Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Cool New Baby Gift

A few of my girlfriends have become baby machines and all these little ones are popping up in the last 2 years. Many of my friends were never health nuts to begin with but after they have a baby they get so concerned about giving the baby anything food that is not natural/organic. One friend was never a good cook but when baby No.1 came, she learned how to make home made baby food. It seemed like so much work to make home made baby food and you always end up making so much cause you can not puree one cup of food in your blender. So someone in Europe has made a cool little contraption that steams,puree, warm up and defrost your baby food.

It is called the Babycook made by Beaba. So all you have to do is add water, put your veggies in basket. Place the basket in the blending/steaming cup and turn the machine to steam. Once the light is off, take the special spatula to take out the basket and pour the veggies into the blending cup. Turn the machine to blend and voila...you have home made baby food in 15 minutes. You can make up to 2 1/2 cups of food which is plenty for a baby.


I have not been able to find a place in Edmonton that sells it but it is available in Calgary at Williams-Sonoma (Chinook Mall) for $149. So if you have friends that will be adding another one to the family, think about driving down to Calgary for a present that they will use many times.

Mme. Chorizo

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Stimulate Our Ecomony

Now has everyone (including all the people who say they love winter) had enough of winter. I sure have. It is not even January yet. I just feel sorry for all the people stranded at the airports.

So to help get everyone to Boxing Day, here is a site I love to check out. I love a good deal so without further a due......RedFlagDeals.com This site has something for everyone who is looking for a deal in Canada. Be it travel tickets, food, apparel or freebies. The site was intended for Canadians but now and again you will find posts from the states. Just ignore those. This site also allows for RSS subscription so that you can check daily on what new things are on sale.

As you can see in the front page there are certain stores with their logo highlighted. If they are then that means someone across Canada has received the Boxing Day Flyer and kindly posted what is going to be on sale.

Boxing Day is probably one of the best time of the year to get a tv. The model maybe a year old but you can usually get the best discount for the size and type of tv. One year I was really lucky and got my MacBook 13" on sale. But it doesn't seem like Apple feels very generous lately so I don't expect to replace my MacBook anytime soon. One year the Ipod Shuffle was on sale for $59 (usually $89). That was a steal! So what ever deal it may be, hopefully the companies will provide us a lot of deals this Boxing Day so we can stimulate the economy. However, I have to say that when I was at the mall and Wal-Mart today, it does not seem like the economy is really suffering.

Happy Holidays Everyone
Mme. Chorizo

Friday, December 19, 2008

Don't Let the Winter Season Confine Your Green Thumbs Into Hibernation

I may love working with flowers of all variety but I admit I do not bear green thumbs. I think it is the patience to tend to something that require so much attention and effort that may or may not result the picture perfect garden of you dreams. It may also be the factor of "playing" in the dirt for me too. So then why not have a powered mini greenhouse right on your kitchen table without requiring soil. Yes, you skeptics, you can grow plants without soil. I mean it's on the internet, so it has to be true. 8P

Introducing the AeroGarden. The Areogarden has 3, 6 or 7 slots to place you special seed pods in so you can grow what your heart desires. If you are a gardener and cook, then grow your own little veggie garden or herb garden. If flowers are you thing, then an English Garden it is.


All you have to do is buy the special seed pods (from the same company), add water and a nutrient tablet (from the company too). There are specific lights that indicate refilling the base with water or another tablet.

It works by creating a wet and nutrient rich environment for the plant roots while the LED lights above will give your plant the appropriate amount of light for photosynthesis. Aeroponic system.

Now my question is if you can add you own seeds to the pods to grow other plants that are not available through their website. The company doesn't appear to endorse it but if you go to YouTube, you will find some scientists out there that have successfully grown other types of plants. I won't say what it is but I can tell you that you can't eat it or arrange it in a floral arrangement, but it is sometimes known to be used for "medicinal" purposes. Fork over $180-80 USD/$220-98 CAN and you can laugh in the face of old man winter.

Mme. Chorizo

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Something for the Cold Season

I am sorry I have not been very good about updating on my blog. I have come down with the usual case of a cold. Oh the joys of sniffling and sneezing your way into the night while your sinuses feel like something is digging its way out of your head. But thank goodness to a Germany company on the internet, they have found a way to give you a bit of comfort to you sneezing ways. Design 3000 have come up with a pillow that has a slot where u can store facial tissues. What comfort! Now, if only they can include a little pouch or some sort of hook to hang a plastic bag for all the used tissues.

I think the company's intention was to create a pillow for people who enjoy a good sob novel or the best chick flick in bed. Nevertheless, 87 Euros ($150CAN) can provide you with a conversational piece or an extra item to go into you garage sale next spring.


Mme. Chorizo

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Early Christmas Present

So guess who was at my door this morning?! The UPS delivery man. He dropped off a big box for me today. Inside was this lovely handbag that I had requested for Christmas. It's so big so I can fit a lot of junk inside. For you PETA supporters, don't read the following. The darker parts of the bag is leather and I love the smell of new leather. There's only a little bit so it's not so empowering like walking into a leather goods store. The light brown/tan parts are made from cardboard. Yes, cardboard. It's some heavy duty cardboard and with more wear and tear, it will have a really nice distressed look to it. I can't wait to use it tomorrow when i go out. 8)

So since I got my Christmas present today, I let Special Agent Chorizo to have his too. I made him a chair cushion cover with one of his favorite characters from the Super Mario Games Series.

