So This Is Christmas

Merry Christmas is such an infectious feeling I like to feel that way all year around.

So if you are visiting just before Christmas, just after Christmas or even here on Christmas day I am sure you will find something of interest for you and in the spirit of Christmas.

It may be said that Christmas is no longer a celebration but this must be spoken by people that have never had trouble closing their eyes on Christmas Eve in an expectation of what maybe left for them on the carpet under the tree.

I continue to look forward to the surprise on my Grandchild's faces to this day at Christmas events.

Merry Christmas - Merry Christmas - Merry Christmas

Friday, November 28, 2008

Fresh Shrimp Makes Any Recipe Come Alive

By Shannon Linnen

Fresh shrimp is both healthy and delicious. It is also a perfect meal solution for all your outdoor summer parties and events. Fresh shrimp can be used in just about any dish. Add it to a pasta salad, slaw or appetizer plate. Topped with lemon juice and cocktail sauce, this refreshing food makes a great pre-dinner snack.

Maine, renowned for best seafood, is the home of smoked Maine shrimp. The shrimp can be prepared with sauces. You can barbeque or just cook and serve cold. You can find lots of shrimp recipe by surfing the Net or from cookbooks. And it is pretty easy to make a recipe yourself

Shrimp is used in seafood dishes along with other fish and shellfish.For instance, fresh shrimp makes a wonderful addition to stews, soups and Cioppino. Rubbed with Cajun spices, shrimp makes excellent Creole meals such as Jambalaya The opportunities when cooking with fresh shrimp are truly endless.

In Mexican dishes, shrimp is used as well. It puts a healthy spin on fajitas, tacos and burritos. It adds a fresh, light flavor not found in traditional, heavier meats. Italian restaurants use shrimp in dishes such as scampi, linguine and tortas. Thai dishes add coconut juice, peanut oil and lime to shrimp to create exotic-tasting foods.

Free shrimp and smoked Maine shrimp are both tastier and healthy. These foods can induce to eat more whether it is brunch, lunch or dinner. Shrimp is a good food and satisfy any kind of diet due to its high protein and less calories. Shrimp can satisfy you whether you eat less or more.

Versatility is at the top of the list when talking about fresh shrimp. Having a shrimp cocktail is often not really thought of or is totally overlooked. This is suck a delicious and tasty way to enjoy fresh shrimp. The best part about it is even if you do not feel up to preparing a full blown meal, making a shrimp cocktail is not only easy, but very filling and delicious.

You don't really need a recipe to make a great-tasting shrimp dish, though recipes abound online and in cookbooks. It is very easy to include it in your menu, even if you never cooked shrimp before. There are many delicious and colorful shrimp dishes that can be prepared without spending much time and effort to learn the entire gamut of cooking. That is one of the important advantages of eating shrimp; just sprinkle green salad on top of shrimp and a bland dish becomes a gourmet item.

If you don't feel like a lot of extra work, make sure the shrimp that you purchase has already been de-shelled and de-veined. It is okay if this hasn't been done, however a large amount of time will be spent in removing the shells and cleaning up the shrimp.

There are not many foods, especially meats out there that are healthier for you than fresh shrimp. So, if having a healthy lifestyle is important to you at all, adding shrimp to your diet is a sure way to help fortify and improve you healthy lifestyle.

Even if you do not havea access to fresh shrimp locally do not fret. There is always the option of getting some shrimp online, from one of the many reputable vendors. Quality Fresh Seafood is just one of these many vendors. They can take your order over the internet and then have it delivered to your door via overnight freight with Fedex. This shrimp is initially cooked and then it is flash frozen for flavor, then prepared for packaging and delivery.

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Purchasing Cookware that Lasts a Lifetime

By Adam Rahim

When you are looking for cookware that is made in the USA, All-Clad is a name that you can reckon with. This company has made its name with its amazing line of cutting-edge cookware that is unbeatable in looks as well as functionality. All-Clad Cookware Sets were originally made for the professional market but it is now used for home cooks, as well. Its quality and features are well-known. This line of products can stand up under heavy workload and each piece is tough. Even the finest details of the pot or pan are made with perfection, though you may find a few pieces that may have some unimportant snags. The majority of the items are given one last hand-finished touch. These are the characteristics that have allowed this cookware to carve a niche for itself in the worldwide cooking market.

