Ask CK: The Two-A-Day Workout

This is an off-topic post on fitness.
****************************************
I'm starting to work out again, and I'm getting in better shape, but I want to make even faster progress with losing weight and getting more fit. Any suggestions from the Casual Kitchen?

First of all, congratulations for getting back onto the exercise train. And yes, I do have a suggestion for you: once you've built a consistent exercise habit, start including an occasional two-a-day into your workout schedule.

What's a two-a-day? It's just what it sounds like: two workouts in one day. An occasional two-a-day (followed by a manditory rest day the day after) is one of the most powerful tools in the entire fitness toolbox.

My favorite two-a-day workout format is to do a full weight-training workout at lunchtime, and then go for a long run in the evening. This specific workout taught me the true meaning of the word tired, but it also helped me cut my marathon time by 17 minutes. More on that in a minute.

But, hey, maybe weight training and running aren't your cup of tired? Fortunately, there's an infinity of other two-a-day formats you can try instead. Some examples:

* 2-3 sets of singles tennis in the morning followed by a run in the evening.
* Swimming in the morning and a long bike ride in the afternoon.
* A morning fast tempo run, with second slower, longer jog in the evening.
* An hour of your favorite sport in the morning, followed by extra time on a stationary bike later in the day.

Readers averse to high-impact exercise can try:

Weight training before work, followed by an evening bike ride.
An elliptical machine session in the morning, weights in the evening.
Weight training in the morning, a long swim workout later in the day.

And so on. Try a few of these variations, insert some of your own ideas, and see what resonates with you and provides good results.

A few words of caution. Even if you're in excellent physicial condition, two-a-day workouts can be tough on your body. And if you're fully sedentary, a leap directly to two-a-days could result in injury. Don't rush things. Give yourself some time to get to a reasonable fitness level first.

Second, you must rest on the day following any two-a-day workout. Remember: rest is as important as exercise in making your body fitter and stronger. After a tough two-a-day, your muscles and joints will need a full day of rest in order to recuperate and regenerate.

My conversion to the church of two-a-day workouts happened during my training for the 2005 Marine Corps Marathon. During my heaviest training weeks, I worked in at least one (and sometimes two) two-a-days per week: a 45 minute weight-training workout during my lunch break (both upper and lower body), followed by an eight or nine mile training run after work. (For the weightroom geeks out there: to maximize the limited gym time I had, I used free weights, used one set to failure, and used slow reps of five seconds up and five seconds down. The results I got from this lifting style were excellent.)

Just thinking about those workouts makes me tired. And I never had to persuade myself to take a rest day the following day--exercising was inconceivable. But the results were undeniable: After being stuck at a novice-level 4:00 marathon time, I used this technique to cut my marathon time down to 3:43. For a runner of my (middling) skill level, this was a gigantic improvement.

More Two-A-Day Tips:
Use a buddy. Schedule your second training session with a workout buddy to eliminate the temptation to blow it off.

Diet. You're gonna be unimaginably hungry in the days following a two-a-day. Don't satisfy that hunger with junk. Stick to clean foods (lean proteins, fruits, veggies and complex carbohydrates) and you'll capture even more health benefits from your workouts.

Joint care: Now that I'm in my (ack!) 40s, I have to be increasingly mindful of my joints during and after tougher training sessions. For example, I always ice down my knees as a preventative measure after any high-impact workout. Ice is your friend: applying it to heavily used joints reduces inflammation and aids in healing and recovery. The bottom line, however, is as we age, our joints can be infuriatingly unpredictable, and joint problems can spring up out of nowhere. Be careful, listen to your body, and back off from the heavier workouts if you need to.

Did I mention rest? Once again, the day after a tough two-a-day is all about rest, and it's during that rest that you get stronger, fitter and healthier. On your rest days, if you want to do a little light stretching, or go for a short walk, that's fine, but give your body a solid day of rest so it can regenerate and rebuild.

Readers, share your thoughts!



