Lasoo Shopping and Reviews Blog

The big day is over for another year but if you store your leftovers properly, the feast can continue long after the last guest has gone home.

Tips for preserving flavour and preventing spoilage

· Refrigerate turkey, pork or other meat, stuffing, gravy and other cooked dishes within two hours of serving.

· For best results, slice meat off the bones before refrigerating.

· Put meat and stuffing into separate containers.

· Divide leftovers into small, individual portions and refrigerate or freeze in covered shallow containers. Putting a large portion of leftovers in one container results in longer cooling times which gives bacteria a chance to form.

· Rather than covering plates with plastic wrap, use airtight refrigerator-safe containers. You can fill the containers almost to the top but don’t over stuff them so that the lid might pop open.

· If you are using plastic wrap, try and avoid leaving any gaps in the plastic or air bubbles between the plastic and the food.

· Try and spread your leftover containers throughout the refrigerator shelves so that the cool air has room to circulate and cool everything evenly. Avoid stacking your storage containers on top of each other.

· Glass storage containers are great for keeping salads and desserts at optimum freshness and preventing flavour from escaping.

Finally- just get some storage containers because they look nice - especially the nice sets!

Have a browse of food storage items in Lasoo- you never know what you will find!

When I reflect on my earliest memories of Christmas- I think of Christmas morning. I’d wake up at 6 am run to my parent’s room and urge them to wake up so I could ransack the presents under the tree.

The presents of course would have had the edges peeled slightly back (from previous attempts of getting a peek) and I would have put aside all the presents with my name on it to ensure optimal present unwrapping efficiency by the time I was granted permission to begin!

When the excitement will settle slightly us kids would  gather around the Christmas tree, posing with our presents, ready for the yearly Christmas haul photo.

… ahh… the memories!

As I get older, the thrill of Christmas morning changes as many of us now hope to live vicariously through our kids, going to great lengths to make Christmas morning really special. From laying Cookies and milk out for Santa, carrots and water for the reindeers, to shaking Baby Powder on the floor and putting footprints in it… we all do our part to make Christmas that little bit magical.

I guess you could say, as you get older it becomes less about the presents, and more about the giving…

What do you do to make Christmas morning that little bit magical?

We love rewarding our loyal Lasoo fan base with great prizes!

The winners of our Alvin & THe Chipmunks Prize packs are:

R.Caple, 2619 NSW

Y.Pointon, 6158, WA

S. Woods 2430, NSW

K. Kitto 2763 NSW

T. Andreatta, NSW

Merry Christmas everyone! We have lots more great competitions coming in 2012!

Not since the invention of the double-sided toaster have consumers taken to a household appliance with the same gusto with which they have embraced the home espresso machine.

If you love your coffee and are in the market for a home machine, then you have the inalienable right to expect barista-quality coffee as part of your morning ritual.

Use our easy to follow guide to decide which one is right for you

Manual espresso machine:

Skill level: Medium to advanced

How they work: Manually grind the coffee beans, spoon ground coffee into the filter handle, and froth your own milk. You also need to manually stop and start the flow of coffee through the filter.

Benefits:

The user has full control over the coffee making process.

Most models are smaller and less obtrusive than their automatic counterparts.

Tip: The perfect single shot espresso only requires 30ml of coffee

Semi-automatic

Skill level: Intermediate. Perfect for anyone who can froth milk, or is willing to learn.

How they work: Add ground coffee to the pod that sits in the filter handle, tamp it down tightly, screw handle into the machine, and press a button. You will also need to froth the milk.

Benefits:

These models are the most popular home espresso machines because they are easy to use.

Pre-set water amounts let you create the perfect cup.

Pre-set your desired amount of coffee for either a stronger or weaker brew.

Tip: To avoid buying a coffee grinder and having extra kitchen clutter, look for one with a built in grinder. Built in frothing devices are also more reliable and less messy than external options.

Fully automatic:

Skill level: None. Perfect for coffee lovers who like their coffee to appear at the touch of a button.

How they work: Supply the machine with coffee beans, milk and water, press a few buttons.

Benefits:

Start and stop by themselves.

Grind beans and froth milk for you

Used grounds are neatly dumped into a compartment.

Usually self-cleaning.

Pod machines

How they work: Pod espresso machines require pre-packaged coffee pods into a designated slot and the rest is done for you.

Main benefit: No mess, no fuss

Drawback: Your choice of coffee is limited and true connoisseurs for this reason often shun them.

A very popular brand of pod machines are the Nespresso range. They look very chic on the kitchen benchtop especially with all their amazing colours!

Watermelons are a plenty!

And with a bit of skill you can turn the humble watermelon into a fantastic Christmas treat!

