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Hail Emerald! Pantone’s 2013 Color of the Year
December 18, 2012
Goodbye Tangerine Tango. Hello emerald, Pantone’s 2013 color of the year.
Why emerald, or as Pantone’s swatch names it: 17-5641?
“Green is the most abundant hue in nature — the human eye sees more green than any other color in the spectrum,” says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, a color consultant to corporations.
Eiseman says emerald sparkles, fascinates, and “brings a sense of clarity, renewal, and rejuvenation, which is so important in today’s complex world.”
Tangerine Tango, last year’s color queen (and my new favorite hue), was a pinkish orange that packed an energy punch. 2013’s emerald is a vivid, verdant green that “enhances our sense of well-being … promoting balance and harmony,” Pantone says.
Expect to see the color on everything from kitchen colors to gas grills to $25 commemorative mugs. Emerald green: love it or hate it?
How to Make Your Gingerbread House As Solid as a Real House
December 15, 2012
Holiday gingerbread houses need maintenance and improvement, too!
If you’ve ever built a gingerbread house, you know that walls crack, icing flakes, and roofs sag — if they don’t collapse altogether. And once you’ve got your gingerbread house up, you’ve got to maintain and protect it against sticky humidity and sticky fingers.
Here are their tips on how to improve and maintain the value of your gingerbread home.
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Chef Dana Herbert, winner of TLC’s “Next Great Baker” show, owner of Desserts by Dana in New Castle, Del.
Chef Herbert, who has created gingerbread homes 6 feet tall, reveals the secrets of producing sturdy and straight gingerbread walls that can hold up to candy and pounds of icing.
- Bake gingerbread until it is dark brown and cracker-like – 35 to 40 minutes.
- Air-dry it for two days before assembly in a low-moisture room. If you live in a humid climate, run a dehumidifier while drying.
- If you’re not planning on eating the house, first make a foam board model and attach the gingerbread walls to that.
- To achieve straight walls that make assembly easier, cut gingerbread with a pizza wheel.
- To preserve the house for three years, coat the finished product with shellac and store in a plastic box with a tight seal.
Chef John Hart, executive chef at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel
With the help of architectural firms around Seattle, Chef John Hart creates structurally sound gingerbread houses that have weighed up to 500 pounds. Mostly, Chef Hart uses gingerbread as siding on his wood or foam board houses. Here are some of his gingerbread house tips.
- Margarine makes gingerbread batter stronger than butter.
- For smaller houses, assemble your house model from foam board, then take it apart and use pieces as templates for baked gingerbread squares. Cut the squares to fit with a utility knife.
- Bake extra gingerbread squares, and cut them into long triangles to make angled supports you can glue to the inside of your house.
- To hide wall cracks, mix a little royal icing with brown food coloring, and then rub into cracks. Smooth with a fine grain sandpaper.
- Flat roofs need center supports because they eventually bow.
- Allow several days for assembly. Bake and let dry for two days. Attach walls with royal icing and let dry overnight, then attach the roof.
Janet D’Orsi, owner of the Gingerbread Construction Company in Wakefield, Mass.
Janet D’Orsi’s Gingerbread Construction Company ships more than 10,000 gingerbread houses around the country each year. The trick to building a sturdy house? “Let it dry completely between stages.”
Here are more tricks of the gingerbread trade.
- Attach roof peaks with a toothpick when drying.
- Overlapping Necco wafers resemble a tile roof: Shredded wheat makes a good thatched roof.
- Roll gingerbread dough to 1/16-inch thick, which will bake hard but not brittle.
- Melted Lifesavers candy simulates stained glass windows.
Chef David Diffendorfer, instructor at the The Art Institute of Portland, Ore.
Chef Diffendorfer has constructed medieval gingerbread cities consisting of a castle and 16 buildings. The gingerbread acts as framing, which he covers with marzipan.
Diffendorfer offers other gingerbread construction tips.
- Gelatin sheets, sold at baking supply stores, make colorful windows that look like antique leaded glass.
- To strengthen walls, paint gingerbread with molten white chocolate, which bonds with the bread to create a solid mass. Also, pipe chocolate onto the display board to create a strong and quick-drying foundation.
- Fill cracks with royal icing, but attach chipped pieces with white chocolate.
- To make sure gingerbread joints fit tightly, miter edges.
My own gingerbread house creations feature molten sugar windows that save imaginary energy, gingerbread spruces for curb appeal, and even Twizzler rain gutters to handle runoff.
