Coolbakers Blog

May is National Barbecue Month. This unofficial holiday helps you get the summer started. Below, you’ll find some ways to enjoy and celebrate this fun and interactive holiday. Use it as an excuse to get the grill fired up…as if you need one!  And, for those office meetings when you can’t fire up the barbie yourself, let Coolbaker’s bring it to you.  Click here to view our BBQ options!

Idea #1

Organize a pot-luck. This is the best way of interaction, fun, and grilling. Make a list of people, food that is being brought, things to be grilled, and activities to be done. The most popular barbecued items are hotdogs and hamburgers; especially at a beach or park site.

Idea #2

Use more vegetables. Everyone always focuses on the meat when it comes to a barbecue. Try full vegetable kabobs and grill a handful for dinner. Get a different aroma taste of grilled peppers instead of cooking them in a pan. Grill a mix variety of zucchini, corn, and other “summer” vegetables for a healthy lunch.

Idea #3

Cut down on your dishes. Making a meal with a barbecue takes less dishes and appliances to create. Sunday afternoons are perfect to grill because it gives you more time to relax before the work week starts.

Idea #4

Use it as a mini-campfire. Before the fire goes out, use the rest of the heat to make smores. Marshmallows don’t need extreme heat or an actual fire to melt. Give kids long sticks to avoid touching the actual barbecue grill and let them have fun.

Idea #5

Involve your friends and exchange BBQ recipes. Get an idea from a neighbor and try something different. One of the best things about barbecuing is the experimentation. You can adjust those recipes to meet your preferences. Also, teach your oldest child how to barbecue or grill food. Use different kinds of marinates or seasonings each time you grill for different tastes and methods of preparation.

This is a guest post from Ray Weikal, Communications Specialist, at the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP). Administrative Professionals Day is a registered trademark of IAAP.  Check out their link at the bottom of the post and be sure to follow them on twitter @IAAP.

Administrative Professionals Day 2012

The theme for the 2012 Administrative Professionals Day® is: “Admins, the pulse of the office.”

Administrative Professionals Day will mark its 60th anniversary on April 25, 2012. Over those decades, the job of an administrative professional has changed dramatically thanks to new tools, techniques and seismic shifts in the economy and culture itself. But admins have remained the steady center of efficiency through it all, helping ensure that jobs get done right, on time and under budget. Admins are one of the engines of business, particularly in a complex economy. In a world that demands the accurate and speedy movement of digital information, admins are masters of data. And they do this while maintaining their more traditional role as the gatekeepers for many customers, clients and employees. Quite simply, admins are the pulse of the office.

Throughout the ages, admins have taken on new, challenging and exciting tasks, expanding their job descriptions, leaving worn out titles like “secretary” or “receptionist” in the dust.  These day Admins take on more than just the old, traditional roll of the secretary, or gatekeeper.  Now, with ever changing (and often restricting budgets) Admins are responsible for everything from data management, project coordination, social media, website updates and changes, and much more.
During the week of April 23 people all across the world will be celebrating Administrative Professionals Week. Let’s not mistake this recognition-filled week for National Secretaries Week, or Those-people-at-work-who-do-stuff-for-us Week. Now, ‘those people’, AKA administration professionals of all sorts, have all-encompassing titles, which is why in 1952 a day was established to celebrate all of their hard work.

The date to celebrate your Admin office mate

Administrative Professionals Week lands on the last full week of every April, and the day is the Wednesday of that week. For 2008, the week of multitask kinship runs from April 20th – 26th and the big day falls on April 23rd.

Don’t ask what your Admin can do for You…

Administrative Professionals would like some gratitude, and most say it’s just as easy as thanking them for all of their hard work. Sure you could get them flowers, with a cheesy card with an equally cheesy salutation inside. Or, you could get them a super hilarious ecard for the occasion (supplied, coincidentally, by Happy Worker). Show them you recognize their contribution to the office, by consider what the office may look like on the Admin’s day off, or give a card depicting your multitasking co-worker in action.

How many Administrative Professionals are there, anyway?

In the United States alone there are more than 4.1 million Administrative Assistants, along with an additional 475,000 in Canada. That’s a lot of busy hands. (and colleague-centric brains!) The IAAP will tell you a lots more about the Administrative Arts on their website.

Administrative artists – Why they’re pros

The profession has changed monumentally over the last 50 years. This evolution of titles and responsibilities has upped the status of Admins, although it’s uncertain when these busy bodies will grow extra hands. Where’s office Darwin when you need him?

We’ve gone through the stages of name change: secretary, office clerk, receptionist, staff assistant, office manager…you get the idea. These somewhat stale names have morphed into administrative assistant, administrative professional, executive assistant, senior administrative assistant…and so on. AA’s and AP’s and EA’s have taken on a corporate role, cultivating more tasks from their cube farms than ever before. More than just dealing with phone calls, and message taking, admins have to make many decisions which require critical thinking, something many people have trouble wrapping their head around.

Admins are the glue that holds many offices together – bonding us all – and it is time that we start appreciating it. So send them a card, take them out to lunch, say ‘please’ and ‘thank-you’. And who knows, maybe it’ll get you coveted access to the supply closet…

We have some exciting news to share with you. We’ve been putting the finishing touches on a new printed menu, and its’ almost here!  If you’re one of our valued customers, you will be receiving one in the mail very soon.

