Selecting a Baby Shower Theme: Easy as One Two Three – Parenting
Selecting a Baby Shower Theme: Easy as One Two Three
Adriana Copaceanu
No aspect of party planning is more crucial and sometimes mind boggling to a baby shower planner than selecting the baby shower theme. There are almost too many ideas available today, and often the host of a party finds themselves suffering apoplexy at the idea of selecting a baby shower theme.
A small amount of creativity however will be sure to generate success, regardless of the baby shower theme selected. Keep in mind that the mom to bes happiness is perhaps the greatest priority. Not sure what theme to select Worried about what might go over well with the guests Turn to the expectant mom for guidance, and you are certain to come out a winner.
Selecting a baby shower theme should depend on just a couple of critical factors; For example, is the mother expecting a boy, girl, twins or more Twins are the perfect "theme" for any party of a mother blessed with multiples. You could for example, in this instance offer guests two of everything, including cake!
In times of old a shower was only held for the first child. This tradition has changed however of late, and it isnt uncommon for a mom to be to have a shower for each child, celebrating their uniqueness and the joy at bringing another new life into the world. Sometimes a variation of the same theme can be used at subsequent showers. Still struggling for ideas Consider some of the following:
Teddy Bears: What child does not love plush, stuffed and furry teddy bears! Teddy bear themes can be used for male or female children. Napkins, tableware and similar style decorations are sure to be found with teddy bears on them.
Colors: Often a mom to be seeks out gifts and accessories that complement or match the color she has selected for babys nursery. You might consider a baby shower theme that matches the color scheme of babys nursery. Guests can also be clued in on the invitation, and invited to bring items that will complement the nursery or wardrobe of the baby to be.
Cartoon Characters: Many parents select well known characters to incorporate into their nursery theme and these are easily translated into a baby shower theme. Some ideas include Strawberry Shortcake, Hello Kitty, or Bugs Bunny for example.
Shapes: Some parents may decide on shapes or even objects such as lemons, fish, cubes, circles and triangles to decorate their babys nursery. Again, finding decorations and accessories for the shower that match this theme should prove beneficial and inexpensive.
No matter what baby shower theme you select, you are bound to find hundreds of items to complement the event, including decorations, favors and even gifts. Once the baby shower theme has been selected, as a planner the next most important task is setting about planning for the actual party and getting invitations out to the guests to be.
Traditionally, the shower is held at the home of the host; this is not always the case however, and exceptions to the rule might be welcome in some situations. Regardless of where you decide to throw the party, be sure to give guests enough advance notice to plan on attending. This usually requires three weeks to a months notice, as most people are already too busy in todays society!
After selecting a baby shower theme, planning the party is easy. Once invitations have been mailed out and RSVPs have been received, plan on spending some time making a list of food items that will be needed, decorations you plan on acquiring, settling on party favors and deciding on a few fun games to play. Once you have all of these items sorted out, everything else is bound to fall together and you and your guests are sure to have a delightful time celebrating mom to be!
About The Author
Adriana Copaceanu provides people with creative gift ideas that dont blow the bank. Gift Baskets for Baby to Birthday and Beyond, are just some gift ideas youll find at her site: http://www.abcgiftsandbaskets.com. Want regular reminders on gift-giving Sign up for her free monthly newsletter at http://www.abcgiftsandbaskets.com/gift-news-signup.htm.
How One Product Made Me Into a Millionaire: The 4th Thing I Learned You Must Have in a Successful Home Business – Diet
How One Product Made Me Into a Millionaire: The 4th Thing I Learned You Must Have in a Successful Home Business
Brock Felt
When I was working at a gas station in Chandler, Arizona, fixing windshields for a living, making only $30,000 a year, I had all the drive in the world to succeed.
You see, I was in a franchise. I thought that since I had entered into a business of my own and if I worked it hard enough, I would have success. Man, I was dead wrong.
What I learned is that I could have all the drive and determination in the world, but unless I was behind a timeless, constant and steady product, it would be impossible to succeed.
What I am talking about, is an Evergreen product. When I was introduced to the business I am currently in, I quickly learned the power of an evergreen product. An evergreen product is something that is going to be around for a longtime. Everyone has to be able to use it. It must be a product in high demand consistently.
Health and Beauty sectors produce evergreen products. But, take cosmetics for example
Your Oven: Kitchen Ally or Public Enemy Number One – Food
Your Oven: Kitchen Ally or Public Enemy Number One
Skip Lombardi
As Thanksgiving approaches, newspapers, mega-stores, and food producers have recently begun their annual advertising assault to get your turkey dollars. Yet I suspect that huge numbers of people are living in dread and anxiety because theyre uncertain about how their turkeys will turn out. Some will produce turkeys that are a long way from being fully cooked, while others will produce overcooked, tough birds in need of resuscitation.