Several of the luxury hotels in the world turn to All-Clad Cookware Sets to prepare signature recipes. The All-Clad products have made a place for themselves in not only the professional food industry, but also in the kitchens of dedicated amateurs. Cooking ranges belonging to this company have been relied on by some of the domestic culinary stars for a long time. The recipes cooked in them are astounding on a variety of levels.

All-Clad Cookware Sets basically consists of a three-ply body, made of an aluminum core that is the reason for even and fast distribution of heat from the source to each and every area of the cooking surface. This can help you save on the fuel and time resources that you spend on cooking. The stainless steel cooking surfaces are nonstick, tough against corrosion, and are simple to clean and maintain. You can cook very healthy food with this cookware because the non-stick layer ensures that you need to use less oil or butter for cooking. The magnetic outer surface makes it possible for one to use induction stoves in place of the typical oven.

The handles of this cookware are professionally riveted to the sides of the cookware so that they won't come off easily. They are long, grooved up top, and rounded at the bottom to offer you a nicer grip. They do not become hot along with the cookware when cooking. They are intended to give you ultimate usage comfort.

All-Clad Stainless Steel Cookware, though declared the best by many reviewers, is not completely free of defects. It has been found that many of the pieces are sent out with defects. This emphasizes the need for stricter quality control rules from the company. Secondly, the cookware is pretty large. Thirdly, the All-Clad kitchenware is quite expensive. The bulkiness and top tier cost make it more useful for commercial use. The domestic client base can be expected to grow if the company produces cookware that is lighter and easier to afford. The quality concerns need to be resolved, as well.

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Top Way to Avoid Residential Reverse Osmosis Systems' High Costs

By David Eastham

Residential reverse osmosis systems are one of the best systems, if you are fighting a salt water battle. If you don't have a salt water issue, then you have options with the newer technologies that are much less expensive to buy and to operate. We will compare one of these options with reverse osmosis in this article.

You may be reading this article because you have been hearing more and more about the importance of reducing our body's exposure to toxins. Something often referred to as reducing the "body burden."

In the past, we worried a lot about the quality of the water we consumed and how it was affecting our bodies, and rightly so, but now scientists are discovering the quality of the air in our home poses an even greater load on our bodies. One of the largest offenders is chloroform, a byproduct of the chlorine in our water.

In a report from the EPA, it state, "Every home in America has an elevated level of chloroform gas due to the vaporization of chlorine...from the tap and shower water." (What they didn't say is the dishwasher and the washing machine are not far behind the shower in chloroform output).

By removing the chemical toxins at the point of entry into our homes, using whole house purification units, we significantly improve both the quality of the water and the quality of the air.

The main reason to look at RO and SF systems before you buy is the difference between their initial costs and operating costs, especially in whole house systems.

Since quality residential reverse osmosis systems start around $10,000, compared to a quality residential selective filtration systems at about $800, the $9,200 spread can mean the difference between getting a whole house unit or not.

What causes the huge price difference?

Reverse osmosis and distillation systems were developed years ago to remove salt from brackish water and, at that time, water and electricity were very cheap. But, in today's world this technology has become very expensive.

RO systems push water through a membrane using the home's water pressure. The membrane's pores are microscopic in size, allowing only molecules small than a water molecule to pass through. Larger contaminants remain behind the membrane.

Chemicals having a molecular size smaller than water's, such as chlorine and its byproducts, will pass right through the membrane. For that reason, and in order to protect the membrane, RO systems must add a carbon filter to the system.

The small RO systems are very slow, taking two or three hours to produce a single gallon of filtered water. Whole house units, on the other hand, can filter upwards of 2,000 gallons per day. Large or small units require a pressurized tank in order to be able to deliver a larger quantity water quickly.

The smaller RO units need the home's water pressure to be at least 40 psi (pounds per square inch) to operate efficiently. Older homes, or well water systems, may require booster pumps. Whole house systems typically come with booster pumps.

