Things You’ll Need:

• • Friends
  • Decorating tips
  • Turntable
  • Cake Pans
  • Parchment
  • Knives
  • Icing Spatulas
  • Cardboard Rounds for Layers

Instructions

This Wedding Cake Serves 148 Guests

• Decide how many people are coming to the wedding to determine how much cake you will need to bake. Go to the library for wedding cake books and look online to see the guidelines for cake quantities. Now is a good time to check to see if any Wilton decorating classes are offered in your area. You can practice using the decorating tips with the help of Wilton experts. Recruit friends to join you. Many hands make light work in this project.

The Farm Kitchen - Available to Rent

• Ask your church or local hall if you can rent their kitchen to bake and decorate your cake. Check to make sure their oven holds its temperature properly. Working in a commercial kitchen gives you more work space, allows you the use of larger ovens and equipment. Ask for help if you are unfamiliar with any of the equipment before you begin.

Cake Decoratings Tips and Pastry Bags

• Wedding cake pans are available to purchase online and elsewhere. Look at local wholesale bakery supply companies or restaurant supply stores for the purchase of your pans, icing spatulas and decorating tips to savemoney. I found many of my wedding cake pans at thrift stores for a dollar each. Purchase individual decorating tips rather than a set. Buy the individual food paste colors you need for your cake. At cake decorating classes the instructor can guide you in these decisions.

Check www.wilton.com for Cake Recipes

• Decide if you are using a commercial cake mix or baking the cake from a recipe. Commercial cake mixes have more even baking results. Flavorings like almond, orange and lemon can be added to the cake mix. All the layers should have at least 2 internal layers along with the filling . Remember to make each cake layer between 4 and 5 inches tall. All finished layers should be as close to the same height as possible.

Serrated Kitchen Knife for Splitting Cakes

• Use special care when removing larger diameter cakes from the oven. Do not immediately remove the cake from the pan. If your cake has domed in the baking process, place a piece of parchment on the cake and press it down to remove steam and flatten the cake. If your cake is still badly domed after cooling, slice the dome off with a serrated knife and eat it.Yum.Allow 10 to 15 minutes for your cake to cool on a rack. Place each layer on a cardboard round matching the diameter of the cake.

Simple Fresh Flowers Decorate the Wedding Cake

• Create a filling for your cake that is flavorful and complements the flavor of the cake. There are many recipes for fillings including butter creams and mousse. Avoid runny jams and fresh fruit that make a cake soggy. Once the cake layers are filled, you can crumb coat them. Crumb coating is a thin layer of your frosting covering the sides and top of the cake. Once the cake is sealed in this frosting, the cake is refrigerated before final frosting and decoration. The cake may also be frozen at this time. Wrap the cake in several layers of food wrap and freeze.

Simply Elegant Wedding Cake

• Decorating the wedding cake takes time and patience. Create decorations ahead of time and store in a sealed container. Place each layer on a turntable to decorate. Plan a schematic drawing of each layer for you to review while decorating. Make tiny score marks in the frosting for symmetric decorations. Decoration requires time and patience. For first time wedding cake makers, avoid using rolled fondant. Rolled fondant requires professional baking and decorating skills.

Dowels placed in Wedding Cake Provide Support

• Assembling your cake is done once the cake arrives safely at its destination. If your cake has multiple tiers, you may support it one of several ways. Wooden dowels stuck between the layers make the easiest weight support. You may also purchase plastic pillars to support the layers.A new tradition is placing wedding cake charms between the cakes attached with colored ribbons for each one of the bridesmaids to remove. Check your cake for any needed touch up and take a picture of your creation.

Tips & Warnings

• Always bring bags of touch up frosting and extra decorations in case of…
• Assemble Wedding Cake After Carefully Moving it in Car or Van
• When using Fresh Flowers on cake, place parchment beneath to avoid pollen touching the cake
• Consider Buying Wedding Cake Boxes to hold each layer
• Whip Cream Frosting + Humid Weather Do not Mix
• Refrigerate your Cake Away from Strong Food Odors It Can Absorb

(Source: eHow.com)

Halloween is the time when you can really go out of your way decorating things. Your house, car, food, kids or anything else you can think of are all open for some spooky modifications.
Baking and decorating these festive treats can liven up any family activity or children’s Halloween party.

• Find your favorite sugar cookie recipe and make the dough as directed.
• Roll out the dough with a rolling pin.

• Cut out cookies with Halloween cookie cutters: pumpkins, witches, ghosts, bats, broomsticks and so forth. If you do not have Halloween cookie cutters, use a basic round cutter to make cookies that can be decorated as pumpkins or faces.

• Bake the cookies as directed and let cool.

• Decorate the cookies using colored frosting, candy corn (great for a jack-o’-lantern face), thin licorice strings, jelly beans, shredded coconut or an assortment of cake-decorating candies.

Instructions

• Relaxation is one of the most enjoyable and beneficial parts of a yoga practice. It helps calm the mind and relieve the stress of daily living. Relaxation before you begin will help you get into the proper state of mind. Take a few minutes to relax between each series of postures to help recenter yourself and feel the benefits of the postures you’ve completed.

