Contested Consumption

There are so many great ideas out there for baby shower favors. It just makes sense if you are on a budget to make your own and it can be a lot of fun as well! One my favorites homemade favors out there is the candy pacifiers. These are easy to make and they are adorable. People will be sure to comment on how cute they are and they cost nearly nothing to make! You need to get the big white lifesavers and colored jellybeans. You put 1 life save on top of the other lifesaver in a “T” formation and then you glue them together and let them dry. Then you glue the jellybean on the top of the “T” in the top lifesaver (that is the pacifier part). To dress it up a big get some pink and blue ribbon and put it through the hole of the other lifesaver. This makes for a great favor!

Now of course you do not want to use Elmer’s glue…you need to make some edible glue…icing. This is very easy to make and it great for other edible homemade projects that need that “glue” to stick things together. You are going to need an egg and powdered sugar.

You are going to blend together 2/3 cup of the powdered sugar with an egg white in a bowl. Microwave this for 45 seconds. This will actually help to kill off any bacteria because of the egg so that it will be edible. After you do this add another 2/3 cup of powdered sugar and whip it on high until is has a peak and has that nice thick and pasty texture that you need to stick things together. Add powdered sugar to make it thicker or water to make it thinner until you get it just right.

Remember, if you decide to make baby shower favors you will need to get quality supplies. Many online stores, such a SimplyBabyStuff.com, have ‘do it yourself’ supplies you can order from them. This makes the process so much easier! You can make 30 of them in a matter of minutes. The longest part is just the waiting of the glue to harden on the lifesavers. And they are quite delicious. Just make sure that you do not get jellybeans that taste bad. You are going to want to spring for the good tasting quality jellybeans for this project. This also makes for a great homemade project with children as well. Just be sure to wash your hands well and were gloves when handling the candy to make it more sanitary.

Have you ever wondered how the Japanese attain the longest life expectancy in the world? While children in the west crunch on corn flakes and crisp bacon for breakfast, the children in the East are consuming naturally fermented soups such as rice porridge with vegetables and, of course, miso soup.

A miso soup recipe has a long tradition of being a healthy soup enjoyed by children all throughout Japan. It’s a classic Japanese soup although it actually originates from China where numerous other cultural and culinary heritage of Japan comes from. A miso soup recipe is a simple warm soup that concocts tofu and miso – both are products of the healthy soybean that provide essential nutrients children and adults alike, need.

Since the miso soup recipe’s arrival in Japan in the 10th century, it was easily adapted by the Japanese and quickly gained recognition for being a healthy and delicious food. One cup of miso soup enabled the classic Japanese people to endure a long day of hard work even without animal products. After all, they can derive a variety of nutrients and protein from miso.

There are many variants of miso soup recipe all using different ingredients but is soybean-based, that differ in flavor depending on other ingredients used. For many centuries, Japanese mothers often tell their children who skip breakfast to finish their miso soup at least to stay healthy.

If you want to taste the goodness of a miso soup, here is a classic Japanese miso soup recipe to offer to someone who’s feeling feverish and ill. You will need: 1 ½ tablespoons wakame, 2 ½ cups water, 2 teaspoons granulated dashi, 2 tablespoons white miso, ½ pound tofu, and 2 stalks scallion cut diagonally into ½-inch pieces.

The first thing you will do is to soak the wakame in lukewarm water for 10 minutes, then drain using a strainer and by pressing out the liquid. Set it aside for later use. Next, pour water into a pot and place in dashi, then bring to a boil for a few minutes. Reduce heat to lowest to preserve the living enzymes in miso that are destroyed in very high temperature such as boiling water.

Mix in miso until it dissolves prior to adding tofu and heat through for 30 seconds. Immediately after, add the wakame and scallion and reheat for 30 seconds. Stir to keep the ingredients from settling at the bottom before serving.

A simple miso soup recipe that will certainly warm every soul not only in the midst of the winter freeze but for the rest of the year.

We all associate sparkling wine and champagne with joyous celebrations. However, recently, many people have recognized that sparkling wine can provide a bargain accompaniment even for an everyday meal.

Making Sparkling Wine and Champagne
If you see the words ‘traditional method’ or ‘methode traditionelle’ on a bottle of champagne or sparkling wine, then it has been made using the methods originally developed in the Champagne region of France.

The first step in making sparkling wine is to create a base wine that is very acidic. Secondly, the base wine is put in a bottle with some extra yeast and sugar and sealed. A word of warning, if you are planning to make your own, the seal must be VERY strong as the build-up of carbon dioxide can be extremely powerful!