Things to look for on our new menu:

• New, asked-for items including our Savory Barbeque sandwiches and coleslaw
• Detailed descriptions and pricing for virtually all of our delicious offerings
• Nutritional info for all of our products

If you’re not already a Coolbaker’s customer, but wish to receive our menu we have a few options for you.  You can fill out the form below and we will drop one in the mail for you.

March madness is of course basketball time, and it is a fun time for college basketball fans.  And, the cities we have locations in (Louisville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Nashville) are all big time basketball cities.  With teams from almost every city, and certainly from every state, participating in the 2012 NCAA tournament including the University of Louisville, Vanderbilt, Indiana University, and the Cincinnati Bearcats, there is no doubt that every office we cater to will be abuzz for the madness that is college basketball in March, including here at Coolbaker’s corporate office.

While the games may go on, while we are still diligently working at our desks, we wanted to make sure each office we cater to could enjoy a little something special for March Madness.  So the month of March, be sure to visit our promotions page to get a free drinks coupon for any one order  placed throughout the month of March (conditions apply).  It’s our little way of helping you celebrate March Madness in the office!

Oh, the age old debate: Valentine’s Day, love it or love to hate it. Before long there will be red and pink hearts and roses and teddy bears and chocolates and, well I think you get my point. Hallmark’s own personal Black Friday holiday will be in full force. And there are those on both ends of the spectrum when it comes to their feelings of this ‘special’ holiday. As a 24 year old male (that is the disclaimer for this article: continue reading at your own risk!), I think I am predisposed to hate this holiday. The spending of absurd amounts of money, the trying to live up to expectations that shouldn’t even exist and only do exist thanks to the likes of Cosmo magazines, and the planning, oh the planning.

I can count the number of romantic Valentine’s days that I have experienced on one hand. And when I say one hand I mean like two fingers. But ever since Vincent Van Gogh gifted his ear, relationshipped men everywhere have been failing on the 14th of February. So why do we buy into a Hallmark holiday that is less a romantic expression of love and more like Cupid putting a gun to your head? The same reason we sit through movies like Eat, Pray, Love and The Notebook: because we are suckers who love our gals. And because we sometimes take our better halves for granted.

I don’t necessarily hate this holiday. Although, I also don’t love this holiday, either. So, here’s my pros and cons list. What are your feelings about this holiday?

Hate it

Crowded restaurants, overpriced food, naked cherub decorations, cheesy mainstream gifts…it is so predictable. If I am lucky enough to get reservations at my favorite restaurant (this also assuming I have a date), it is no longer the quaint, private, romantic space it normally is. Tables have been place so jam-packed next to each other that it is next to impossible to move, much less have a private conversation. The over-priced Prix Fixe menu, small portions, and of course it conveniently leaves off my favorite dish.

The Money. Enough said.

The expectations. I certainly don’t want to be included in one of those excruciatingly numerous Cosmo-ish articles on Mistakes Men Make On Valentine’s Day.

Love it

I am very creative, and I like to think that I can come up with something unique that will make her (even more) head-over-heels. This is (as previously stated) the one day of the year that the gauntlet is thrown down, if you can think of it, then it has likely been done. Trying to find a way to overcome that and really blow her away takes a certain creativity and brashness. I like to think I have it. I like challenges.

If you do wind up being cheesy, it is the one day that it is completely acceptable!

Candy. I love to eat.

I have a date and you don’t. (This point only works if I do, in fact, have a date. If not then this point belongs under the hate column.)

It gives me a reminder to tell others in my life how I care about them. Valentine’s Day isn’t all about romance. It gives me a time to tell my Mother and sister that I also care for them. It’s a good reminder.

Why should we celebrate love just one day of the year, or when corporate America tells us to? We should do it all the time. But we don’t. So we should at LEAST do it once a year. One is better than none! If anything, we should have more Valentine’s days, not less. Like once a month. 12 celebrations of love instead of zero. You do the math.

I love being able to go above and beyond every once in a while. I am not a frivolous spender, so having a day where I am supposed to frivolously spend is probably helpful to my relationship.

So that’s my tug-of-war over this ‘holiday’. What are your thoughts? Do you love Valentine’s Day? Does this holiday make your head spin with possibilities? Or, do you have some reservations (not dinner reservations) about your feelings over this holiday?

Billy, Olanda and Taylor have been with our Coolbaker’s Louisville location for quite some time. When you’ve been around the block a time or two you develop a keen sense of what your customers need and want. Maybe even more than they do.

It’s not uncommon for our staff to catch things, like when a customer who orders our fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies every Monday for a staff meeting, accidentally ordered oatmeal raisin. (No offense to the oatmeal raisin lovers, but the chocolate lovers wouldn’t have it.) Our location managers, delivery drivers, and prep staff catch those little misses to make for a better experience. They will pick up the phone and call the customer, just to verify that the order is correct. One of two things normally happens: the customer thanks us for catching the mistake, or they just might be cool with oatmeal cookies that day. Maybe they’re turning over a new leaf. At any rate, they’re always glad we cared enough to ask.
It’s the small details that make the big difference. Anybody can get the big things right. Does your office catering, business catering, food-go-to place(needs some work using search terms) do the small things for you?

At Coolbaker’s, our job is to make you, the office manager or administration, look fabulous. Tell us how we can do that better.

From all of us at Coolbaker’s.  We wish you a joyful holiday and a prosperous New Year.

Here’s to a safe and joyous holiday season for you and yours.

‘Tis the season for spending time with family and friends. In the spirit of the holidays Coolbaker’s will be closed Saturday, December 24^th and will be re-opening Tuesday, January 3^rd to allow our employees to spend time with their families.  See you in 2012!