EPISODE #102 - SATURDAY MARCH 17, 2012

We are back.  After taking a week off in the Portland market for NCAA basketball, we have returned for the rest of the year!  Well, at least until fall…  We spent the week off recorded some new stories to share with you in the coming weeks.  With the return of spring you may be thinking of doing some projects around the house.  Stay tuned in and we might have a few others to ad to your list as well!

Cut Hellebore Blooms

In the cold, dark days of winter it is hard to enjoy the colors of your outdoor plants.  To help you enjoy them, bring them indoors.  Winter blooming plants like hellebores are even more difficult to enjoy because the flowers sometime face down to the ground.  One way to enjoy them is to cut the blooms and float them in a bowl of water.  This way the blooms are facing upwards and, because they are in water, you can enjoy their beauty for a week or two.  You can also use them in a cut flower bouquet.  Just singe the cut end of the flower to seal the bottom and then place them in water.  They will last longer with the burned end and you can enjoy them for up to a week!

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. 

Venetian Cocktail

We finish off the show this week with a return to the Venetian Theatre and Bistro (503-693-3953) for an ‘after-show’ cocktail with Saxony Peterson.  She decided to make us a Lemon and Mint Martini.  This is one of their signature cocktails at the bistro.  We start with a glass of ice and a few slices of lemon.  She added a few mint leaves and then she muddled it together.  She used a plastic glass so she didn’t have to worry about breakage.  She then added lemon vodka, some triple sec, and a splash of ‘sweet and sour’.  It is shaken and strained into a martini glass.  If you would like to make your own, check out the recipe here.

Kenny and Zuke’s New Menu

If you have been to Kenny and Zuke’s (503-222-DELI (3354)) Delicatessen you know how delicious their food is.  It is a true ‘deli’ experience, one where you really don’t count the calories.  Recently, though, Owner/chef Ken Gordon discovered that he had Type 2 diabetes and that has led him to consider his diet and how he can be a little more healthy in his choices.  He is now looking to take some of these lighter choices and add them to the Kenny and Zuke’s menu.  One of the first recipes he tackled was a Pho soup.  This soup is a traditional Vietnamese beef noodle soup that is light on fat and calories, yet very delicious.  Ken used chicken in his recipe that he shared with us on the air, but the traditional recipe has beef.  It was easy to put together and if you want to try it you can get the recipe here.  This is just one of the many lighter menu items he is adding to the menu.  We also saw the new lighter whole grain slider instead of the larger cheese burger, and a smaller pastrami sandwich with a green salad instead of a larger sandwich with potato salad.  If you are in the area stop by and try some of these lighter options, or really enjoy the experience with one of their original menu items.  

Cabinet Goodies

We decided to call this story ‘cabinet goodies’ because of all the new features that you can find in cabinets for your kitchen and bathroom.  In the old days all you had was a shelf in your cabinets, but today you can have all sorts of slide-outs and unique shelves at your disposal.  Fabio from Parr Cabinet Outlet (503-614-2655) gave us a tour of a demonstration kitchen to show us the latest and great in organization.  The first cabinets we saw had pull outs for spices and small jars and cans; they even had compartmentalized the drawers for knives, and small gadgets.  There was even an area for your garbage bags.  We then moved to another area in the kitchen near the refrigerator.  This area featured a very tall and thin slideout that would allow very easy access to spices and canned goods.  The corner cabinets are some of the most underutilized areas in the kitchen.  Fabio showed us the newest design in a full shelf ‘lazy-Susan’ and even a slide out that is hard to describe, but is incredibly functional.  There is much more than we could ever discuss in such a short story.  From soft close drawers to other odd space storage options you really need, stop by Parr and see all that they have for your kitchen or bath.

Choosing Your Mattress

Picking a mattress can be a hard decision!  You walk into any mattress store and you can typically see 50-70 mattresses on the showroom floor.   It is hard to know where to start.  We stopped by America’s Mattress (503-914-0795) to talk with Elana to learn more about mattresses and what you should be looking for.  The first thing you need to do is to figure out if you need a new mattress.  If you are leaving an impression in your mattress that doesn’t always mean that you need a new one.  If you are having problems sleeping or you are waking up tired and sore then it may be time to look for a new one.  Once you are in the store they will try to determine what type of mattress you need.  You will need to look for good support and comfort.  This may mean lying down on a mattress or 2 until you find one that ‘fits’.  Generally, women find that they are more comfortable on a softer mattress due to their ‘curves’. 

The old type of mattress is an inner-spring or inner-coil mattress, but nowadays you can find more high-tech choices.  You can go with a memory foam type of mattress (a Temper-pedic) or even the newer iComfort mattress.  This one is a combination of a memory foam and a gel bead that creates a softer yet firm support.  It was very comfortable.   Of course it may not be for everyone.  Things to also consider; what is your budget, what is the size of your room, what is the warranty and what special deals can you get.  It was a lot of great information that was really easy to understand.