At first I thought cooking this weekend would be light. We ate out Friday and I was looking forward to having lunch at one of my favorite restaurants on Saturday. However, that all changed when I decided to make Pretzel Buns. One of my favorite burgers on the planet is made with a pretzel bun and so few places use that type of bun. So, on Saturday, I decided to make pretzel buns. Since I’d had a burger Friday evening, I decided to have pastrami and corned beef on my finished roll. I purchased the pastrami as it would take too long to prepare. I roasted the corn beef myself as I really like the moist and hot. Everything went well with exception of pretzel buns. They bombed. We had sourdough bread instead. Now I love sourdough but I really wanted a pretzel roll. Sunday morning I made breakfast nachos for Gay and immediately began making the pretzel buns again. I made a couple of changes to the recipe (to correct what I thought of as mistakes) and turned out a great product. However, I also made Italian gravy/tomato sauce using fresh and sundried tomatoes. The addition of the sundried tomatoes added a richness and sweetness of tomato flavor not achievable with traditional gravy recipes. This I tossed with pappardelle pasta topped with thinly sliced parmesan Reggiano. I also pan seared a strip steak that was marinated in balsamic vinegar for a couple of hours. It was a fantastic dinner but alas, there can be only one recipe of the week. The recipe of the week is Pretzel Buns because I bake so seldom. Enjoy!

There Can Be Only One

SMBs are finding it more and more complicated to purchase business phone solutions. Set aside the debate between whether it should be hosted or premises-based, there are a lot of other considerations to make as well. In the end, it requires more understanding and analysis than most SMBs can make using internal resources. A study conducted by the Brookside Group that SMBs now make up the largest percentage of clients when measured against enterprises. It is estimated that SMBs make up 54% of their client base up from 45% in 2001.

This is consistent with why Broadvox initially began building a VAR partner channel to sell SIP Trunks. The VARs represented expertise that the SMB did not have internally. As a consultant to the business the VAR is expected to save them money (a motive of SMBs 69% of the time when using consultants) and select the appropriate technology for the business (desired by 52%).

SMBs face a daunting task of selecting from the myriad of vendors and product offerings using both simple, SIP, and complex (fixed mobile convergence) names. The transition from TDM to VoIP, POTs to Unified Communications and stationary to mobility requires greater knowledge than most SMBs can muster on their own. With proper guidance and good consulting they will make make the right choice for their business. In the end there can only be one.