How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Friday Links--Friday October 26, 2012

Here's yet another selection of interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: Follow me on Twitter!
*************************
California's GMO labelling bill, Prop 37, is coming down to the wire. Here's a short article that shows why you're totally wrong to vote against it. (Food Renegade)

Does cooking really have to be as hard as the "experts" say it is? (Christie's Corner)

Estimating and calculating your body's protein requirements. (Dietriffic)

Recipe Links:
Release your inner Homer Simpson with this delicious Old-Fashioned Donut recipe. (Christie's Corner, via Owlhaven)

Delicious! Hard Cider and Cabbage Stew. (Cook, Pray, Love)

Off-Topic Links:
Has running road races really become... elitist? (No Meat Athlete)

So what is it about our minds that makes them so disobedient? (Psyblog)


Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
For those readers interested in supporting Casual Kitchen, the easiest way is to do so is to do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site. You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.

An Eight Point Manifesto Against Big Food

Readers, a warning: this is a parody. Although I suspect a few people out there may not see it that way.
********************************

CK's Eight-Point Manifesto for the Willingly Disempowered Consumer:

1) Big Food spends too much on advertising. The food industry spends some $33 billion a year on advertising, and because that number sounds reaallllly big, the conclusion is obvious: consumers are outmatched by all that money.

2) Food companies should stop selling good-tasting food. Making delicious, hyperpalatable food for consumers is just another greedy industry trick to get us all to eat more.

3) Consumers aren't the problem. Big Food's power and marketing skill is the problem. We consumers are just zombies who brainlessly shamble to the store, unconsciously pluck Big Food's products off the shelves, listlessly fish around in our pockets for money to pay, and then shamble back home to mindlessly eat.

4) The food industry causes obesity. Granted, you haven't yet been tackled in the snack aisle and force-fed junk food by goons from Pepsi-Frito Lay. But clearly, this "guerrilla marketing" technique is the next inevitable step for an industry that will stop at nothing until everyone is fat.

5) If we could just tax the all foods that make us fat, we'd solve obesity. Tax sugar, tax soda, tax big sodas, tax candy, tax junk food, tax wheat, tax fat, tax gluten, tax carbs. Tax it all! And I promise, we'll carefully apply that money towards new health and obesity initiatives. Really, I promise.

6) The government can protect consumers from themselves. We need more "Let's Move" programs, more Food Pyramids, and, of course, more government ag subsidies and corn subsidies. Don't we?

7) More regulation will solve our food industry's problems. The government always looks out for the little guy, right? Therefore, there can't possibly be any negative impact from increasing regulations. More rules means we can stop Big Food. (PS: So what if stricter food regulations made local raw milk illegal and drove small meat processors out of business? Those are exceptions, silly.)

8) Organic and expensive foods are the way to go. Look, Big Food is too powerful for us. So when it creates another aspirational product category, we have to pay up and play along. Especially when we can complain afterwards that healthy food costs too much.

Readers, what have I missed? What would you add?


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
For those readers interested in supporting Casual Kitchen, the easiest way is to do so is to do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site. You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.

What Is a Scarcity Mindset? Investing and Living In a Zero Sum Paradigm

Little Old Les writes in on my post about Tax Efficient Investments:

What does the phrase "a whole lot of scarcity-based thinking" mean?

In its most basic form, scarcity thinking means if someone else wins, I lose. And vice versa.

Considering it in the context of last week's post, it would mean believing, inaccurately, that investing in a dividend paying stock "cheats" the government out of taxes because the rate on dividends is lower than the rate on other forms of income.

In other words, scarcity thinking is a framework where you approach a problem or a challenge using a fixed-pie or zero-sum mindset. And with regard to money and investing, it means presuming if I get an extra dollar, by definition somebody else loses a dollar.

Now, to normal people (in contrast to abnormal people like me *cough* who spend their free time thinking about economics and investing), this framework for thinking about money can seem quite reasonable. Logical even.

But here's the thing: the economy doesn't work that way.

The supply of money and wealth in an economy isn't fixed. Not even close. In reality, if you earn an extra dollar it generates more wealth for everyone else--the government included. This is why entrepreneurial bloggers like Mark Cuban say the most patriotic thing you can do for your country is to get rich. He's right.

Abundance Thinking
So, let's look at investing and taxation using the opposite of a scarcity mindset: an abundance mindset. Using abundance thinking, you'd work through last week's post and conclude that tax revenues and investment income may not be zero sum. In fact, our investment in a dividend paying stock not only provides the government with additional tax revenues, it also provides you with added income that you can use as you see fit. Which, intriguingly, can generate still more wealth and tax revenues.