Has this been a problem for you Do you follow a recipe to the letter, dutifully preheating the oven, timing the recipe precisely, only to have your dish come out nearly raw, or burned beyond recognition
I suggest that for an investment of approximately $5.00, you can improve your chances for cooking well-roasted foods by 90%. Another investment of approximately $10.00 will bring your chances to near perfection. And when I use the term investment, I mean that your $5.00 will pay you dividends in the form of well-roasted food for the indefinite future. Im talking about thermometers; specifically, oven thermometers.
If your oven is more than ten years old, the cooking temperature could vary-in the worst case-by as much as fifty degrees from the temperature youve set on the dial. So if a recipe tells you to cook a roast of beef at 375 F., you could be cooking at anywhere from 325 F to 425 F. and have no way of knowing, until you discover that when you remove your dish from the oven, what youve cooked is overcooked, undercooked, or somewhere in between. But not well cooked.
For approximately the price of a meal for one at McDonalds, you can feel assured that your oven is set at the temperature youre seeking, even if youve had to set the dial at 350 F. in order to arrive at a temperature of 375 F. The typical recipe that calls for, say, cooking something for fifteen minutes per pound, was very likely tested in an oven calibrated to cook at the expected temperature, or an oven fitted with an inexpensive oven thermometer.
Oven thermometers are readily available at the local chain hardware store, or in the kitchen gadget aisle at the local mega-store. The two most popular types, are coil or dial thermometers, and liquid, in which a colored liquid-usually alcohol-expands in glass as it heats, and registers the temperature on a scale. In both cases, the thermometers will have a kind of hook at the top that will enable you to hang them from one of the racks in the oven.
When youve bought your thermometer, its a good idea to put it into boiling water for about five minutes, to see that it registers somewhere close to 212 F. If not, it may have some mechanism for adjustment, or you can simply return it to the store for another.
To test your ovens thermostat, hang the thermometer from the middle shelf, and pre-heat the oven to 350 F. If your thermometer reads 350 F. youre home free. But if the thermometer is, say, ten or twenty degrees off one way or another, try the experiment again, setting the oven to 375 F. If the temperature is off by the same factor, then youll know to set the thermostat with that factor taken into account when you want a particular temperature; 360 F. in order to get 375 F., e.g.
Equipped now with an oven thermometer, and having calculated the necessary adjustment on your oven to produce the desired cooking temperature, I recommend an additional $10.00 investment in an instant-read meat thermometer. By inserting this type of thermometer into meats as they are cooking, it will provide you with-as the name suggests-an instant reading of the meats internal temperature. This is an extremely useful device, because it helps you to account for the vagaries of cooking that go beyond simply knowing that your oven is set to the correct cooking temperature. Your standing rib roast of beef may look photogenic after two hours at 375 F., but until it reaches an internal temperature of 130 F. for medium-rare, it isnt fully cooked.
Gaining the confidence that your oven is set to the correct temperature is not then, the full story. It may be the case that the rear of the oven is hotter than the front, for example. You may notice, as you continue to experiment, that your roast browns far more quickly in the back than in the front. This is where you need to begin to improvise. Very likely, it will simply be a matter of turning your roasting pan one hundred eighty degrees midway through cooking. It could also be the case that youll need to cook foods on a lower rack of the oven. But knowing that youre cooking at the correct temperature is 90% of the battle. The sorts of problems Ive mentioned will be obvious-as will their solutions.
Finally-and this doesnt have to do with ovens, per se-is the issue of carry-over cooking. Nearly any recipe you read for roasted meat of any kind, will instruct you to let the meat rest for a period of time before carving. During this resting period, the meat will continue to cook in varying amounts. For example, a standing rib roast of beef will add about five to ten degrees to its internal temperature while resting for approximately twenty minutes. Therefore, its a good idea to remove your dish from the oven at about five degrees shy of your target temperature. Again, this is a task that would be impossible without an instant-read meat thermometer.
You could certainly buy more sophisticated timers for your roasting tasks. One popular model that retails for between $30.00 and $40.00 is digital, magnetic, so that it sticks to the oven door, and has a fireproof probe that can go into the meat roasting in your oven. And you can program it to beep when your meat has reached the desired internal temperature. Another, more expensive model, has a remote timer that you can carry up to seventy feet from the oven, and it too will beep to remind you that your meat is done. But you can get wonderful results with the least expensive models too.
So make a small investment in your oven. It will repay you with huge dividends in confidence that your roast will be medium rare; that your chicken will have a wonderful crust, yet be moist and juicy; that your meat loaf will make you a legend in the kitchen. And when your friends and family gather around your holiday table, they will proclaim this years turkey to be the best one ever.
About The Author
Skip Lombardi is the author of two cookbooks: "La Cucina dei Poveri: Recipes from my Sicilian Grandparents," and "Almost Italian: Recipes from Americas Little Italys." He has been a Broadway musician, high-school math teacher, software engineer, and a fledgeling blogger. But he has never let any of those pursuits get in the way of his passion for cooking and eating. Visit his Web site to learn more about his cookbooks. http://www.skiplombardi.com or send questions or comments to info@skiplombardi.com.
skip@skiplombardi.com