Gifts For the Cook in the House

Create a Personalized Cookbook: For as low as $19.95 at TasteBook.com you can create a personalized cookbook. Select from among hundreds of recipes, add personal dedications, photos and even your own recipes to create a custom cookbook. It gets packaged up in an expandable binder with full color images and even includes free gift wrapping.

Shake the Perfect Martini: For the martini lover in the family, Waring makes an electric martini shaker in a 20 oz stainless steel container with settings for shake or stir.

Talking Food Thermometer: The ideal gift for the absent minded cook, just place the probe in your roast or turkey, and go relax. Make sure to keep the remote control handy and when your meat is cooked to perfection an alarm will go off, displaying the temperature and other details.

For Wine Lovers

Depending on your budget, these gifts are sure to please any wine aficionado.

Wine by the Row for $299: The Red Rooster Winery in Penticton has come up with the closest thing to owning your own vineyard with its “Adopt-a-Row Club.” For $299 a year, you can rent your very own row of vines. This entitles you to 12 bottles of wine (6 red and 6 white), a 10% discount in the gift shop and a personalized sign posted on your row.

An Empty Oak Barrel for $975: Stoney Ridge Winery in Oregon is offering a Platinum Membership to their winery which includes 24 bottles of wine per year, custom wine labels, invites to member’s only tastings and events, and an empty oak barrel with a personalized, engraved nameplate.

A Full Oak Barrel for $5,000-25,000: Grand Cru Estates in Oregon offers an exclusive membership to their winemaking club for $5,000. Members who want to join forces with winemakers Tony Rynders and Laurent Montalieu can produce their own pinot noir vintage for an additional $20,000 a barrel.

The WinePod: This is perfect for the wine geek with some extra cash to spare. For a mere $6000 you can purchase this personal winery system that comes complete with bottling kit, oak barrels and the grapes needed to make up to four cases of wine. It even includes educational wine making software to help you through the rough spots. In addition, the system manages fermentation temperature, grape sugar levels and updates the data to your PC. Your handy WineCoach software spits out detailed reports of your batch and allows you to input impressions of smell, taste and reminders of when to make additions.

Handy Gifts for Around the House

Towel Spa: For the ultimate in luxury, hop out of the bath or shower and dry off with a warmed towel. This towel warmer heats up your linen in minutes for a spa experience in your own home.

Wall Clock – Or Is It?: It looks like a wall clock, sounds and keeps time like any other clock, but, secretly opens to reveal a safe for storing valuables.

Luxury Pet House: Try and picture a time capsule-like container with computerized settings for temperature, humidity, radiation, carbon heating and air filtering. These are the features in the electronic pet house from Korean manufacturer, Autoelex. My dog is getting a new bone.

Karrie Rose
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/holiday-gifts-for-homeowners-who-have-everything-669357.html

When you really need to lose weight, it helps tremendously to actually read the labels of food you’re buying and eating. Even better than reading those labels though, is understanding what they mean.

Many food items these days carry labels boasting how healthy they are for you: “Low Fat”, “Reduced Calorie”, and other claims are written all over the packaging… but do you really know what those claims mean? You might actually be surprised.

These labels – or claims – are regulated by the FDA. What they actually mean however, isn’t always exactly what they say. For instance, something marked “Cholesterol Free” might actually have Cholesterol in it. Takie a look at some of the FDA guidelines and you’ll see what I mean:

• Fat-Free: Less than 0.5 grams of fat per serving, with no added fat or oil
• Low fat: 3 grams or less of fat per serving
• Less fat: 25% or less fat than the comparison food
• Saturated Fat Free: Less than 0.5 grams of saturated fat and 0.5 grams of trans-fatty acids per serving
• Cholesterol-Free: Less than 2 mg cholesterol per serving, and 2 grams or less saturated fat per serving
• Low Cholesterol: 20 mg or less cholesterol per serving and 2 grams or less saturated fat per serving
• Reduced Calorie: At least 25% fewer calories per serving than the comparison food
• Low Calorie: 40 calories or less per serving
• Extra Lean: Less than 5 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, and 95 mg of cholesterol per (100 gram) serving of meat, poultry or seafood
• Lean: Less than 10 grams of fat, 4.5 g of saturated fat, and 95 mg of cholesterol per (100 gram) serving of meat, poultry or seafood
• Light (fat): 50% or less of the fat than in the comparison food (ex: 50% less fat than our regular cheese)
• Light (calories): 1/3 fewer calories than the comparison food
• High-Fiber: 5 grams or more fiber per serving
• Sugar-Free: Less than 0.5 grams of sugar per serving
• Sodium-Free or Salt-Free: Less than 5 mg of sodium per serving
• Low Sodium: 140 mg or less per serving
• Very Low Sodium: 35 mg or less per serving

As you can see, reading the labels becomes very important with most of the claims made. If someone where to buy a product labeled “Reduced Fat”, they generally think they’re eating healthy. But if the product is normally extremely high in fat, the “reduced” version only has to have 25% less than the regular one in order to put that claim on their package. And 25% less than something that’s pretty high to begin with is usually higher than you want for optimal health and weight loss.