Here's the important part: You can decide which framework to use. You can pick up the scarcity lens or the abundance lens to look at any problem, issue or challenge in life. But here's the problem: if you choose a scarcity mindset, you'll arrive at conclusions that on their face seem reasonable, but in reality, those conclusions will likely be both wildly incorrect and deeply disempowering.

Why? Because when you follow scarcity-based logic all the way to its conclusion, everybody loses. You won't make the dividend-paying stock investment because you've pre-emptively concluded that you'd be "cheating" the government. Which means you won't earn any incremental investment income. Worse, the government doesn't get any incremental tax revenues because you decided not to take action. You've caused yourself, the economy and our government to lose out.

And the end result is the most disempowering of all: you won't bring yourself any closer to financial independence. In other words, everybody loses--or wins--because of the framework you selected to look at the problem.

Readers, share your thoughts!


For Further Reading:
1) The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Covey is widely credited for coining the phrases "scarcity mentality" and "abundance mentality."

2) Cooking Up Advantages Out of Disadvantages at Casual Kitchen. A zero-sum mentality doesn't just mess up your thinking in the domains of money and investing. It leads you to disempowering conclusions about food and health too. See also: Uninstalling Limiting Beliefs With Healthy Food.

3) The Most Patriotic Thing You Can Do at Blog Maverick. This post is an exceptional example of abundance thinking in action.

4) The Abundance Mindset via Steve Pavlina. A useful summary of the concept of abundance. Also worth reading for Steve's discussion of what he calls the "outrage script."

5) Overcoming Jealousy via Steve Pavlina. Jealousy is a side-effect of a mindset rooted in scarcity.

6) Sufficiency at The Art of Non-Conformity. A good essay from Chris Guillebeau on how, for most of us, a scarcity mindset is the default mode.




How can I support Casual Kitchen?
For those readers interested in supporting Casual Kitchen, the easiest way is to do so is to do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site. You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.

CK Friday Links--Friday October 19, 2012

Here's yet another selection of interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: Follow me on Twitter!
*************************
Why the Daily Meal doesn't feel bad at all about not paying food writers for stories. (Will Write For Food, via A Life Of Spice)

Barney's of New York redrew Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse for a new fashion campaign. The Academy for Eating Disorders demands claims these "emaciated" cartoon characters will cause low self-esteem and body dissatisfaction in young girls. Readers, is this an overreaction, or a fair criticism? (Academy for Eating Disorders)

A guide to eating a plant-based diet. (Zen Habits) Related: CK on why eating less meat is far better than going local.

Recipe Links:
An inexpensive, hearty and easy African Beef and Peanut Stew. (Chow and Chatter) See also CK's Groundnut Stew, a reader favorite!

Walnut Skordalia. You'll never guess the key ingredient in this delicious Greek spread. (Kalofagas)

Hearty, healthy, easy, and you can make it in your slow-cooker: Cannellini Bean Stew. (Kalyn's Kitchen)

Off-Topic Links:
Why Baby Boomers just can't grasp that Millennials are... faking it. (Harvard Business Review, via Grant McCracken)

Remember that recent Friday Links post on the "marshmallow experiment"? Turns out there was something really wrong with that study. (Bloomberg News)


Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Does Price Mean Quality To You?

Let's say you're in a really nice restaurant with a group of business colleagues and you're looking over the wine menu, trying to choose a bottle of red wine. Let's pretend--importantly--that you're spending your own money and not putting it on your company's expense account.

One bottle costs $199. (Ridiculous! I'd never pay that.)
Another is $99. (Still ridiculous.)
The next one is $69. (Hmmm, still kind of pricey.)
There are a few other bottles priced in the $50 range. (Ehhhhh.)
There's a bottle priced at $48. (Mmmmph.)
The least expensive bottle is $39. (Hmm. Can't really buy that one, can I?)

Which would you pick?

Interestingly, many diners select the second-least expensive bottle. Why? Because choosing the cheapest bottle on the menu is, well, cheap. Hey, you've got people to impress.

Then again, if you're the type of person who really values impressing people, you'll order the most expensive bottle. And make absolutely sure nobody forgets it.

But let's pretend you're on a bit of a budget, you're spending your own money, and you want to choose the best value without looking like a cheapskate.

Voila, you choose the $48 bottle.