Step 1: Get a portion of watermelon.

Step 2: Slice the watermelon into slices 2-3cm thick

Ever find yourself stuck for a present for that person who seems to have everything?

As I roamed the shopping centres on the weekend I noticed many shoppers in a robotic-like trance repeatedly blurting the words: “What on earth can I buy for…?”

My tip is: Buy them something they probably have never heard of and subsequently never knew they needed…. until you gave it to them! This means cool gadgets, obscure contraptions that make life a little easier and random trinkets that make you stop and go “WOW!”.

I recently saw a cool gadget segment  on the Today Show which show some of those products that you might have never heard about:

http://today.ninemsn.com.au/videoindex.aspx?uuid=8f4dc53b-7cc4-472e-bb3b-00fc0d7d1df9

App Blaster: http://www.lasoo.com.au/search/app%20blaster.html

App Mate: http://www.lasoo.com.au/search/app%20mates.html

Air Swimmers: http://www.lasoo.com.au/search/air%20swimmers.html

These are great ideas for presents and I’m pretty sure not many of your friends or family have them!

What obscure items have you bought for your friends who seem to have everything?

As the year comes to a close and we all recover from the Christmas festivities- Lasoo is busy planning for some more amazing competitions in 2012!

Stay tuned and make sure you are registered for our Lasoo Newsletter to get all the latest news!

Most women are used to juggling absolutely everything in their lives – the school run, work, cooking, cleaning, looking amazing (obviously an easy one!) However, there’s one juggling session that seems to throw all of us out of whack – and that’s the family shopping trip.

If retail therapy is the only way you truly chill out, then you’ll know this pain well. Dragging the kids along or having a sulky husband trailing behind is not fun or relaxing for any woman – no matter how much you enjoy being in the shops! If retail is your mecca, then you need to know how to deal with surprise guests:

Get an iPad or tablet pronto! However, make sure that before you give it to the kids for the day, you protect it properly. Download a few apps and let them play games as they wait for you in each shop.

The pros: They will be happily entertained with other games and it’s easy for them to carry around.

The cons: They may start arguing – so probably a better idea for just one child, rather than two. Also, if they do drop it, then it’s one expensive shopping trip!

If your husband is trailing around after you, then a quick simple fix can be found in an MP3 player which also has the radio. That way, he can tune in to his favourite sport and listen to all the latest results!

Pros: He will be in his own blissful world

Cons: He may blurt out the occasional curse word when his team aren’t doing well!

The world is divided into those who love having their picture taken with Santa and those who love looking at hilarious pictures of people with Santa! Either way, both sides are winning with products that make these Christmas snaps more memorable!

If your kids have been begging for weeks to have a photo with Santa, then it’s a shame to have the memories lost – plus – their 18^th Birthday it will be hilarious when you pull out a perfectly reserved Santa snap!

Digital picture frames and keyrings make a great memento for parents. You can load up a collection of images and display various shots on rotation.

If you simply love Christmas, then get your family Santa pictures on a bauble! We didn’t have the luxury of Digital Photo Frame Christmas Tree Baubles as kids so go overboard and have your tree full of your family’s festive faces!

If you would like the Christmas memories to last all year round, then get your pictures put onto a mug! Personalised mugs make for a very funny gift for relatives and neighbours! (they’ll love you, surely!!) Then of course, there are T-shirts and other personalised items. Get your pictures printed across a T-shirt and the kids can wear them as pyjamas – nothing like thinking about Christmas to make a child suddenly become well behaved!

Do you have a Santa Photo to share? Post it on our Facebook wall! We’d love to see them!

The school holidays are here!

And it is great time to do fun activities with the kids. The hard part- is working out what you should do!

In preparation for the Christmas season why don’t you try making some Reindeer Cookies?

They are cute, fun to make, edible and are great to serve at your next Christmas gathering!

As a bonus- the kids will have fun showing them off to your guests and they look pretty amazing amongst the other Christmas treats.

Ingredients:

1 pack- small marshmellows

1 pack of large marshmellows

1 pack of M&Ms (or another red coloured candy)

200grams of chocolate melts

1 pack of multi-shaped pretzels

1 pack of gingersnap biscuits (or another biscuit of your choice)

Lay the biscuits on a tray face down.

Melt the chocolate in a broiler ensuring it doesn’t burn- add cream to thin out the mixture if necessary.

Break pretzels in half into a bowl

Lay out all the components on a table and then grab kids.

Spoon a tablespoon of the melted chocolate onto the biscuits and get the kids to assemble the rest! Try to resist eating too many of the ingredients before you’ve turned them into reindeers… hee hee

Have fun and enjoy decorating your Reindeers! Feel free to share photos with us on our Facebook page!