There’s nothing as relaxing as a summer meal taken al fresco, whether it’s at home, or on a picnic. But which wine shall you choose?

It is an art to be able to match wine with food. Thankfully there are some reliable guidelines that you can use to make things go better for you. For instance if you have strong tasting, hard chewing foods, you will want to have a full bodied wine such as Malvasia or California Chardonnay. On the other hand you will want a sweet wine for a sweet desert. Fatty foods go well with Rieslings, Sauvignon Blancs and most sparkling wine. Protein-rich dishes go well with Cabernets and Syrah.

In the summer we tend to grill some special foods though and special foods require special summer wine.

For instance if you are making shrimp skewers you will want to serve Pinot Grigio, which is light, crisp and fruity. This summer wine has mild flavors of citrus and peaches.

If you are making chicken you will want to use Shiraz because it is soft, rich and has red berry flavors that go well regardless of how you spice your chicken. On the other hand, if you are grilling turkey breast you should serve Chardonnay to really bring out the grilling flavors.

Barbecued ribs are also great in the summertime. The best summer wine to serve here is Syrah because it is rich and spicy due to it having been made with black plums.

For grilled pork chops you will want to serve Riesling. This is a soft and lightly sweet wine that has golden apple and peach flavors with just a hint of citrus.

New York strip steaks are very popular on the grill in the summer. A nice summer wine to go with these steaks is Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a black cherry fruit wine.

If you are going to cook salmon, then you should serve a fruity summer wine. Some good choices would be Grenache, Mourvdre, Syrah or Zinfandel.

If you’re grilling peaches, pears, pineapples or bananas brushed with oil and caramelized on your grill, you will be serving up a very memorable treat. A good summer wine to go with this is Ménage a Trois Rosé because it has a lot of strawberry and light cherry flavors. This makes it just sweet enough to match the grilled fruit.

Gift baskets come in an endless variety. Bed and bath, wine, jewelry, you name it. But chocolate baskets are a hugely popular option, for reasons not too far to seek. Everyone loves chocolate.

This product of the cacao plant has hundreds of compounds, many of them that go straight to the pleasure centers of the brain. When filling a gift basket, that enjoyment is doubled, tripled, quadrupled.

Chocolate gift baskets come in every style the creativity of designers can imagine. A fun chocolate gift basket might contain a few dozen of those chocolate bars that were your favorites as a kid. Colors that you once knew come alive again when you see the goodies laid out. Or, they may cater to your grown up tastes. A basket full of the finest gourmet chocolates will never be a disappointment.

Enjoy a simple, straightforward chunk of that special dark? Great, you’ll be getting a boatload of healthy antioxidants. Who says a chocolate gift can’t be good for you?! Dream about those intoxicating truffles? A basket of these won’t last long if there is anyone else around when you open the gift basket.

You can get a pre-made chocolate gift basket, or select a custom design prepared uniquely for you. You may favor a set of gourmet chocolate-drenched cookies surrounding a centerpiece of to-die-for delectables. Or, you may enjoy a carefully arranged geometrical display of Swiss whites.

Need a reminder of better times? Go for the fun ‘Junk Food’ option that proudly announces you’re entitled to indulge yourself from time to time. Prefer an elegant hint that someone special has been thinking of you? Go for the Valentine’s Day-inspired chocolate mounds, surrounded by red heart-shaped paper messages.

Make it a tiny basket to give out to dozens who attended that corporate gathering. Or select a huge, multi-chocolate array for that special person who just did you a great favor. And since chocolate goes so well with so many things, you can opt for a combination gift basket that holds nuts, fruits, and other chocolate-friendly additions.

Make the centerpiece of your chocolate gift basket some fine chocolate cake. One big round, or several miniatures can form the center of a great display that offers silver knives and forks to eat them. That terrific cake will be a taste treat for the moment, while the cutlery will be a keepsake for life.

Whether your tastes run to a fine Ghiradelli dark or that whitest of superb Swisses, you’ll find an endless array of choices. Whether that choice is to celebrate a special anniversary or a corporate event, you’ll easily find a chocolate gift basket to suit the occasion.

A gift baskets business requires little start up capital, and you can start it in your spare time.

One of the foremost attractive features of being in the gift basket business is the creativity you get to exercise. You can design and execute gift baskets that stagger the imagination. But many naturally creative people have to work a little harder to develop the many practical skills that a home-based business requires.

Creative people are often not oriented toward making money. They want the income, but they sometimes feel that if they make a stunning product, the dollars will flow like wine. If only it were so! Some knowledge of accounting and website creation and maintenance are only two of the practical skills needed, for example.

Creative people sometimes aren’t very good at even thinking about money. They don’t consider how much is needed, for how long, and where it should go. Running a business makes those decisions mandatory. Very few have unlimited funds and some planning is required. Those plans have to be updated periodically.

It’s vital, for example, to be realistic about how much making and marketing gift baskets will cost. Materials on a per basket basis are often relatively inexpensive. Small bath items, miniature bottles of wine, even jewelry can be modestly priced. But add everything together, and multiply by the number of baskets you offer (which hopefully is large) and you can be talking about substantial funds.

Start as low as possible and keep inventory to a minimum. That will allow you to stretch your capital as far as possible. Design a great website, but hold off on purchasing that shiny new software that would just make everything so much easier. Trade your time for expenses as long as you can.

At some point, though, you’ll need to budget your time, too. Time management is another skill that often doesn’t come easily to highly creative people. They become lost in the dream, thinking about executing that superb idea they just had. But you’ll find that creating products is a relatively small part of the day. More practical considerations will force themselves into your attention. If you are to succeed they can’t be ignored.

That shopping basket on the website won’t fix itself. That marketing flyer takes some creativity, so it may pique your interest. But slogging through all those places you’ll need to distribute it is often a lot less interesting. Perhaps, but it’s vital.

Handling all these practical needs to generate and maintain a successful business isn’t for everyone. Sometimes the best solution is a division of labor. If you can find a partner who enjoys the more practical aspects, while you focus on the creative (though there’s a lot of overlap), that’s great. But you’ll be splitting the profits. You may possibly not be splitting the costs, though. Sometimes a partner inputs time and expertise, but not capital. All kinds of arrangements are possible.

Good luck with your gift baskets business.