Finally, the bottle needs to be tipped forwards so that the sediment sinks into the neck of the bottle. In traditional champagne houses, the bottles are turned daily and tapped for a period of up to three months to remove the sediment. However, the more modern approach is to freeze the neck, release the sediment and then re-cork the bottle.

Champagne Uncovered
Only wines produced in the French region of Champagne are allowed to carry the label ‘champagne’. Therefore, we are seeing a lot of sparkling wine on our shelves that is of excellent quality. Not only must champagne be produced in the Champagne region, but it must also be made from the chardonnay, pinot noir or pinot meunier grape varieties. Even the bottling method is unique to the Champagne region.

A champagne label will tell you about the sweetness of the particular champagne. For example, rich or doux champagne is very sweet with over 50g of sugar per liter, demi sec has between 17 and 35g of sugar per liter, extra dry is a label used for champagne containing between 12 and 20g of sugar per liter, brut is dry champagne with less than 15g of sugar per liter and extra brut is very dry champagne with under 6g of sugar per liter.

If you want a very special bottle of champagne look for the words “tête de cuvée” on the bottle as this refers to a premium champagne which is normally made from a single harvest.

Choosing and Serving Sparkling Wine
Sparkling wine or champagne is a popular choice for those trying to choose wine for non-wine drinkers. Champagne is known as the quality bubbly; good champagne is expensive and deservedly so. You’d be wise to avoid the cheaper end of the market as it will be at best a disappointment and at worst undrinkable.

For a cheaper alternative, often of similar quality, look for sparkling wines from areas such as Australia, New Zealand and California. France also produces some excellent sparkling wines from regions other than Champagne, for example, Saumur in the Loire Valley. Other worthy alternatives include the sparkling offerings from Italy, including the light Prosecco and the sweet Asti varieties. If you are looking for a very good value sparkling wine then consider Spanish cava. Whilst nowhere near the same quality as champagne it is a well-priced, drinkable alternative.

Sparkling wine and champagne should be served at 6 Degrees Celsius (43 degrees Fahrenheit); therefore, an ice bucket is essential from the moment the bottle of sparkling wine leaves the refrigerator. A final word of caution, when you open a bottle of bubbly, there will be a large release of gas so make sure that the cork is controlled and not pointed at anyone!

Wearing a certain fragrance is the most common part of our pampering and beauty regime. We choose and buy them according to our taste, and change every now and then depending on our mood, fashion styles and trends, and even based on whether it`s day or night, summer or winter. Perfume is the extension of our personality, our trade mark, recognizable mark and it must suit us and be similar to our nature. This cosmetic product is well accepted worldwide by both men and women, and the variety of smells is amazing, so each personality basically can find a custom option.

How does perfume work? Fragrance comes into our body, through the skin pores, mixes with our body and “starts working”. Since it mixes with our natural body smell, it is very important to match the smell with your normal skin scent. For instance, sweet perfumes smell excellent on some people, and too strong and unappealing on other. You also might know that fragrance never smells the same on two people and the reason is their unique body chemistry.

When you are buying fragrance (or even better – creating your own) you must consider the body chemistry as a very important factor. That is the reason you will not have the real impression on how will fragrance fit you, without actually testing it on your skin. Perfume should be tested on your hand wrist, and after few moments, you will have an impression of the smell, and know if it fits you or should you keep looking. This testing spot will also show if you are allergic on some substances in the fragrance, which can also sometimes be the case.

The smell of fine perfume should be noticeable immediately after the applying of a small amount of fragrance. The fragrance should not be too aggressive, but it still has to be noticeable around the person wearing it. A good fragrance is highly sustainable, it should stay for hours and you should not have to re-apply it often. It should be hypoallergenic, and must not leave any marks on your skin. And also it should be completely color free.

The strength of the fragrance depends on the concentration of the aromatic concentrated oils in a perfume. That defines the lasting of a sense and the smell intensity. This is the classification you should memorize, based on the concentration of aromatic oils:
Perfume is the strongest version of a fragrance, Eau De Parfum is next, slightly lighter, Eau De Toilette follows with even milder sense, and finally Cologne and Body Splash follow as the mildest and most discreet ones.

How to wear it? For the best and most lasting effect, apply perfume on your pulse points. Best spots for putting the perfume on are elbows, wrists and sometimes neck, and behind the ears area. If you are a lady, you can consider putting some fragrance on the cleavage, or behind the neck area.

When choosing the right smell, be sure to find a note similar to your personality. It will and should be an addition to your image, style and appearance, so keep that in mind when visiting the perfumery.