A lot of water is wasted, even with adequate pressure in the system, because for every gallon filtered, often 2 to 5 gallons of water cannot be pushed through the membrane. This water is then flushed, along with the filtered contaminants.

This waste water is recycled in some systems, however, the need for electricity, recycling, storage tanks and (maybe) booster pumps are the cause of the increased up front costs and they add to the higher cost to operate as well. And, all the extra equipment means it is more likely there are going to be additional maintenance costs too.

A good option to reverse osmosis, especially if you are on a chlorinated water system (which most of us are), is selective filtration.

Selective filtration uses mechanical filtration, the adsorptive power of activated charcoal, and redox (reduction/oxidation) in a multistage process that will quickly process water.

Redox, which is a chemical exchange process, is a new kind of filter media that was developed to remove dissolved lead and other toxic metals from water. Prior to this simple filtration process, only RO or distillation was capable of taking toxic metals from water.

Chlorine and its byproducts, along with other organic chemicals, are 99 percent (plus) removed by the activated charcoal. And, the total process treats water somewhat like a water softener, with no sodium added, and the odors, bad tastes and sediment are also removed.

These systems produce filtered water rapidly (over seven gallons per minute), without electricity, storage tanks, or booster pumps. Their simplicity also makes for simpler installations.

For anyone wanting to improve the air and water quality in their home, selective filtration systems are a viable cost saving option to consider.

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Wine Tasting 101: Learning the Art of Wine Tasting

By KC Kudra

Wines tasting party is the perfect place to try out your wine tasting skills as well as learn from veteran wine connoisseurs. Wine tasting, contrary to what is usually thought, and is not a lot of people standing around looking chic while sipping, swishing and eying glasses of Napa Valley wines. It is actually an art form that requires a sharp sense of smell, taste, and an eye for the sublime. Mastering the techniques of professional wine tasting can take a great deal of practice and there is always some new technique to learn.

Wine tasting notes abound and can get your started. However, the only true way to begin to distinguish a fine wine amidst a variety of fine wines is a skill. Picking them reliably requires a trained palate, which takes years to develop. Wine tasting involves ascertaining whether the wine has been stored properly in a wine cellar designed to produce a beverage that is both pleasing to the eye and an exquisite experience for the palette.

Wine tasting is rooted in our sense of smell with over 75% of the impact on our taste inexorably linked to the food and drink we consume. This would account for the persistent notion that when we have a cold everything is tasteless and our appetite is non-existent. Most wine aficionados will tell you that the experience of a fine wine is more about the smell than the taste, and after that personal preference takes over and it becomes a tossup from that point on.

In Napa Valley wine, tasting is always at the forefront of any party or gathering. Home of some of the best United States offerings, wine growers realize that swishing and sipping serves a very useful purpose. Circulating the wine in the mouth gives the experience breath and depth - it creates a symphony of experience.

Taste buds are not necessarily the main factor, but they do identify food, beverages and as being sweet, salty or bitter. The swishing method, therefore, gives the senses a chance to extract the aromatic flavors in the wine testing process.

With even a basic understanding of the swishing technique, its purpose and the dispelling of long held myths, wine tasting will wind up looking less like something silly and more like a talent and skill that is part of the whole wine making process. Wine aficionados will be able to tell if the wine cellar designs and the features of a wine cellar have served their purpose or fallen short. All of this will be reflected in the end product.

When the wine is poured, it should be ideally poured into a crystal, clear glass so that the first step - observation - can take place. With the sample in hand, this step should not be rushed and instead, it should be slow, deliberate and the moment, appreciated. White wines, in spite of their name, are actually not completely white ranging in color from golden, pale brown to a slightly tinged shade of green. Red wine, on the other hand, is usually darker with a pink hue that leans toward a darker brown color.

The second step is observation. It is all about the nose and what the wine smells like. This is accomplished through two steps: taking a brief whiff of the wine to get a general idea and then taking a deep, extended inhalation in order to get the full aroma of the beverage.

You will often see the most studied of experts pause at this stage to take in the results of this step and reflect on what they have just experienced.