I have been working on this since this Monday. There was some sneaking around so he would not know what I was doing. But I think it was well worth the effort. I think he really likes it cause he asked me to make another one but with different colors so he can alternate between the covers.

I got this idea from seeing quilt projects with video game graphic posted on various websites.
See if you recognize some of the characters.



It's crazy what some of them have come up with. But I think they can come up with so many different styles and idea because the image is pixelated. A pixelated image is very easy to convert into a quilt pattern as it is about sewing little blocks of fabric together. So for someone who is looking to try something different or their hand at quilting. Mario game images is a great place to start.

Plug in your cars, fellow Edmontonians, it's suppose to dip below -20 tonight and tomorrow. Oh how I wish I was on some warm beach somewhere.


Mme. Chorizo

Thursday, December 11, 2008

My Growing Love for Ikea

I have been going to Ikea many times in the last 3 months because we are renovating our kitchen and I was looking for containers for the floral arrangements I was asked to make for my work's Christmas Party. Ikea may not have everything with the best quality but they are not dollar store quality nor do they have Ethan Allen price tags. I am not crazy about their textile designs or some of their furniture designs but over all, u can find something in Ikea that would suit your everyday needs.

Something else that I really love about Ikea is their "Wacky Wednesday" sale. Every Wednesday they have one or two items on sale for 40 % or more. So far since I have been checking the weekly sale, they have put large bookcases to children's toys to medium size dressers for a nice discount. And it seems that every Ikea location across Canada has something else on sale. So if you have friends or relatives in Calgary/Richmond/Montreal/Ottawa, you might have to ask for a big favor.

On top of the weekly sale, Ikea is also having a Midnight Madness Winter Sale this Friday (Dec 12). They did not specify what items were going to be on sale but I really like the sound of "up to 50% many items in the store".

As for the containers for the floral arrangements, here is how I turned a $0.75 bowl into this


How about a long white glass container into various colorful orchids centrepiece


Last but not least, a glass bowl for 2 large arrangements




And the last thing I love about Ikea is a blog called "Ikeahacker". This is a site where people all over the world share how they took an Ikea product and changed it into another product to suite their design need. Two of my favorite hacks are the Home Office:

They took a couple of bookcases, drawer unit, table top
and others to create a very functional with lots of storage space for a home office. Smart, eh?

The other one was this tv stand with a hidden space for a subwoofer. This hacker took a tv cabinet, 3 cabinet doors and speaker fabric and made a fashionable stand.



Happy Ikea shopping

Mme. Chorizo

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Holiday Gift Ideas for Girls

The Holidays are approaching and for some it is a season to give and receive. So here is a list for gift ideas (not in any order) for the special femme fatale in your life.

1. Handbag. I personally like bigger bags cause i can carry lots of stuff around while looking stylish. This Christmas I have requested the "Jorja" large in natural colors from Matt and Nat.









2. DVD movies. Dark Knight, Harry Potter, Sex in the City Set are only some titles that might spark some interest.

3. Gift certificate to a hair salon for when i feel a need to change and uplift my looks. I don't have any recommendations for any salons in the Edmonton, AB, Canada region as I am still looking for the right hairdresser.

4. OSX Leopard. For the techie girls you might know, one day they will have to change over to the new operating system for their Mac computer and it might as well be now.

5. Monthly flowers. Fresh flowers is not just reserved for calender events. Maybe have the flowers sent to your sugar mommy's place of work or her home and you will score some brownie points. One of our local flower shop Eden Lilly on Whyte Ave can provide you assistance to all your floral needs.

6. Dummie books. I am not a big reader of fictious books but I always like to read the Dummie book series as they as easy to understand and learn about almost anything. I was looking at what topics are available on amazon.ca and there are many of them in cooking, crafting, language, exercise, etc. But just a warning, be careful of which subject you give her as it might give a different message. Like "Pilates for Dummies" or "Slow Cooking for Dummies" can also mean you think she is fat or she can not cook to save her life.

7. Jewelry. I think for every women, she should always have some essential blingbling. For example, diamond stud earrings and an everyday pendent. So go to your local jeweler and get her the prettiest pair of diamonds you can buy or Swarovski crystal jewelery will do if you have a budget to meet. Just make sure when you have money, you have to replace the Swarovski crystals as nothing can compare to the real thing. If you can, leave them in the instantly recognizable blue and white packaging of Tiffany & Co and she will not stop talking about them till Valentine.

8. Cashmere sweater. They are expensive but give her a classic style and she will sure wear it throughout the year.

9. Lamy pen. They will set you back a few bucks but if you want give her luxury in a pen/pencil, here is your solution. A local stationary store, Notables have all you fancy writing instruments needs. Fountain pens are one of my favorite writing instruments. It also makes her seem more high class despite her chicken scratch that she calls legible writing.


10. If all fails, gift certificates to any shoe or clothing store she frequents. I don't think gift certificates are too impersonal as the amount is in correlations to how much you love her.

Happy Shopping Everyone. Please try not kill any store employees in your holiday rush.

Mme. Chorizo

The Full Chorizo!

Greetings citizens of the interwebs! We, Madame Smoked Chorizo and Special Agent Burnt Chorizo, are here to bring you the finest and highest quality web chorizos. You may ask what is a web chorizo. A web chorizo is the finest web byproducts combined with our spicy spices wrapped in a delicious sausage casing. Sounds delicious, eh? We hope to entertain you with our random musings. With that said, please be advised to consume our web chorizos at your own risk.

Signing off, Madame Smoked Chorizo and Special Agent Burnt Chorizo.