But what if the restaurant already knows what you're likely to do? What if the restaurant actually does intelligent market research on its customers, and it already knows their two biggest selling wines will be the most expensive and second-least expensive items on their wine list?

What would you do if you were armed with that knowledge? Well, duh. You'd adjust your pricing accordingly, and make sure your profit margins were highest on those two wines. You would chose those wines--and set all your prices--with that in mind.

If you don't care about wine, don't worry, I just used it as an example. Be assured, this phenomenon happens across nearly every segment of the consumer products industry: food, cars, hotels, vacations, clothing, and so on.

Hardly anyone can make fine distinctions among products, despite the fact that we love to convince ourselves otherwise.* The truth is, we usually end up using price as a default guideline to help us make our decisions, no matter how judicious, savvy or discerning we think we are.

But those prices have been chosen for us. And they've been chosen for us by someone who already knows our selection tendencies. Which means we are playing right into their hands and letting them decide the terms and conditions of our consumption decisions.

Readers, what do you think? Do high prices signal quality to you?

* A side note: Here's something that will save you boatloads of money at very little loss of personal happiness: Simply accept the fundamental truth that, for many types of products you simply cannot tell much of a difference across wildly different price points. You can easily prove/disprove this to yourself by performing honest blind tastings of products across a wide range of prices.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Friday Links--Friday October 12, 2012

Here's yet another selection of interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: Follow me on Twitter!
*************************
Why are family meals important to you? (Dad Cooks Dinner)

Few want to see you succeed in losing weight. (344 Pounds)

Raising kids to appreciate unprocessed food in a heavily processed society. (Eating Rules via Food For My Family)

Recipe Links:
A roundup of great Pumpkin recipes. (Budget Bytes)

Celebrate "Crocktober" with these fourteen Crockpot Recipes, all with five ingredients or fewer! (Recipe4Living)

Off-Topic Links:
Book recommendation of the week: The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy. An exceptional book about the unusual and downright surprising partnerships among former and current presidents. This was one of the best books of political history I've read in ten years. And hey, if Nixon and Clinton can work together, maybe we can bridge the political divide in this country.

Why your to-do list is killing you. (Encouragement From a Stranger)

Do something totally socially unacceptable when your relationship ends: Throw a great breakup party together. (Exile Lifestyle)





Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Coconut Curry with Collard Greens and Black Eyed Peas

Readers, this is a home run recipe. It's laughably easy, hilariously cheap and it takes just half an hour to make.

And ohhhh it's good. A unique and truly unusual mix of spices, flavors and textures. I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we did.

*****************************************************
Coconut Curry with Collard Greens and Black Eyed Peas
(Adapted/modified from Rancid Raves)

Ingredients:
2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, coarsely chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cans (14.5 ounces each) black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
1 medium bunch of collard greens, de-stemmed and coarsely chopped (maybe 8-10 leaves)
1 can (14-16 ounces) coconut milk
1/4 cup water

Spice Mixture:
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons cumin

Directions:
1) Saute the onion in oil on medium high heat for 4-5 minutes, until softened and beginning to brown. Add the garlic and ground ginger, saute for another 1-2 minutes.

2) Add the spice mixture, combine well, and saute for another 1-2 minutes. Add the collard greens, tomatoes and black-eyed peas and combine everything well.

3) Add the coconut milk and water, bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes, or until collards are cooked to your liking. Serve over white or brown rice.

Serves 5-6 generously.
*****************************************
Recipe notes:
1) Feel free to be flexible with your choice of leafy greens in this recipe: Swiss chard could be a great substitution. Spinach or even something unusual like beet greens could work too. Note: you'll want to wait until the dish is almost ready before adding very tender greens. Spinach, for example, should be added to the dish for only the last few minutes of simmer time. Those spinach leaves should be wilted, not liquified.

2) If you follow this recipe as written, this dish will come out fairly spicy. For a milder version, try cutting the cayenne pepper in half.

3) Oh, and a momentous event occurred the first time I made this recipe. I finished off a cannister of turmeric that my mother gave me back in 1991, when I first moved out on my own. This little spice container had a date on it: 1974. And people say you have to throw out your spices after six months.

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Money Sundays: Is Looking For Tax-Efficient Investments Icky? Or Intelligent?