After letting it come fully into their consciousness, a wine taster will then take a sip, swish it around to activate all of the taste buds to ascertain the wine and savor it fully prior to swallowing. This method allows all senses to be engaged in the process of taking in the wine, figuring the quality of it. This allows wine growers to figure out if their grapes, distillation process, and procedures used to store it in a wine cellar or storage unit was sufficient to produce a fine quality wine.

Having completed the steps of observing, smelling, and finally tasting the wine, you will then be able to discern the quality of the wine from a connoisseur's standpoint. This is the most comprehensive way to determine the aging, storage, and overall fitness of the wine for consumption. In addition, as with any skill, the more practiced you become, the more adept you will be at evaluating the unique and exciting flavors of this special beverage.

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Holiday and Christmas Gift Giving Ideas for Family and Friends

By Holiday Fan

I've must say I love the Holidays. The warm feeling of love that surrounds us. The wonderful aroma of holiday food. The bright colors and decorations.

I also love to give and receive gifts. Do you ever wonder how the gift giving tradition started. There are many theories. Here are a few.

At some time in our ancient past, friends exchanged evergreen twigs and dried fruits as wishes for continuation and abundance of life in the coming year. Romans exchanged gifts at winter solstice as expressions of brotherhood and affection, giving coins for prosperity, pastries for happiness, and lamps to light one's journey through life.

Santa Claus, evolved from St. Nicholas, an actual person who distributed his wealth to the needy through the giving of secret gifts. During the fourth century St. Nicholas had a reputation for his generosity and kindness, especially toward children. He was known for giving treats and small presents to them. St. Nicholas has evolved into the magical Santa Claus of today.

The giving of gifts at Christmas is said to symbolize the gifts the Wise Men brought to the baby Jesus. The wise men brought three gifts with them to honor Jesus, which had prophetic meaning. Gold- a gift for a king, Incense- a gift for a priest and Myrrh- a burial ointment for one who would die

Whether you are giving a gift to a special loved one or an friend from work, you want the person to know you appreciate them. As you know, finding the right gift can be difficult and time comsuming. I am inserting a link to help you with your holiday shopping. Click here for Special Gift Ideas.

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Choosing a Knife Set For Your Kitchen

By Moses Harun

Like China is famous for its cheap labor and Japan for its innovation, Germany is renowned for its engineering. Everyone appreciates the precision engineering of German automobiles. However, German engineering is not restricted to automobile design. Another great example of German engineering that can be found in the kitchens of the world's best chefs is the wusthof classic hollow edge santoku knife. This knife is actually a part of the Wusthof classic 8 piece knife block set.

Contained in the set are the various knives you will need to pare, chop, julienne, slice, and dice all of your vegetables, meats, cheeses, fruits and anything else. Each knife is custom made to accommodate any cutting style or need.

Each knife in the wusthof classic 8 piece knife block set is made by drop forging process. This manufacturing process makes these knives extra hard and resistant to damage. There will be no damage caused to the knives even if they fall accidentally. In addition to the benefits of forging, these knives also incorporate the benefits of sharpening by hand.

Because the blade of every knife in the Wusthof classic 8-piece knife block collection is hand ground, they can all be resharpened according to your preferred degree of sharpness. This is rarely true of the knives of other makers, and that is not its only flexible feature. These knives, made in Germany, allow you to customize the whole set as you choose. You can place an order for a individually customized Wusthof knife set.

The wusthof classic 8 piece knife block set has been intelligently crafted to last a lifetime. German engineers devised the special stand that ensures that the edges of knives do not get damaged when not in use. Furthermore, the stand helps prevent accidental injury from the knives when not in use.

This set of knives can be ordered easily from a variety of online resellers. Once ordered, most resellers take between 48 hours and 72 hours to deliver the set. We suggest you compare prices from multiple vendors and always be sure that you are getting genuine German brand knives, not cheap imitations.

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LionelManuals Review - Repair Manuals For Lionel Trains

By Stanley Hughs

Do you require to fix your Lionel train? Are you a Lionel train enthusiast, buying, fixing up, and selling Lionel trains? If so, then you'll be grateful to find out the complete Lionel trains repair manual at LionelManuals.com!