5 Little Known Facts About Your Christmas Dinner
December 12, 2012
From the number of years it takes to master the perfect turkey roast with all the trimmings to the real reason people hate Brussels sprouts, plus the hidden dangers lurking on your Christmas dinner plate – we’ve uncovered some startling truths behind the most celebrated meal of the year.
It Takes 295 Days To Grow…
How long does it take to make your Christmas dinner? Two hours? Maybe four?
In fact, the average Christmas dinner takes 295 days to make before it reaches our plate according to research by Morrisons, as it needs 10 months to sow and grow before it’s ready for the festive feast.
It Takes 47 Years To Perfect
According to a study by the Food Network UK, cooking Christmas dinner is so tricky, it takes us 47 years to perfect it without any mishaps.
The study found that a third of women never manage to cook the festive meal without a drama, with one in ten admitting that they mess up the gravy every year and 9% even forget to defrost the turkey.
“There is a lot of pressure to pull off the ‘perfect’ dinner and in many families, you have to live up to the standards set by your mother or mother-in-law, who have been mastering their festive feast for years,” says Nick Thorogood from the study.
It’ll Make You Gain 7lbs…
Hatred Of Brussels Sprouts Is Genetic
It Has Nearly Twice The RDA Of Salt
The average person will gain up to half a stone over the festive period, as the temptation of never-ending chocolates, mince pies and savoury snacks get the better of them, according to research by the British Dietetic Association.
With the average Christmas dinner racking up 956 calories and containing 48g of fat, it’s little wonder that we see the festive pounds pack on and suffer from festive fatigue shortly after the day of indulgence.
Hatred Of Brussels Sprouts Is Genetic
If you despise brussels sprouts, you’re not being a fussy eater because according to scientists from L’Oréal Research Centre, some of us were born to hate the festive brussels.
The gene, carried by 70% of us, make the brain detect sharp, bitter flavours and that’s what makes us shun the green veg when eating our Christmas dinner.
It Has Nearly Twice The RDA Of Salt
People eat nearly twice their recommended salt allowance on Christmas Day, health campaigners from Consensus Action of Salt and Health (CASH) have warned.
The salt RDA is 5g, but the average Christmas dinner contains 8.87g of salt.
While the nation goes about their routine gorge on the big day, experts warn to steer clear of salt traps like processed and pre-prepared food to reduce the salt intake this Christmas.
Happy Holidays!
Advanced Power Strips and National Grid Rebates
December 10, 2012
By eliminating standby energy loss in your home, an advanced power strip can save up to $100 a year in electric costs!
An advanced power strip is different from a regular power strip. An advanced power strip includes three distinct plug categories.
- The first plug type acts as the control and master plug, usually for your TV or computer’s central processing unit.
- The second plug type is for your peripherals, such as audio or DVD equipment, computer monitors, or printers, and is automatically turned off when the control plug has been shut off or is inactive from the sleep mode on your computer, saving energy automatically.
- The third plug type remains constantly active for those products needing constant power, such as cable boxes or modems.
Plus, National Grid offers discounted prices of $10 off advanced power strips.
- Prices range from $13.25 for seven outlets
- Prices range from $25.25 for ten outlets
Free shipping applies. Prices do not include sales tax.
Required Steps
To order, please visit our online store or call 1-800-473-9150.
Eligibility
Massachusetts residential electric customers of National Grid may qualify. Special pricing is available for a limited time only. Limit two power strips per customer. Savings and energy efficiency experiences may vary.
7 Holiday Events that Better Your Community
November 26, 2012
We have all been told that we “can make a difference” and here are some great examples of how we can do that in our own neighborhoods and have fun doing it! Make friends and influence your property values by creating neighborhood holiday traditions that build community spirit.
Wish you lived in a neighborhood where people connected over holiday events? You can, by organizing holiday parties, events, and gatherings. In turn, you’ll help foster higher property values, strong schools, and lower crime rates in your neighborhood, according to studies by Dennis Rosenbaum, director of the Center for Research in Law and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Start strengthening your neighborhood with these seven holiday events:
1. Sing songs
Home owners in the Clinton Hill neighborhood near Brooklyn, N.Y., have been caroling together since 1967. They only missed the event once for a pretty good excuse: It was below freezing.
Their advice for a successful neighborhood holiday event? Identify neighborhood streets heavy with holiday decorations. Festive residents will likely be most receptive to carolers. Ask volunteers to print song lyric sheets, post fliers announcing the event in advance, and bring a thermos or two of hot cocoa.