The same problems occur with food items labeled “free”. Cholesterol free, sugar free, calorie free, etc. – these are a bit misleading. When you buy a cholesterol free product, you’re not getting zero cholesterol. You’re only getting a small amount, but the point is you’re not getting “zero”, which is what the label implies.

So when you’re working hard to lose weight, be sure to read the labels… even on those items that say sugar free, calorie free, or fat free. And if they actually do have a little bit of sugar, calories or fat, be sure to factor that in to your overall daily intake. Doing this one little thing can make a big difference in how fast you lose weight, as well as how much you lose.

Kathy Burns-millyard
http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/weight-loss-tip-read-understand-food-labels-63322.html

We know that Parabens are in almost everything we eat and use on our skin and hair daily!

• Parabens prevent mold, bacterial and fungal contamination. Widespread types of parabens include: Methylparaben, which is readily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract or through the skin. More importantly  p-hydroxybenzoic acid is rapidly excreted without accumulation in the body, which is good news as it is the one paraben found in most products use daily. Ethylparaben, Propylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Butylparaben and Benzylparaben. Are used as well. I am not writing an article on parabens, the only reason I bring them up is if you have skin issues that are caused by parabens, then read the label of your cosmetics to see if they are listed.

• I would like to put my 2 cents in on the use of parabens. Although their function to prevent mold, bacterial and fungal contamination; think what might happen to the products that don’t have any parabens in them? Take mascara, my studies found that paraben free mascara was useless. As without parabens, it makes mascara flaky, and worse the overall texture were clumpy! Do you remember the 1% or less rules I told you in part one? Well, my research showed that mascara’s that had even the smallest amount of parabens like 1/10th of 1 percent and as low as 0.15 of 1 percent of parabens. Was amazingly great mascara in that they didn’t flake or clump and the ones that had a cream base stayed all day! Creating beautiful eyelashes, and they were as low as 0.15 of one percent containing parabens!!!

• There are some cosmetics that don’t ever need parabens. Take eyeliners and lip liners. If they contain natural plant parts and custom mineral blends. With the base formula of oils and natural waxes with ingredients like vitamin E (made from the soy plant) as well as Mica, Iron Oxides and Titanium Dioxide.

• Quality Mineral lipsticks also don’t need any parabens in them. My own lipstick research taught me that if a formulator uses quality ingredients. One can delete all dyes, fillers and lakes and only uses pure pigment for coloring. Ingredients like Castor Oil, Sesame Oil, Coconut Oil, Fractionated, Cocoa Oil, Candelilla Wax, Meadowfoam Seed Oil, Cocoa butter, Mango butter, Shea butter and Vitamin E. The results are: lipstick that will never bleed and moistens your lips all-day. Then you add mica, Iron Oxide and Titanium Dioxide, and you have the perfect formula. Of course this lipstick is not cheap, however quality should never suffer ingredients and women should get what they pay for and rightfully so!!!
• Natural preservatives: such as rosemary extract, vitamin C and E, citric acid, green and white tea extract (antioxidant), grape, apricot or pomegranate seed extract (Antioxidants) Vitamin B17 in apricot seeds has been said to be Anticarcinogenic. Tea tree extract as an antibacterial to also prevent spoiling. If one uses natural preservatives (in especially liquids), there will be no need for parabens.
• Organic Cosmetics:  Found in some high-end mineral cosmetics, however I would like to let you know the true amount found sometimes is questionable in that do they really do anything? Here is where the rule of one percent or less may come in to play! While it’s stated that if a product has one percent or less it doesn’t have to be listed as an ingredient!

Some cosmetic companies may list organic names like the list above of natural plant parts, when in fact they could be as little as one 10th of a percent or much lower. Remember even with this small amount of organic additives one can claim their cosmetics have natural or organic ingredients. The reason then for using the word organic drives the price up about 30% more than the standard pure minerals.