Here's a comment from an anonymous reader in last week's post on investing and taxes that reveals a common error of logic I often hear from new investors:

I think you made it political when you assumed that reducing our tax burden as much as possible is a goal everyone shares.

I understand your point was how to increase one's own family's financial wellbeing by becoming more independent from wage income. But you are certainly making the assumption that paying less taxes is a good thing. Otherwise having the tax code "work for us" would be a rather irrelevant thing to say, and having a particular means of investment avoiding Medicare and SS taxes wouldn't be phrased as a perk.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrongity wrong.

Let's think it through. If I save some extra money from my wages, invest it into a dividend-paying stock, and then receive a dividend payment that happens to get taxed at the relatively low rate of 15%, am I paying less tax?

No, silly. I'm paying MORE tax. The government is going to receive extra tax revenue from me, thanks to this additional investment that I made. I make more, the government makes more. It's pure win-win. It just happens that the tax rate on this incremental money is 15%.

This reader's error is to confuse tax rates with aggregate tax dollars. This reader then leaps to the disempowering and even more incorrect conclusion that to make this investment is somehow an attempt to avoid taxes--when in reality it is the exact opposite.

This is a common and naive assumption many new investors make. Don't make it.

I want to make sure this concept is extra-extra-extra clear, so bear with me as I give one more example. Let's say you have $10,000 to invest and you are deciding between three possible investments:

1) A 10 year Treasury bond (currently yielding 1.6%) taxed at your 28% ordinary income tax rate.
2) A bank CD that yields 0.4% that will also be taxed at 28%.
3) A dividend paying stock, yielding 4%, taxed at 15%.

Trick question: which of these three investments will generate the most tax income for the US government? [Answer below*]

Do you see now?

One final point--and I hope our anonymous reader won't be offended as I use his or her comment to help others struggling with investing. Many, many people assume that seeking out attractive investments from a taxation standpoint is icky, or cheating, or somehow greedy.

Have you ever experienced these feelings? If you have, please know that they come from a combination of a simple logic error and a whole lot of scarcity-based thinking. This combination is toxic, because it needlessly separates you from your money... and it also separates our government from incremental tax revenues.

In fact, you can even flip this script and think of it another way: if you want to pay more in taxes, you should be making as many investments as you can.

Remember: if you save more money, invest more money and earn more money, you pay more in taxes, not less. Simple.

It is okay to seek out incremental income in addition to your wage income. I give you permission. Believe me, you won't "avoid" taxes like this reader thinks. You'll pay more in taxes. And you'll have more income as well.

None of this sounds very icky to me.

Readers, share your thoughts!

*************************
* ANSWER:
1) $10,000 invested in a 10 year Treasury at the current 1.6% yield would generate $160 in interest income per year. It would be taxed at 28%, generating $44.80 in taxes.

2) $10,000 invested in a bank CD at 0.4% would generate $40 in interest. Taxed at 28%, this generates $11.20 in taxes.

3) $10,000 invested in a 4% yielding stock would generate $400 in income. Taxed at 15%, this generates $60.00 in taxes.

Therefore, the dividend paying stock, despite having a lower tax rate, produces the highest tax revenues.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Friday Links--Friday October 5, 2012

Here's yet another selection of interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: Follow me on Twitter!
*************************
Not all calories are the same. (PBS)

Organic food is for the wealthy, not the poor. (New York Times)

The art of being present at the dinner table. (Mark's Daily Apple)

Interesting article on what it's like to visit a salmon farm. (Food Politics)

Recipe Links:
A laughable 63c a serving! Tuna and White Bean Salad. (Budget Bytes)

How to make Corn Tortillas from scratch. (Eating Rules) Bonus Post: Make your own Peanut Butter.

Off-Topic Links:
Resentment is like swallowing poison and waiting for the other person to die. (The Change Blog)

Why everything depends on your self-discipline and ability to delay gratification. Warning: long. (Postmasculine)


Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

When The Bill's Wrong In Your Favor, What Do You Do?

Readers, a question for you:

Let's say you just had dinner in a nice restaurant, but when you looked over the check you noticed you weren't charged for one of the items you ordered. The food was excellent, the restaurant experience was great and there were no problems whatsoever with your service.

Would you say anything to the waiter or waitress? Be honest now... what would you do?


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!