Storytelling is a life-affirming Guilty Pleasure

No campfire is needed for inspiration. No braggarts are allowed for sanity's sake. No reservations are required. There is always a open table to lend you a good ear.

I love listening to a great story. Don't you? Fortunately my active life is filled with amazing people who have countless stories that keep me laughing and make me balanced. I also love sharing a humorous or heartfelt story. Material for me is not a problem since I have decades of decadence, mountains of magic and miles of mirth to blissfully recall.

There is a lot Guilty Pleasure memories and bittersweet dances that must be retold to keep their special spirit alive. Sometimes it's the sharing of a humbling moment that still keeps us constantly focused, sometimes it's a simple twist of fate that advanced a romantic journey and sometimes it's a daring dream that's yet to be realized. I particularly love sharing my coming of age stories with our incredible children. Being an exceptional communicator has lots of parental perks.

We all morph into unique roles as we evolve. For me it's a cerebral voyage of distinction and lifestyle appreciation. It's such an honor to be the sage storyteller and brain trust in my family and for our company. I am deeply thankful that the people who matter the most to me truly enjoy listening to my clever sense of humor, embrace my positive energy and respect my rumored x-ray vision. Being to one of the conduits to our success is a role that I take very seriously.

Storytelling is a very life-affirming Guilty Pleasure. Fortunately, our busy work environment is very conducive to spontaneous storytelling. Often times our work schedule is action-packed and our storytelling is an excellent way to help reduce the stress.

When there's a moment to exhale, we often take a respite from our catering responsibilities and listen to each other's hilarious "who-done-it's", romantic adventures and fateful forays that made us turn the page. From IBFoodie's Monday Day Football limo ride to Pleasure Island to my all-night after-party with the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir to Thin Mint's Apple Cider PhD, it's always a combination platter of reliving your youth, savoring your success and wishing for one last chance to embrace the one's we've lost, but never forgot. Sharing our ourselves is a story that never gets old.

BBQ Paradise

There are few things that reach in and grab the soul of a "foodie" like BBQ. I mean true BBQ, the kind where you smell the love & taste the family tradition. Today I took the journey to one of those spots. In todays ever growing market of cheap imitations and ready made foods I ventured into South Jersey for some true love & genuine happiness in the form of real BBQ.

Just a few minutes off the Commodore Barry bridge in the heart of South Jersey lies a hidden gem, "JERSEY Q BBQ" on Rt 322 is heaven in South Jersey and one of my true Guilty Pleasures. It started years ago as a series of smokers & grills in a parking lot of a nearby gas station and has since moved down the road to a comfy little roadside place filled with family, love, tradition and a passion for genuine BBQ. The smokers & grills still exsist in the original location for take out on the way to or from the shore. They tell me it is the smoke & Miss Coras Secret Sauce that does it. I think its the generations of experience and love of what they do.

I savored an incredible pulled pork sandwiche that would make any hog proud of his scarafice, that was served up with incredible collards & sweet corn bread. My other side was "Mommas Mac & Cheese" that was worth the trip alone. The ribs were falling off the bone & perfectly pink from smoking and the BBQ chick was moist & delicious. The only downside was that I finished everyone elses & had no room to try what I know to be incredible sweet potato pie or homemade peach cobbler. So the next time your body needs to refuel with a hearty dose of tradition, smoke & BBQ take the drive to " Jersey Q BBQ" on Rt 332. You will smell the love walking in & leave as I did doing the foodie happy dance.

Home Alone can be a wonderful Guilty Pleasure

Okay, I lied. Otis is here too. He is now 6 months old. Besides his wagging tail and never-ending grin, I am home alone for the entire weekend. Awesome!! Thin Mint, Junior Mint and Double Mint are off to DC to tour the Smithsonian, other Museums and visit with a famous European Chef. He is Thin Mint's mentor and the finest off-premise catering chef in the world. She is one well-connected Le Dome.

While I have hours of paperwork to muddle through on Saturday, I hope to enjoy one of the rarest of all the Guilty Pleasures, spending leisurely time alone. While I will miss my family, hanging with the hound is pretty sweet.

To paraphrase Aristotle, "Spoiling oneself ain't too bad neither." That was one wise Greek.

Breakfast at Jem's is a must. After a challenging work out and walking Otis again, I know the homes fries will be tasty. Then it's off to my corner office to find my lost "pay attention to the details" token. I know where it's supposed to, but apparently I have forgotten where it is.

At times, life is one long treasure hunt.



After the packout sheets are completed, the stylish linens selected, the endless rentals placed and last of that incredible seedless watermelon polished off, I am off to the Italian Market to look for new ideas to improve upon our already amazing Antipasto de Provence. Eating well is back and great Charcuterie is ready for the limelight again. Our chefs love to slowly slice the finest handcrafted sausages, pâtés, salami and bacon.

I love a good field trip. While I usually pack a lunch, I am confident I will find many delicous Mediterranean delights to enjoy on my solo excursion to South Philadelphia.

