazines that publish weekly issues.. These magazines mainly cover the current affairs in the business world. Additionally, they feature interviews with some of the top business tycoons from all over the world. These interview sessions mainly comprise of some set of questions that may help those who are interested in taking up the business as their career prospect.

Moreover, the efficiency of the publications makes a magazine not only information savvy, but also makes it catchy and entertainment by featuring news on different other topics also.

But the most important thing that the feature is the current market scenario in regard to different categories of business that are reining the industry. Every information right from the top grocers & the losers to the average ones is featured in a top publication being published on a monthly or weekly basis.

So, those who have strong knack for business, they surely need to have a steady supply of these magazines at their desktop. They need to read these magazines on a regular basis in order to fill up their mind with more and more ideas regarding the business world. Moreover, they will have a thorough knowledge about the current scenario of the business market.

If you want to become a steady regular reader to a particular publication, then the best option available before you is to avail the magazine subscription offers that come up so frequently. The magazine subscription offers will ask you to subscribe for a period of months and to pay the money for all the issues that you will be receiving. However, the subscription offers normally give away good discounts on the pricing. Another advantage to subscribe is that you will be receiving all the issues of the magazines directly at your doorstep as soon the issue gets published and hit the stands. This helps you in applying no effort while getting the require magazine on time.

Some of the notable and popular ones are Forbes, BusinessWeek, Money, Fast Company, Inc., Success from Home, Fortune, Trader, Portfolio, Info World, etc.

While these are the top names in business publications, there are other small but effective magazines also which provides for informations that may be of help to you also. So, other than subscription you also need to look for other business magazines at the magazine strands in order to fetch and gain more information regarding business.

War Bonnet

Years ago when I was nineteen I was introduced to my wedding gift, a mare called War Bonnet. Actually to tell you the truth I was told that if I married my ex-husband that War Bonnet would be mine. Looking back I can see that without the enticement of War Bonnet I probably would have declined the proposal. It's not that I am so shallow, it was just that War Bonnet and I connected and she was a one in a million horse.

Saying that she and I were green as grass is an understatement. But on the other hand she was an appaloosa/quarter horse with the heart of an old soul.

We learned how to work cattle together. Both of us nervous as heck every morning when we would ride out but relaxing as the day ended because we held our own. What was so unusual about her was that I used a hackamore on her and not a bit. She learned to rein with my signals and grumblings and a few swear words here and there. Her ears would go back when she would get mad at me and I would crack up laughing. It was just our way of communicating with each other.

One of my fondest memories of War Bonnet was one of the first round ups either one of us had been on. We worked on a ranch that was thousands of acres with experienced cowboys that looked like they had just stepped out of a John Wayne movie.

On one particular morning we all woke up way before dawn to get a good head start on the day. I thought I was going to die because nobody in their right minds get up at 4:00 in the morning! But a good breakfast prepared us for the ride in the cold morning air. We gathered around with horses breathing hard with anticipation in the air. Breaking away from the group we than made our way to the designated locations to round up the Mexican steers scattered all about the ranch.

There's nothing like watching the earth wake up and to see the sun cast his first rays of light on the mountains. As if on queue, the birds started to sing letting everyone know it was time to wake up. Yes, now I know why I woke up so early.

As the morning wore on we gathered up cattle everywhere we went with only a mountain in the distance as a landmark. I was enjoying myself when it finally happened......I had to work a section of the ranch by myself and any cattle I found I had to head them toward the mountain in the distance. My heart was pounding and War Bonnet started to get anxious. She knew we were on our own. Little did I know that it was decided earlier to let me go out on my own to see if I could handle myself like the guys. So off War Bonnet and I went into the unknown ready to do our part and to successfully fulfill our task.

One hour passes and than two hours passes and I haven't seen hide nor hair of any cattle. Smiling to myself I thought, "Well this was easy". War Bonnet was pretty proud of herself too. We were just about to boast to ourselves when all of a sudden we came across a large group of cattle at a watering hole.

OK we can handle this. Now for those of you who don't know cowboy etiquette, there is a certain call each cowboy has when he finds cattle and gets them up and moving along. Each call or sound is unique and says a lot about the cowboy.

Hum...what was mine? Hell if I knew but I knew I had to come up with something quick. As I was sitting there thinking, War Bonnet was telling me with her gestures that she didn't care what I came up with just to get something out so we can get on our way! "Ok...I think I can do this...oh damn"!

Little did I know that I had been followed by a group of the cowboys and they were hiding on a ridge watching me figure out what I was going to say. The cattle didn't budge and looked at me with disdain in their eyes.

Alright here I go...

To this day I don't know why this particular word came to my mind, maybe it's a girl thing. But I gathered all my confidence and strength and yelled out "Shoo!!!"

