Guests may have eaten very lightly that day in anticipation of the dinner, only to be very hungry when by the time they arrive at your doorstep. They then dive into the platters of whatever you’ve put out: bruschetta, canapés, cheese, crudités, dips and spreads, paté.

If they arrive an hour or two in advance of sitting down to dinner, by the time the main meal begins, they could be halfway stuffed. The solution:

1. Let everyone know what time you expect to sit down at the table. Then, whether you plan a cocktail hour or multi-hour get together before serving dinner, everyone will be prepared. (If you’re the guest, call ahead and ask.)

2. Limit what you serve to little nibbles—the kind most people won’t eat in bulk.

LIGHT NIBBLES TO SERVE

 
But forewarned is forearmed. You’ve slaved over that dinner, and the last thing you want to hear are guests groaning that they don’t have enough room for it.
  

We are fans of Nonni’s Biscotti, and even more so with the new holiday flavors.

Nonni’s limited-edition holiday biscotti are available in Gingerbread and Pumpkin Spice, both with cinnamon icing. The biscotti are individually wrapped for easy grab-and-go.

Delicious for snacking or for gifting, they also pair well with the season’s pumpkin and gingerbread lattes.

Be sure to get enough for stocking stuffers!

If you can’t find the biscotti locally, you can get them online:

 
Don’t want spiced biscotti? Try the addictive Salted Caramel Biscotti, embedded with chunks of salted caramel.

Who knew there were so many styles of Swiss Army Knife?

We’ve seen them in occasional colors beyond black and the signature red.

But there are 99 different designs, from animal prints and flowers to camouflage and skateboards.

For the chocolate lover, the Swiss Chocolate Classic SD Swiss Army Knife is the way to go. There’s a scored chocolate bar on one side; on the reverse side shows the chocolate peeled back from its silver foil.

The Swiss Chocolate Classic SD Swiss Army Knife is $17.25 and your readers can purchase it at SwissKnifeShop.com.

Engraving and gift bags are also available.

Last year we raved about the Capabunga wine cap, a leakproof, spillproof, reusable silicon wine bottle cap that eliminates the need to shove a cork back into a bottle. We loved it and made it a Top Pick Of The Week (here’s our review).

Now, there’s a version for Champagne and other sparkling wines, that preserves the fizziness in the bottle. It’s stronger than the Capabunga, to resist any built-up pressure from the bubbles.

CapaBubbles can preserve Champagne and sparkling wine for up to one week.

It’s affordable enough so that you can include one when you bring a bottle. It’s a welcome gift for a bubbly lover.

In four different designs, CapaBubbles is $15.95, gift boxed and the perfect size to sneak into a stocking, at Capabunga.com

Save that bubbly with a CapaBubbles Champagne cap. Photo courtesy Capabunga.

Why run out for one, when you can make Pumpkin Spice Latte at home? Photo courtesy Starbucks.

Sure, it’s easy to brew coffee, steam the milk and add a shot or two of pumpkin-flavored sugar syrup.

And here’s a better-for-you variation, a recipe that uses canned pumpkin instead of pumpkin-flavored sugar syrup. You get much more pumpkin flavor, plus the ability to customize the amount of sugar, honey, agave, noncaloric sweetener or no sweetener at all.

Prep time is 10 minutes.

RECIPE: PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE

Ingredients For 2 Lattes

1. HEAT the milk, pumpkin and sugar in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat until hot (do not boil). Remove from the heat. Stir in the pumpkin pie spice, vanilla and coffee.

2. POUR into 2 large mugs. Garnish each with whipped cream, a dash of pumpkin pie spice and a cinnamon stick.
 
*Pumpkin pie filling is pre-sweetened and spiced.

†If you do not have pumpkin pie spice, make your own by combining 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of ground ginger and 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg. This will make about 2 tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice mix.
 
MAKE YOUR OWN PUMPKIN SYRUP

Still want pumpkin syrup in your PSL? Here’s an alternative recipe that uses pumpkin syrup that you make yourself.
 
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LATTE & CAFÉ AU LAIT?

Café au lait is a coffee drink made with regular coffee (typically a stronger roast, like French roast or Italian roast), brewed in a ratio of 1:1 milk to coffee with sugar to taste.

Latte, also made with a 1:1 ratio, uses espresso—the strongest coffee roast. Espresso is the roast most popular in Italy; French Roast is most popular in France.

Check out the different espresso drinks in our Espresso Glossary.