Company History Mission Statement  We believe entertaining family and friends is a special part of life. We believe that you can do so without a lot of special training, stress and complications. Our mission is to provide you with party ideas, including menus, recipes, timelines, decorating ideas and tips that will make entertaining a joy for you. We hope to inspire you with simple, elegant, fun gatherings. Have your friends and family over, prepare a great tasting meal, don't be overwhelmed with complicated menus, recipes or ingredients and let Carefree Gourmet help you create special moments that you will remember. How To Contact Us Mailing Address Carefree Lifestyle, LLC P.O. Box 2558 Pasadena, CA 91102 Phone/Fax 800-304-1429 Email andrea@carefreegourmet.com pam@carefreegourmet.com    History of Carefree Gourmet Carefree Gourmet was conceived of in 2000 by Andrea Olguin. After spending time catering, attending chef school, avidly reading food magazines and trying new recipes out on her family and friends, as well as providing advice to friends and family on party planning, she identified the need to create a way to make entertaining more approachable and affordable. Too many of the current publications focused on complicated recipes, hard to find ingredients and techniques that required training and practice. People she spoke to were intimidated by the recipes, didn’t have the time to learn, or a clue as to how to get started. Their only other option was to hire a caterer, which didn’t’ fit into everyone’s budget. So many friends chose not to entertain at all.   Andrea shared her idea with Pam Kietzman a photographer and fellow food enthusiast. Together they built upon the concept and created the first book, Carefree Gourmet Buffets – Dazzling Desserts, Bountiful Brunch, Tea Anytime, Brazilian Bar-B-Que, Casual Cajun and Classy Cocktail for up to 20 Guests. Carefree Gourmet is meant to be just that, carefree entertaining, while still providing a quality experience for your guests. Fresh foods, nice presentation, simple recipes, menu items you can make ahead and fun party ideas we hope will inspire you to have a few friends over. Start small if you like and build your confidence over time, try the recipes a few times, mix and match the menu items and create new party combinations. Use these recipes to take great tasting food to your next potluck, people will think you fussed over your contribution, but you will know it was done in a snap.    Are You Looking for Simplier Ways to Enjoy Good Food? continued from Home Page. Food is central to life in so many ways.  It is, of course, critical to our body function, but it is also social, cultural, and nuturing. Where to people congregate in a home?  The kitchen. Where to friends meet to catch up?  A favorite restauant.  How do we celebrate special days and accomplishments?  With parties including lots of food!  How do we show love?  By making a favorite meal or special dish.  Most of us have a special memory of a certain recipe our mom or grandmother made espcially for us that made us smile both with anticipation and knowing that we were loved.  Recipes passed down from generation to generation help us to stay connected with our heritage and share our culture with friends and family. Food today, however, has become rather complicated.  TV chefs whip up dishes that are difficult, time consuming, expensive and require odd or many ingredients.  And what do you do with the leftover spice that you only have one recipe to use it in?  Information on what is good for you and what isn't is so confusing.  Is organic best?  Or should it be locally grown?  Is corn fed beef ok?  Or should I buy only grass fed?  Maybe I shouldn't eat meat at all!  And wow, fish is getting a bad rep too with all that mercury or pollution that it contains...  Who has time to sort through this all and make a good choice for their family? Pam and Andrea know what it's like to be a woman on the go today.  Pam works full time in local government.  Andrea is an entrepenuer in the health & wellness industry as well as a real estate investor.  They have full lives with husbands, kids, aging parents, siblings and wonderful dogs. They know what it is like to be short on time, juggling lots of to do's and still wanting to spend quality time with loved ones. On this site, they share great recipes, kitchen shortcuts, recommend helpful products , offer video how to's to demonstrate easy recipes, a food blog and are available to answer you food questions (simply email Andrea at andrea@carefreegourmet.com).  All of the recipes provided have been tested in a home kitchen with home tools, so they know they work!  They publish a new recipes each month in their newsletter.  If you would like to signup to receive the newsletter, fill out the contact information on the newsletter page!  If you like what you see on this site, Andrea and Pam have written a book with a collection of a variety of parties, Carefree Gourmet Buffets, which is available on this site for purchase.