My evening plans are up in the air. I was hoping for a rare Tequila tasting, but Otis is leaning towards a second workout. He is my diet coach when Thin Mint is away and I have to listen my trainer.

You see, when you are truly loved, you are never alone. Even by myself, Guilty is very lucky not to be alone.

Spoiling the bride and groom is always a rewarding guilty pleasure, especially when the wedding is close to home,

Over the years, we have had the good fortune to cater many elegant and stylish weddings for some very wonderful couples. On their most special day, each one of them is treated like our most important clients. They always receive a very personalized and peerlessly executed five star affair from Provence Catering.

Spoiling the bride and groom on their Wedding Day is always a most rewarding guilty pleasure. From our do-anything utility staff who make sure that all of our equipment is pristine and ready for the big day to our tireless operations/warehouse department who pack out parties with military-like precision to our world class chefs who truly appreciative the importance of the day and to our event planners who will and have, stood out in torrential downpour with a golf umbrella to protect the bride from every possible element known to humanity, we rock when it's truly time to roll.

No wedding is bringing us more happiness or excitement than the upcoming Labor Day Nuptuals of our own Director of Marketing. This young woman is amazing on every level. Smart, ambitious, talented, wonderfully kind, a joy to work with, funny and beautiful beyond words. Her worthy fiance is the powerball winner everyday. Dr. and Mrs. P must be so proud of their remarkable daughter. We certainly are.

Like so many small business owners, I wear a variety of hats throughout the day, depending upon the situation. One role that I love the most is collaborating with our marketing department on our agency-class ads, executing our carefully-crafted marketing strategies, discussing our three blogs and ensuring our company's success with an open dialogue. The energy is fantastic, the humor is therapeutic and the results, bankable. Who could ask for more?

On behalf of everyone at Provence, we wish our own bride-to-be and her lucky beau a lifetime of happiness, health, success, family and each other. We are so happy for you J & B. Enjoy every moment.

Thank you for making us part of your Wedding Day.

Staff lunch is always a Guilty Pleasure

When we recruit new employees to join our talented team, we only want the best of the best. There are numerous deciding factors that we consider when evaluating job candidates for employment.

Good character is more important than skills, but you must have game.

Reliability is more important than good humor, but you must be able to laugh at yourself.

Team work is more important than individual achievement, but you must have and more importantly, reach your star potential.

No drama. No ego. That is a must!

We are often overwhelmed by number of job applicants seeking employment. Of course, that's understandable given the economy and since our catering company has a reputation of being a fantastic place to work. Between the opportunity for advancement, great culinary leadership and fair minded executive guidance, we attract and hire remarkable talent.

Taking all those compelling factors for joining us aside, one of the most popular reasons for accepting a position at Provence Catering, is our exceptional staff lunch. Everyday it's delicious food, lively conversation and great fun. Most days it's just us, being us. Funny, friendly and focused.

However, often times we are joined by our neighbors, our UPS driver, our clients, potential clients, vendors, politicians or business leaders just stopping by the kitchen to see what's for lunch. We never disappoint. It's always a tasty spread because our chefs love to take excellent of their colleagues and our guests.

Call first, since our midday meal is now by invitation-only, but staff lunch is always a certified Guilty Pleasure.

All alone in the center of our universe... Savoring a guiltless view

It's been a quiet, but very industrious week. Our chef's are on vacation, recharging themselves for the momentous fall catering season that lies ahead. On the other hand, two very talented sales people, both chefs, joined us this week and both are going through extensive training.

Between yesterday's sensational business school tasting and today's fun-filled walk-thru for a stylish new client with a great sense of family, it's been a week to remember. After all the hustle and bustle of meetings and marketing, this evening I found myself all alone in our beautiful facility

While I spend everyday plunging into the pool of guilty pleasures, nothing is more satisfying than truly appreciating our company's fantastic energy and steady ascent to the top of Mount Hospitality. Everyone here knows that the best for Provence Catering and its' loyal employees is yet to come.

Recognizing that our hard work, dedication and tireless efforts are paying off is a wonderful feeling. That's because we have no cash cows or exclusive venues like some caterers. We have to earn all of our business in a highly competitive environment even though we are rarely the low-bidder. We always must make sure that our presentation and international cuisine are a five star, off-premise dining experience so we can appeal to the region's most discerning clientele.

Standing alone in our warehouse tonight and gazing upon all the majesty that lies ahead, was one of those special "center of universe" moments that we all seek and rarely achieve.

No guilt here, just appreciation. Thank you Thin Mint. Thank you everyone. Thank you.

That Skinny Chick got game, Guilty got oatmeal...

"I will have the banana chocolate chip pancakes. Three eggs, brie cheese, four pieces of crisp, not burned applewood bacon and two pieces of whole grain toast, Plugra butter. Extra cactus pear jelly please," Thin Mint carefully ordered.