Residents have come to look forward to the neighborhood holiday song fest. “Sometimes we’re invited in, and some people even plan their parties so we’re the entertainment,” says resident Marge Othrow.
2. Holiday parties with a purpose
New Orleans’ historic Strachan House is the site of the Coliseum Square Association’s annual Christmas party, where the highlight is an award ceremony honoring emergency first responders who’ve made a difference in the city’s Lower Garden District neighborhood.
The CSA spends about $1,000 for the food and the several-hundred-dollar cash awards for the first responders, says CSA President Matt Ryan. The holiday event not only thanks first responders, but builds neighborhood spirit, he says.
3. Swap holiday food
With a holiday cookie or dessert exchange, no single neighbor bears the burden of providing food for the entire neighborhood. Audra Krell of Scottsdale, Ariz., uses Evite and Facebook to manage her annual holiday dessert exchange where friends each bring one tray of any kind of dessert.
Managing the neighborhood event takes Krell less than 10 hours, but the good feelings the event generates last all year long.
4. Organize a search party
Families compete in a neighborhood-wide holiday scavenger hunt in Maineville, Ohio. Tracie Watkins, who runs this fun event, comes up with a list of holiday items, like tinsel and candy canes, and gives everybody a half hour to collect them.
The family that comes back first with everything, or has found the most items when the game ends, gets a $50 gift card. She’s had as many as 15 to 20 neighborhood families join in the fun.
5. Share holiday giving
n Logan, Utah, Jenny Johnson and 50 to 60 of her neighbors forgo giving holiday gifts and goodies to each other, instead purchasing gifts, food, and personal hygiene items for three to four needy families through the Sub for Santa program. The average family’s financial contribution runs about $30, and the families get together at a neighborhood party to wrap the gifts they’ve purchased.
6. Feed your friendly neighbors
Hold a progressive holiday dinner party at neighbors’ houses. On the Sunday before Christmas, Margee Herring of Wilmington, N.C., and her neighbors eat their way through three host homes. Each home owner foots the food bill for about 100 guests, but you can share the cost by asking neighbors to sign up for a potluck dish.
Create a twist: Announce a different theme each year, or ask home owners to prepare the holiday cuisine of a different country.
7. Light up the holiday
Many neighborhoods come together to line their streets with candles on Christmas Eve. And this effort doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive. Save milk and water jugs throughout the year, and put 12-hour votive candles inside the jugs.
Setup and removal take 30 to 45 minutes. An alternative to luminaries is a neighborhood holiday lighting contest in which neighbors vote on the home with the best holiday display.
Neighborhoods with a strong sense of community and family DO have higher selling prices! Plus you’ll make stronger friendships, learn new things and have fun!
7 Ways to Have an Eco-Friendly Christmas
November 25, 2012
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With a few conscious choices, your merry Christmas can also be an eco-friendly Christmas. ‘Tis the season to consume and decorate, which can leave your bank statement and the planet a little beat up. Celebrate an eco-friendly Christmas and nip your seasonal costs in the bud:1. Light up with LEDs. LED lights use at least 75% less energy than conventional holiday decorations, according to Energy Star. That saves the average family about $50 on energy bills during the holiday, says Avital Binshtock of the Sierra Club in San Francisco. Or douse the lights and use soy-based or beeswax candles; their emissions are cleaner than those from paraffin candles.
2. Make your own decorations. Save money and keep your kids busy by hand-crafting eco-friendly decor—strings of popcorn or pine cones—instead of buying mass-produced holiday flare.
3. Wrap with stuff you already have. Get creative with reusable shopping bags, magazines, and newspapers instead of using wrapping paper. Even gift bags that recipients can pass on make for a more eco-friendly Christmas, says Brian Clark Howard of The Daily Green.
4. Buy a real tree. Real Christmas trees, wreaths, and garlands are renewable and recyclable, Binshtock says. Real trees mean an annual cost, but that may be a wash if you tend to buy a faux tree several times a decade.
5. Say “no” to glossy paper decorations and wrapping. Shininess and color come from chemicals not easily recycled. Alternative: Decorations or wrapping papers that use soy inks or natural dyes.
6. Package it in cardboard. Plain, corrugated cardboard is good for packaging because it’s easy to recycle. If plastic factors into your holiday plans, look for No. 1 and No. 2 plastics, the easiest to recycle, says Ben Champion, director of sustainability for Kansas State University.
