It seems like everyone and their Grandmother has a recipe for their favorite sauce to use on the barbecue. For some it’s a bottled sauce that they swear is the best they’ve ever had, while for others the barbecue sauce recipe they use has been passed on from generation to generation and is as closely guarded a secret as you’ll ever find.

If you’re not fortunate enough to have an ancestor with a love of all things grilled, you’re probably going to spend a good deal of time trying to find the perfect barbecue sauce recipe. Unless you are willing to settle for the bottled variety, it’s a trek that is filled with tasty treats.

There are a ton of great resources when it comes to finding more information on barbecuing. The first place you might want to start is with the cookbooks you already have. Almost every cookbook has at least one recipe for a good barbecue sauce. Depending on the cookbook’s focus it might even be a spicy or Cajun style barbecue sauce recipe. It’s really a question of hit and miss at this point, so why not whip up a batch of barbecue sauce and give it a try?

One drawback to delving into the world of grilling sauce in this way is that many of the older cookbooks haven’t taken healthy eating into consideration. You may stumble on a great barbecue sauce recipe that is filled with fat. Although this is bound to be incredibly good, it’s not going to be as great for your well-being.

Fat free sauces have become the rage and honestly there are a number of great sauces specifically for grilling that taste fantastic. The key to finding a good barbecue sauce recipe that is heart healthy seems to be in the base. If the recipe calls for heavy oil such as a vegetable oil, this is going to add not only considerable calories but a good deal more fat as well.

I’d have to say, from my own personal experience, that it’s really a matter of personal taste. I used a standard barbecue sauce recipe and then played with the spice combination. My family prefers food that is hotter and more robust so I threw in extra cumin and chili powder and now everyone is happy when we eat grilled food.

My daughter is going to be her maid of honor and wants to host a bridal shower for her. My daughter and her husband have relocated to a different state so she asked if we could plan the shower at our home. I was excited to help plan and host this shower.

My daughter told me that the bride was having several showers because she was having one from where she works, one from where her fiancé works as well as her church group. We were going to invite her neighborhood friends as well as the aunts from her side of the family. We decided that we should have a theme for the shower. We printed off the list of gifts that she had registered for to see if we could find a theme. She had listed several things for camping, because she and her fiancé do a great deal of camping during their time off.

We decided that we would have a picnic theme and plan the shower for our backyard. We liked the picnic idea for several reasons. There were going to be many people and we would be more comfortable in our backyard than in the house. The flowers and plants in my gardens would be at their peak so the setting would be very pretty for the picnic idea. The main reason we thought that the picnic idea would be great is that our backyard had hosted many tea parties, camping sleepovers, and ball games over the years and it held many memories for the bride as well as several of the guests.

We decided that our picnic idea would also make the food preparation fun and easy because we would have my husband and the bride’s dad barbecue like they have been doing for the girls for years. We decided we would serve gourmet hamburgers and salads to keep with our picnic idea. We bought the classic red and white checked table clothes to place on the tables. We borrowed picnic tables from several neighbors so we had enough seating for everyone. We have a bar area on our deck so we set this up to serve wine and soft drinks.

We ordered daisies and baby’s breath to make small arrangements on each table. The yard looked very festive for the party. Several people commented that they enjoyed the picnic idea for the shower, because this created a relaxed comfortable day. The bride was very happy with the picnic idea for her shower. She said that it was the only shower that she felt relaxed and had fun. It is fun to host an event that people enjoy. You do not have to follow traditional ideas to have a fun wedding shower.

My son moved to off campus housing this year to save money and to share a rental house with some of his friends. We helped him move in at the end of the summer. The rental was a shared housing situation that is common in most college communities. This house had two bedrooms on the main level with a bath, living room and kitchen. The upper level had two bedrooms and a bath as well as a sitting area.

The sitting area had two desks as well as a futon for overnight guests. Two of the renters had moved in the day before him so when we arrived there were pizza boxes on the coffee table in the living room. One of the young men quickly picked up the pizza boxes and threw them away when he saw that my husband and I were along to help with the move.

My son had struggled as a child to keep his room clean and his things organized. He has worked on this, but I was concerned that being in a larger space other than a dorm room, and having to contend with dishes might be a problem. My husband pointed out that he needs to learn sometime, so I hoped that this would be the time. We helped get him settled and then left for our trip back home. We made arrangements to come back for a visit to watch the college team play football in a few weeks.

The weekend that we went for the football game was perfect fall weather. The air was crisp and the sky was a deep blue. We arrived into town earlier than expected. We stopped at a bakery and picked up my son’s favorite Danish as well as several cups of coffee. When we arrived at the rental house my son had just gotten out of the shower. He told us to sit in the living room and he would finish getting dressed. The living room was literally covered in pizza boxes.

We could not believe our eyes. When my son saw the number of pizza boxes, he said that the other guys had been studying late the last few nights for mid-terms. He suggested that we follow him upstairs and we would have the Danish in the sitting area. The sitting area was not much better. There were three pizza boxes on the desk tops as well as a number of soda and beer cans. We started picking up the pizza boxes and cans and placed them into the overflowing garbage can. I took out the garbage bag and walked through the kitchen to put the garbage in the outside can.

There were a couple pizza boxes on the kitchen counter as well. One of the other renters was making himself breakfast. He told me that two of the guys that live in the house work at a local pizza place and so they bring home the leftovers from the buffet that is served there. At least my son was not paying huge amounts of money to contribute to the mess that the pizza boxes were creating in the house.

Most women love flowers and using flowers for birthday cake decorations is a no-brainier in most cases. Some crafty individuals can create almost life-like confections that boast realistic colors and arrangement. Some cake decorators can even create a plethora of different flowers ranging from roses to daisies and everything in between.

You can find sports-oriented themes that suit any sports fan. My husband still talks about the Steelers Football birthday cake decorations I used a few years ago. This type of design is great for guys of all ages and the choices are vast. If you have a sports fan at home, consider his favorite team as the birthday cake decorations. It is sure to be a hit.

Some adults appreciate a good joke. Those who have a good sense of humor don’t mind funny birthday cake decorations. Many of the most popular ones point out that the guest of honor is no spring chicken. You have to make sure that the person is receptive to the jabs, though.

I attended a party for a 40th birthday party. The husband asked that all of the guest wear black. He decorated the entire house with black balloons, streamers and tablecloths. Even the cups and plates were black. The surprise party was supposed to bring bouts of laughter from the guest of honor.

The birthday cake decorations revolved around the words “Over the Hill” and the guest of honor was not pleased. She was fine with the surprise party but the black colors and the birthday cake decorations really pushed her over the edge. She spent the evening pouting.

Adults can be a little difficult but children can be very simple. Kids just love cakes. The only challenge you really face is choosing among the many birthday cake decorations available today. While just about any will do, the ones that really have an impact are the ones that take a little thought.

When I was a child, my grandmother made a special cake for me that I will always remember. The pastry was formed in a dome-shape that resembled a gown. It surrounded a Barbie doll. The doll was part of the birthday cake decorations. She looked like she was wearing a long, pink gown. I can’t say that I can picture any other cake as I do this one.