• Here is some food for thought: during my research on organic extraction of plants I found out there could be as many as 200 chemicals in one plant. Now try to imagine processing only 3 or 4 chemicals that are pure enough to use as an additive. This means the overall process is time-consuming and time is money right? This is what lead me to believe that it would only stand to reason for one adding a specific additive that has a value may cost $35.00 for only a few grams or a mere 1/8 of an oz. How much product would a formulator add to a so called organic cosmetic. Of course then one might consider some additives may even cost more and after all profit is the results needed to stay in business.

Please realize that a plant has different parts, such as the steam that feeds the leaf and then there are the feeding veins to nourish the plant. During this natural process, insect’s fungus, mold and all of earth’s free radicals attack the plant life and often destroy or alter the plants (Anti-oxidants). Further some plants can only be grown and harvest at certain times of the year, for full benefits.

• It’s in my option that organic research needs more investigation. However not by the FDA rather a private sector that is not basis and short handed. Perhaps organic matter that is pure belongs in our system through diet! Ingredient labels are important to read, as you now well know. 3 to 7 % of women can have an allergic reaction to certain organic plants and bi-products there of is why the FDA requires ingredient labels in the first place. The FDA has little control of ingredients with over 5000 listed in cosmetics! You can well bet some are rated at the 10 scales as being harmful as a rule these are laden chemical cosmetics.

• Micronized and Nanoparticles: This falls in to common sense the smaller a particle is the deeper it can penetrate your skin. This defeats mineral cosmetics, because your pores will clog. Mineral cosmetics should’t clog your pores thus leaving you with a light protective covering that has a light feeling on your face.

This is one more reason I only use loose mineral cosmetics on my models, clients as well as students!  Micronized and Nanoparticles are the result of minerals that our crushed or put in a blender. Most often used in preesed powders, because a chemical has to be added to press the powder. Yet most women like pressed powders because they are less missie than loose minerals. Perhap those of you who lean towards pressed powders should give them a second thought especaily knowing you most likely are’t getting what you pay for?

I give loose mineral cosmetics five stars for the simple reasons above and it appears fewer ingredients are needed and the best part is loose minerals will never require parabens or filers. While pressed minerals only get three stars because of additives most commonly used and micro as well as Nano particle size are not good for your pores.

James Bayliss
http://www.articlesbase.com/cosmetics-articles/mineral-cosmetics-and-their-ingredients-part-two-680348.html

When was the last time you looked at your photo albums? Your last compilation probably dates back more than five years ago. The advent of digital cameras made these book-like things with sticky sheets and clear plastics obsolete. Photo albums are a thing of the past.

Now we have digital albums – a collection of digital pictures stored either in your computer’s hard drive or in a recordable CD. Storing your photos in CDs is more efficient because you not only preserve their quality, you can also store thousands of images in them.

Technology has also revolutionized how you record videos. Your daughter’s birthday party can now be recorded directly to a CD in DVD format. This eliminates those small cassette-like things that you used to for recording.

With CDs, less is definitely more. Now, how do you organize these CD albums to make it easier for you to search for photos or videos? Or how do you make these CDs more memorable? The answer is CD label printing.

CD label prints make your bland, uninteresting and generic looking CD into colorful and classifiable CD albums. You can now make these shiny round things more delightful to look at and more memorable with CD labels.

Through CD label printing, you can easily label your CD album. Writing directly on the CDs with a permanent marker is not ideal because it can always be erased or altered. With your CD label printing, affixing a title to a CD has never been easy: Anissa’s 7th Birthday party; Christmas 2007; Thanksgiving 2008. With these titles on your CD labels, it would be easier for you to sort them out.

You can even make elaborate label prints by attaching an image, a logo or a WordArt. Insert your daughter’s picture blowing a cake on her birthday album, or your company logo on your album of your last team building activity. If you do not want photos, graphics might do the trick. Let your imagination run wild to make your digital albums easily identifiable.

To make your label prints, you either use Microsoft Word or some labeling software produced by the same makers of ready-to-print label paper. Between the two, the software programs are preferred because it comes with label templates and it will also walk you through the process so you can produce good CD label printing. The software also comes with ready-to-print papers- pre-cut stickers that you just have to insert in your printer.

With CD labels, you can easily sort your CDs according to the event or the date. More importantly, your cd labels make your digital albums more interesting and more memorable.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit: Label Printing

Janice Jenkins
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-business-articles/organize-your-digital-albums-with-cd-labels-738601.html