7. Create precious moments that don’t leave a trail of debris.
- Do something experiential like taking the family to a museum.
- Give a gift certificate or donation to an organization meaningful to the recipient in the receiver’s name. Happy holidays to you: No sales tax.
- Buy fair-trade, organic, or locally made products, which are often one-of-a-kind and may not need as much packaging and shipping.
Is Your Refrigerator Ready for Thanksgiving Leftovers?
November 19, 2012
Leftovers gobbling up space in your refrigerator? Here are some tips for keeping things organized, efficient, and tasty.In the midst of all your Thanksgiving preparation, don’t forget about another upcoming celebration: Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day.
November 15 is the day to clean and organize your fridge in preparation for all the leftovers you’ll enjoy after Turkey Day is over. Not sure how to organize your refrigerator? We’ve got some cool ideas.
Front and center
Give prime fridge space to priority items, says professional organizer Kathi Burns, founder of Add Space to Your Life.
“If you want leftovers to be eaten, keep them front and center on the middle rack, at eye level,” says Burns. “That goes for healthy snacks, too. If you have leftovers, don’t cram them in the back.”
Don’t try to fit leftover turkey carcass in the fridge whole. Carve it and store in several containers, says professional organizer Abbey Claire Keusch. If your refrigerator has adjustable shelves, you can move them around for specific items. Send some leftovers home with your guests, and have a plan for the food you keep for yourself.
“Before the holiday arrives, search for some recipes involving Thanksgiving leftovers,” Keusch says. “Have some on hand [for later], when you have more turkey than you could want.”
Not everything needs chilling
Did you know that ketchup, vinegar, jam, and even mayonnaise and butter don’t need to be refrigerated? If you’re tight on fridge space, these items and more can go in the pantry instead.
And if you have backyard chickens, the eggs you get from them don’t need to be refrigerated, although store-bought eggs do (American regulations require eggs to be power-washed before selling, which strips eggshells of their protective coating, so store-bought eggs have to be refrigerated to stay fresh).
The only items that really need to go in the fridge are meats, dairy products, and certain vegetables (unless you’re going to eat them right away).
Items that should never go in the refrigerator include:
- Tomatoes (they’ll get mushy faster if they’re cold).
- Onions (they’ll soften, plus all your other food will smell like onions).
- Honey (it’ll get too thick).
- Potatoes (cold temperatures turn starches into sugars, giving your taters a sweet flavor when you cook them, and not in a good way).
Go against the flow
Today’s refrigerators are designed to be organized a certain way — condiments in the door, vegetables in the crisper, gallon of milk on the center rack. But it doesn’t have to be that way, Burns says.
“For busy families, I recommend a ‘lunch bin’ that you can pull out,” she says. “Keep the mayo, mustard, pickles, meat, and cheese in there, so you can just pull it out and make a sandwich. It’s easy for kids. You can create a bin for healthy snacks, too, or a breakfast bin with bagels and cream cheese.”
Pulling out one bin instead of many individual items is faster, too, so your refrigerator door doesn’t stay open as long. For smaller refrigerators that don’t have drawers, long, rectangular bins can be used for easy organizing.
“Same goes for the freezer — just use a Tupperware bin for frozen veggies, so you can pull out all the bags of veggies in one fell swoop,” Burns says. “It works really well.”
Hip to be square
Refrigerators are more efficient when they’re fuller, but that doesn’t mean you should cram as much stuff in there as possible. Square or rectangular containers are the way to go for leftovers — they’re easily stackable and fit into corners neatly.
“Stay away from round containers,” says Burns. “That’s just wasted space.”
Great new listing in Ashland! Open Sunday 1pm to 3pm – don’t miss this!
November 13, 2012
DON’T MISS OUT on this new listing! This beautiful colonial in a private cul-de-sac setting with expansive backyard in Ashland is perfectly located to major commuting routes (Southboro / Ashland commuter rail, 9, 495, 85) and Hopkinton State Park. 
Enjoy the central a/c in the summer or the fireplace in the winter! Main level features hardwoods, laundry, over-sized country kitchen with dining area and views! Master bedroom with walk-in closet and wall-to-wall carpeting. Lower level family room could be 4th bedroom, office or create an in-law space. Very well maintained and such a great price!
Sunday, November 18th: 1pm to 3pm
21 Pinecrest Lane Ashland
Check out this interactive virtual tour…open Thursday 5 to 7pm
November 13, 2012
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