EPISODE #72 -
SATURDAY MAY 7, 2011
Happy Mothers
Day weekend! We are taking some time this weekend to hang out
with mom and helping her celebrate her special day. This is a
great weekend to think about things that will make her life
easier. Little things, like doing a household project, bringing
her a decorative item or even cooking her a nice dinner. What a
coincidence! Those are the same topics as the Fusion show.
Every week we give you some great ideas for things you can do
around the Northwest home. This week is no exception, so sit
back and enjoy another great episode.
Goodwill Store Rack
Goodwill
Industries of the Columbia Willamette (503-238-6100) is a
gem in the rough. Dale Emanuel joined us to explain what that
means. The local Goodwill organization gets more donations than
any other store in the world, last year that was over 163
million pounds of donations. And once they get those donations
they have 43 local stores to sell the best of the lot back to
the public. Dale showed Robin just some of the clothing items
that you can find at the store including high-end items from
Nordstrom, Jones of New York and Nike, all at a fraction of the
actual cost. The moneys that are generated (93 cents of every
dollar) go back into providing jobs and services to those who
have a barrier to employment. They also provide job search
services and a job referral service. They serve thousands of
your friends and neighbors in Oregon and SW Washington. Plus
they deal in all types of merchandise like house wares, books,
décor items and electronics. Stop by any one of their locations
for some great deals and help others at the same time!
Lighting 101
Lighting a
room is so much more than throwing a switch! To get a few tips
on lighting we met up with our friend Amy Troute from Amy Troute
Interior Design. She took us to one of her favorite places for
lighting, lighting supplies and advice, Lamps Plus. Lighting
can really change your room and how it looks. It can take the
normal and make it spectacular. Amy looks at lighting in
layers. First you have your general lighting, which could be
the fixture in the center of the room. Then you have your
accent lighting which is used to showcase a painting or plant.
Finally you have your task lighting, which is lighting for
specific purposes like reading or food prep. By balancing these
3 ‘layers’ of light you can really make your home more welcoming
and warm!
Next we
talked about light bulbs. As many of you know, the old
incandescent bulb is on the way out. Energy efficiency is the
buzzword for today and that means people are anxious about the
change and losing the nice warm tones that an incandescent can
bring to a room. A lot of people think that they are stuck
with the compact florescent bulb when it comes to saving
energy. Not true. There are new types of halogen bulbs and
LED bulbs that are starting to come on the market. The benefit
to these bulbs is not only the color of the light, but also the
length of service that you will get from a bulb. The old bulb
will give you 800 hours of light, but the newer bulbs will
provide up to 80,000 hours. Well worth the $40 cost per bulb!
Finally we
looked and design tips for placing lights. There is just so
much information that it is hard to keep up. If you would like
to learn more about lighting you can attend a free seminar once
a month at your local
Lamps Plus
location.
Budget Kitchen Makeover – Style
On an
earlier show we visited with Linda Gemal from
Rejuvenate Your Home (503-803-8000) to learn the first steps
on how you can remodel your kitchen on a budget. This week she
walked us through some of the areas where you can add your own
special touch to the decorating to make it stand out. Linda
started with the counter tops. She was able to keep her old
tile countertops and add new tiles, that didn’t exactly match,
by using a border of a lighter tile to tie them all together.
She also brought the same colors in to the kitchen as a
backsplash with some simple tile sheets from Home Depot.
Another place where you can change things up is with drawer
pulls and hinges. Just something as simple as changing the
hardware can really make a difference. Linda also showed us how
she was able to shop the discount cabinet stores for some
surplus cabinets. She was able to tie them together by
connecting countertops and a coat of paint. And that was the
final tip from Linda. If you only had one thing you could do in
your kitchen, it would be to paint. Painting is easy and cheap
and it can make a splash in a hurry!
Now You're Cooking – Thai Eggs Benedict
This week in
our Now Your Cooking segment we were joined again by Chef Loren
Skogland from
Milo’s City Café (503-288-MILO) in Portland. His restaurant
is known for many things, but one of the focuses is the
breakfast menu. Today he stopped by the
NW
Natural Appliance Center (503-220-2362) to share one of his
favorite breakfast treats – Eggs Benedict. This recipe does
have a twist, it is has a coconut milk and lime scented shrimp
cake instead of bacon. As Loren calls it, his ‘Thai Eggs
Benedict’. It also includes a red curry hollandaise, which was
very easy to make. The hollandaise was made with melted butter,
egg whites and red curry all blended together.
Next he
placed the shrimp cakes on the Aga Cooker. The Aga is a unique
stove/oven. It is always on! One little pilot light keeps
everything hot and because it is just one little flame it is
pretty cost effective to operate. They say that even the Queen
has one of these in her palace in England.
Chef Loren
also poached his eggs at the same time his shrimp cakes were
cooking by just cracking them in a bath of simmering water and a
little vinegar. Once the shrimp cakes and eggs were done he
simply assembled them on a plate with fresh fruit and he had an
easy and tasty breakfast dish. If you would like to learn more
about the Aga grill or to get a
copy of the recipe, stop by the Appliance Center or check
out the NW Natural website
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