You would have thought that lightning struck the very ground where War Bonnet and I were standing on. The cattle took off at a thunderous roar and I was so pleased with myself. That was until I could hear laughter from the ridge behind me. The group of cowboys watching me came over to where we stood laughing hysterically with tears in their eyes saying that was the funniest thing they had ever seen.

War Bonnet's ears went back and I think mine did too. Her tail went up in the air and if I would have had one, mine would of too. With a flick of her tail we trotted off ignoring the laughter and feeling relieved that we had at least done our part. I was left wondering why the heck of all the words I could have used why I used that word!

How to Start Moving to Office 365 - Four Guidelines to Follow

Are you scared to move into the cloud? Well so is every other business owner. Changing technology can be scary, but an adventure depending on how you look at it. Moving to Office 365 allows any company to utilize the best suite of office productivity tools all for less than a dollar a day; less than a cup of Starbucks. Who by the way uses Office 365 to connect it stores back to the corporate office.

How do you start to move into Office 365? Here are some simple steps.

First, look at your business, it is important to know the laws and regulations regarding the storage of the type of information that is created with your business. Two examples that come to mind are Patient Health Information and export compliance could be roadblocks for moving to Office 365. Office 365 has computers that run across the entire world that enable the fault tolerance that is needed to provide the service level that is provided. With that in mind, I would suggest bold moves to bring your company in the Cloud and adopt an exception based decision instead of a total no go decision.

Second, begin to experiment with Office 365. Go out and get a trial and find an Office 365 partner to help you get set up to learn about how Office 365 can help. The idea here is to get your feet wet, to see that it is not difficult to use these tools. Lync is the premier and best computer communication software out there. Guarantee that if you move everyone to Lync Online you will be a believer in Office 365. Microsoft looks to make the cloud based servers the same as the on premise servers. Take two departments use one as a control group and one move totally to office 365. Once set up, work for 90 days, yes Microsoft will let you try Office 365 for up to 90 days. You will see a decrease in IT costs and employee benefit will go up.

Third, Do your next project on Office 365, Get your trial, Set up SharePoint Online, set up a workspace, and add the users and allow them to collaborate on SharePoint online to do their next 3 month project. They can connect with data sets, store documents, produce charts and graphs that will help show progress. Most businesses are utilizing some sort of Cloud Project Management. SharePoint Online is the most customizable and Project Server should be moving to the cloud soon; allowing companies to use portfolio management to ensure that projects increase value.

Forth, talk to me, an Authorized Office 365 Partner that has spent the last 4 years thinking breathing, and utilizing Cloud based applications to run his business. Beginning last year when Office 365 I transformed my business totally to Office 365 and several Microsoft products to keep my business running smoothly and efficiently. IT costs are now a known and budgeted line item and not some sort of nebulous costs that have a big range. I spend about 70% more time on revenue generating tasks than I used to. As a Microsoft Partner I am glad to help any company or business venture down the path of moving to Office 365.

Now that you have some guidelines, some parameters, the next step is to get your Office 365 Trial and contact me if you have any questions. Good Luck.

What Are Recycling Rolling Carts?

Recycling rolling carts are designed to make transportation of recycling containers easy. Today, there are a large number of recycling rolling carts available in the market, such as adjustable carts, 2 yard tilt-trucks, and tilt carts. The adjustable recycling rolling carts can carry two or more waste containers and help in collecting waste material efficiently.

The 2 yard tilt-trucks help in transporting large quantity of waste material. The tilt carts help to collect office and curbside waste material. These rolling carts offer a great functionality as they are flexible and easy to move around.

There are various companies manufacturing recycling rolling carts but it is advisable to buy high quality rolling carts that feature all the attachments. Best quality components are used in the construction of branded recycle containers which make them durable and robust. Top companies that supply superior quality carts are Otto, Roto, and Brute.

Rollout Carts by Brute: The Brute recycling rollout carts helps in easy and effective waste collection. They have a solid construction which makes them extremely durable. They are ergonomically designed and feature wide wheels, hinged lid, firm and smooth grips and rounded corners. These recycling rollout carts can be easily moved over steps or curbing as their wheels have wide diameter. The grips on the side make transportation and handling of the waste containers easy.

Rollout Carts by Otto: Otto is one of the premier company in the waste disposal industry. The company has been into business since past 60 years and has been manufacturing excellent quality recycling rollout carts and plastic waste containers. The recycle containers supplied by Otto are broadly divided into three categories on the basis of capacity which include 32 gallons, 68 gallons, and 95 gallons. Otto recycling bins allow easy collection of refuse as they are compatible with both semi and fully automatic lift systems. These recycling rollout carts are made of high density plastic that make them resistant to extreme temperatures. Otto carts have wide wheels which enhance their maneuverability and allow smooth rolling of these carts on rough terrain.


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