"Oh," she quickly remembered,"and bring my husband a big bowl of hot oatmeal."

Mercifully, I awoke from my troubling nightmare in a cold sweat and visibly shaken from dining out in my dreams. Six weeks to Double Mint's Bar Mitzvah and I am stuck in overweight quick sand.

I have sent out a clarion call for hell, I mean help, to lose weight before our son's special day. Thankfully, the world renown Skinny Chick Society has volunteered their vaunted diet monitoring program to help me deal with my caloric catastrophe. Thin Mint's right eye has already started to twitch in anticipation of her role as my lifestyle coach.

Who knows more about losing weight than a skinny chick who can eat 5,000 calories a day and then complain that she needs to put on some weight?

Yes, I admit it, I enjoy many Guilty Pleasures that are not very diet-friendly. However, I am also very fit and youthful for a middle-aged man. That said, I need to lose 40 pounds.

Unfortunately, at this time I am very challenged and frustrated. Nothing seems to be working. I eat roasted asparagus, red grapes, a banana and a bag of cheddar cheese rice cakes for lunch and I still have to loosen my belt buckle.

The battle lines between bloated and bumper crop have been drawn. There is no going back to bloatesville and the Skinny Chick has a plan. She is a portion control goddess and an expert at cajoling others (mainly me) to eat smaller meals. "Take less mashed potatoes, you can always go back for more," she offered at dinner, "and please pass the sour cream and shallot butter."

In our younger days we used to go out for brunch at a Hyatt Regency or Marriott while enjoying the dating and newlywed life. With the thrill of fifty cents on the line, we would often make a spirited wager on how much food other people would put on there plates, especially those individuals on the larger side of life.

Big person, huge person, fat man, pudgy boy, hefty woman, plump girl, Porky Pig and Baby Huey. The bigger the person, the bigger the bet.

We sized up everyone and then created our own little Buffet Eating Fantasy League. Rumor has it, this where fantasy football got it's start when an ESPN executive overhead our tableside wagering and fatcentric banter. Thin Mint never lost a match. That Skinny Chick got game. Guilty got oatmeal.

Over the next several weeks we will discuss my unorthodox diet, my success or lack thereof and Thin Mint's far-reaching lifestyle coaching techniques.

Supermarket tabloids

After a long hiatus from the Guilty Pleasures Club, I have returned. Summer is slipping away and soon the routine of September will be a reality. Along with that buzz kill, grocery shopping on a large "back-to-school lunch snack packin" scale will soon be the order of the day.

Although picking out snacks is not on my guilty list, waiting on line at the checkout counter and reading all of the latest "news" in People, Us, and the National Enquirer is. Time after time I get in line only to be drawn to these tabloids like a moth drawn to the light. I try to look away and focus on something more educational or better for me, but always return to the lowest level of supermarket reading.

Sometimes I don't even bother with the self scan as there are not any good magazines to peruse or trash to skim. I would rather wait in line. My favorite position is being behind one, two or three people with small purchases. The line moves quickly enough for a fix and not too slowly as to read cover to cover. When the lines are long or the shopping cart is full it is actually possible to get into the "trashy zone".

This is when you are shuffling along, glancing up every once in a while but then, just like that, it is your turn to unload your cart...but you are not ready to leave the zone. You are deeply engrossed in reading about Lindsay, Brangelina, Brittney, A-Rod or some other wannabe or has been. Suddenly you feel deprived because you did not get to finish the article and worse yet, you are already committed to it.

Heaven forbid, you actually purchase this rag. I usually get through this slightly embarrassing moment by telling the supermarket clerk "I am catching up on all the latest news". They usually laugh and understand as I quickly replace this tabloid rag on the wrong shelf, next to the Certs, Milky Way's, Trident or some other impulse buy.

Come to think of it, if I bought Stouffer's Mac and Cheese, some Haagen Dazs ice cream and a racey tabloid it's just like I am a freshman in college again.

A Guiltorious mixed message...

It's time for a mixed message.

We spend so much of our time giving to our spouses, living for our children, cheering for our good friends and in many cases, our colleagues. That is the way it should be. More importantly, that selfless attitude is how relationships of all kind truly thrive. Giving from the heart and rooting from the soul is a wonderful guilty pleasure that transcends generations, reduces wrinkles and prevents frown lines.
True enough, but so does spoiling yourself with personalized guilty pleasures shopping spree. Not necessary big money toys, but special rewards like great food or road trips. Today is Cheesemania Day in the Land of the Guilties. That's because we are supposed to be 400 miles north today attending the Vermont Cheese Festival, but being a very busy off-premise caterer comes with a price. Fortunately, Whole Foods has a fantastic cheese department.

Everyone needs to spoil themselves a little more each day. Not in a selfish, piggy fashion, but in a "be very good to one's ownself" way. That unwavering mantra is always repeated by members of the Guilty Pleasures Club.

That and keep giving to others. Like I said, it's a guiltorious mixed message.