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Pin Badges
There are certain items of promotional wear that just seem to get the point across better than others. Fun types of advertising means will always be more popular than boring pieces and that`s why pin badges have been a favourite for many years now. As promotional pieces go, pin badges can be perfect because they look cool and trendy and can be worn by a variety of people. For effective types of advertising, pin badges are powerful little products and they make great items of merchandise which can be worn on a daily basis. Up and coming bands that are promoting a new record or concert can use pin badges to good effect and politicians have been well known for dishing out pin badges when election time approaches. There are many different types of pin badges to choose and they come in plenty of cheery colours that will look great on many garments. Companies like Awesome Badges specialise in the production of the Pin Badges and they can happily provide plenty of customers with these pinned products. Regardless of the size of your promotional campaign, they can keep you in a solid supply of super Pin Badges. Customers will find that the Pin Badges are highly cost effective as thousands of products can be printed for a fabulous fee. The pin badge sizes vary but they usually come in either 25mm or 58mm and you can download the artwork that you want printing on the products. Promotional pieces don`t come much finer than perfect types of Pin Badges that can be pleasantly worn with pride.

Baby Gift Baskets
The whole point of Baby Gift Baskets is that they are personalised making them a lovely bespoke baby gift. They start with a pretty white wicker basket which is fully lined with pink or blue gingham. These delightful Baby Gift Baskets are ideal for use in the nursery afterwards for baby`s toiletries. Then there is a 100% white cotton Bib with Velcro fastening and gingham appliqu� teddies in Blue or Pink. The Bib will be embroidered with your chosen name and date of birth to add that truly personal touch! If you know baby`s birth weight and time of birth, that can be put on too this is great idea! Then there is a traditional fully-jointed teddy along with a pair of gorgeous bootees with either Pink or Blue trim, as well as an essential baby soft Brush and Comb set. To complete all of the Baby Gift Baskets there is a stunning Silver Plated First Tooth Box, embossed with a teddy design in either pink or blue enamel and individually boxed.

I grew up in New England, the home of ?plain cooking?, where corn on the cob is served as is with a slab of butter and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. We boil salted meats with vegetables and call it ? well, a boiled dinner. Our clam chowder is white, our baked beans have bacon and molasses in them, and no one in the world has ever invented a food that was improved by the addition of curry. By the time I was eighteen, I could boil a lobster, steam clams and grill a pork chop to perfection. Then I moved to Virginia, picked up a roommate from North Carolina ? and discovered a whole new world of down home country cooking goodness.

To an All-American Italian girl from Boston, the menus in restaurants were in a foreign language. Chicken-fried steak, grits, corn pone pudding, strawberry rhubarb pie ? sweet potato pie?? In my mind, chicken and steak were two different meats, grits is what?s on sandpaper, corn is a vegetable ? and what in the world is sweet potato doing in a crust? But I became a fervent convert to Southern cooking the first time my roommate made up a pan of the sweetest, tastiest, most perfectly melt-in-your-mouth delicious Southern baking powder biscuits and topped them with sausage gravy. From that day on, I was Sue?s disciple, standing at her elbow as she diced scallions to make up a mess of pinto beans, stirred the milk into a pan of drippings for milk gravy and rolled thin steak strips in chicken batter to make chicken-fried steak.

Down home southern cooking is no different than New England plain cooking ? at least at its most basic level. Like any other regional style of cooking, it makes use of the ingredients that are plentiful and cheap. In New England we gussy up our dried beans with brown sugar and molasses, and serve them with thick, sweet heavy brown bread dotted with raisins ? perfect fare for cold winter nights. In North Carolina, they simmer for hours with salt pork and onions and served with scallions for scooping and a side of flaky biscuits cut out of dough with a juice glass. Salty, spicy and flaky-good all at once, it?s a down home meal that makes my mouth water just to remember.

Some dishes just don?t translate, though. There is no New England substitute for a Southern barbecue sandwich ? shredded pork simmered with spices for hours and ladled over buns in a ?sandwich? that really requires a fork. The ubiquitous ?sloppy joe? just doesn?t cut it. It lacks the spicy-sweet tang and buttery texture of real slow-simmered pork barbecue. Nor is there anything that compares with chicken fried steak ? a dish that can?t be described in words without selling it short. If you?ve had it, you KNOW how good it is. If you haven?t, the idea of dredging and dipping strips of beef and frying it like chicken just doesn?t do it justice.

My New England Italian roots show wherever I go. Lasagna will always be a favorite meal, and New England boiled dinners still make my mouth water. But I know, deep in my soul, that when I go to Heaven, the diners will serve flaky Southern biscuits with sausage gravy and chicken fried steak. Some temptations even the angels can?t resist.