Actually, it's much more than just a repair manual, too. Its a two CD set chock full of everything you need to be confident to repair, mend, or accessorize Lionel trains at a pro level.

You'll learn particular instructions for mending every Lionel train invented from 1906 through 1986. These certain directions are exemplified throughout with 1000s of diagrams and unique blueprints to make reading the instructions crystal clear. Ask to take simply 1 part of a plot? No problem! They're "zoomable"! Yes, the manuals were designed with you in mind! You can zoom in on several region so that you can visualise exactly the position that you are operating on.

Even with so much subject, you can easily find the exact page you want for your particular train. Its user-friendly - they indexed each page for you!

Plus, the manual is printable, so that you can print out what you need and take it to your work table with you.

There is also a handy areas and accessories catalog. You can visualise what each is open for your Lionel train, and get whatever big ideas on accessories to make your apparatus complete.

You can even reckon how your Lionel train set was earlier launched back when it was invented. They have included a lot of old Lionel catalogs, ads, and films. Experience your train with it's primary concept, and feel a few warm memories of the old days sneaking in. Most Lionel train collectors today have a love for their hobby for this very understanding. They think of what it was like when they were so young and they got their original Lionel train! They can experience the awe and the joy all over over again.
It's like Christmas morning! Is it the same for you? Is that why you are repairing your old Lionel train right now? They do have a way of bringing back those memories, don't they?

Yes, Lionel trains are 1 of the good sections of our story, and a region that we like to think.

Talking of history, your 2 CD Lionel Train repair and restoration set also includes an educational report: The History of the US Railway System. See how right your Lionel trains are, and how well the models fit in with the real history of trains in our state. In Point Of Fact, several of the Lionel trains were an direct replication of a specified train.

All this can be yours with the complete Lionel train repair manual set from LionelManuals.com. It's an outstanding value! You are sure to love it!

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Cheap FX Lightsabers - 5 Tips On Getting The Best Deal

By R.M.Doyle

The Star Wars movies have featured a wonderful array of weaponry, however the one that is considered the most important to own is one of the Lightsabers. Many of the more avid fans of these sci-fi movies will have dreamt of being able to wield such a weapon as some of the characters in them have. But no longer does this need to be a dream for them as today they have the opportunity to be able to purchase cheap FX Lightsabers if they know where to look.

Today when looking for cheap FX Lightsabers the best place to begin your search is online and spend some time looking at auction sites like eBay. However you need to take care when using these sites and below we provide a number of tips to help prevent you from being fleeced and to help make sure that you purchase the item you want a great price.

Tip 1 - When you are considering purchasing any item through an auction site the first thing to do is check out any feedback on the seller. If they have a feedback rating which is above 95% then you should seriously consider purchasing your item from them. But it isn't just their percentage rating you should go on spend a little time actually going back over the last couple of months comments that have posted to them.

Tip 2 - You need to be aware that not all items being sold are original items but are in fact fakes. If you can go with those who are classed either as power sellers or are eBay trading assistants. This way you are more certain that they can be trusted with selling you the real thing.

Tip 3 - Another thing to do before you actually put in a bid is to ask the seller some questions. This can easily be accomplished just through clicking on the "Ask a Seller a Question". If you obtain responses from them which are honest and returned in a timely fashion this is a good sign that they have good ethics.

Tip 4 - It is important that you actually spend time looking carefully at the description which has been provided by the seller. Ideally look for those that provide you with a much more in depth description of the product rather than just the manufacturers spiel and also that they offer a few photographs as well.

Tip 5 - It is worthwhile also checking to see what money back guarantee or warranty the seller provides with the product. Just as when you purchase an item in your local store they should offer some sort of guarantee on theirs and if you cannot spot this then don't be afraid to ask the seller about theirs.

Above we have offered you a few tips to help you when you are trying to buy cheap FX Lightsabers through online auction sites. The more you check into the seller's background and the product offered the more chance you have of getting the real item rather than a fake which is worth completely nothing.

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If You Are Unable To Be There But Want To Show You Love Them Then Send -