• The power of breathing practice or pranayama to change your state of mind is extremely strong. Remember to use your breath to heat your body from the inside out. Think of it as lubricating your muscles as you use them. Savasana or relaxation pose is the reward for all the hard work you’ve done and will be the last part of your class. It allows your breath to normalize and lets the oxygen flow through the relaxing body. Savasana lets prana (energy) to balance out throughout your body. Never skip your final relaxation!

• You should avoid meals at least two hours before class. Snacks and light meals are okay. It is best to practice yoga on an empty stomach.
  It’s best not to eat 1½ hours before class, mainly because it’s uncomfortable to have food in the stomach when you’re bending, twisting, and exerting yourself. If you need to eat before a class, give as much time as you can and eat lightly; yogurt and fruit for example.

• You should drink plenty of water before, during and after yoga practice. During your practice, your body will likely sweat and release toxins. Water is necessary to help you flush out the toxins and replenish any lost fluids. After your practice you will probably be thirsty, so cool, refreshing water will seem like a wonderful reward after all your hard work.

• There is a huge commercial market for yoga products, but basically the only special equipment you need to practice yoga is your body. Practicing yoga can be practiced almost anywhere, without special equipment, and by people of all ages. However, there are some supplies that are basic and which can help you be more comfortable and safer in your practice.

The most basic equipment for yoga is the yoga mat. Using a mat, or towel will provide support and added comfort when you do lying or sitting positions. A sticky mat is recommended as it helps to ensure that you’re able to perform certain poses safely, with minimum risk of slipping. Mats can be purchased relatively inexpensively (around $10.00) and retail stores such as Target and Wal-mart carry them in their sports equipment departments.

Yoga props such a blocks can help you achieve the proper alignment, balance and make the pose a bit easier. The use of props also minimizes the strain and supports your muscles, thus allowing you to save your energy by exerting less effort on a pose. The props provide support, enabling you to do the poses that ailments may prevent from doing.

• While practicing yoga it’s recommended to wear loose or stretching clothes. In other words, yoga clothes you choose should be comfortable and functional and not distract you from your practice. Natural fabrics, like cotton, are preferable, as your skin doesn’t breathe well under lycra. This is especially important if you sweat a lot. If you wear a sweatshirt, wear a t-shirt underneath in case you become too warm.

Natural fabrics, like cotton, are preferable, as your skin doesn’t breathe well under lycra. This is especially important if you sweat a lot. If you wear a sweatshirt, wear a t-shirt underneath in case you become too warm.

Practicing yoga is traditionally practiced barefoo as this gives you a sense of close contact with the ground and allows the muscles in you feet to operate freely.

• The last step to remember is to enjoy your first yoga class by releasing any expectations and being present in the moment. The intention to focus, become immersed and attuned to your yoga space in preparation for practice will make your first yoga experience both rewarding and reenergizing.

Tips & Warnings

• The key to enjoying your first yoga class is to release any expectations and to practice being present in the moment.
• Making your intention to become aware of your breath will help you focus and relax.
• Before starting a new exercise class, check with your physician. <Source: eHow.com>

Fried Pho with mushroom sauce

Ingredients:

-         200g of Nam hai san (seafood), Nam dui ga (Coprinus comatus) and Namtai heo; 200g of Banh pho (rice papers); pasty sauce and a dash of seasoning.

Preparation:

-         Clean mushrooms.

-         Cut Banh pho into square pieces, dip them in flour and fry until they become crispy.

-         Prepare for the sauce from oyster oil and soya-sauce and then put the mushroom and fried Pho into the sauce. Cook for a few minutes.

-         Served hot with rice.

Address:

Asayu Restaurant – Hanoi

- 51 Ly Thuong Kiet Street – Tel: (84) 439412139 / 0912377247

- 12 Lang Ha Street – Tel: (84) 439945002 / 0982993286

Story by Bich Van

Instructions

Step 1

Well of course, to eat at a restaurant you must pick out a meal! My favorite is Pho Dac Biet because it has all sorts of meat in it. It has tendons, beef, meatball.. and I forget what else.

Step 2

Upon delivery of your Pho, the waitress/waiter should have given you a plate of mixed vegetables. I can’t describe exactly what because many restaurants are different. But tear off the lives off the basil and add into your soup. The stem doesn’t go in. ;p Just keep that one in mind. Also, squeeze the lime juice into your soup.

Step 3

Then you can add the Sriracha Sauce or Hoisin Sauce to your taste. The Sriracha is the spicy sauce.. if you happen to have added too much of this, you can even the spice with the Hoisin Sauce. I normally but just a bit of both.

Step 4

You can also ask for a small plate for both Sriracha and Hoisin sauce to use as a dip for the meats in your soup.

Step 5

Now mix and enjoy

Source: eHow.com

• Take half a pound of beef(few bone and few boneless pieces). Cook it at high heat for maybe 5-6 minutes. Once beef is cooked add 4-6 cups of water, add half a cup of apple cider vinegar, half a cup soya sauce. Let it come to boil, and let it boil for 4-5 minutes.

• Add two cups of chopped cabbage, put the lid on the pot and turn off the heat. Let it sit maybe 2-3 minutes, cabbage will get cooked and soup is ready. Traditionally you can add some rice noodles to this soup, but if you are trying to lose weight, maybe not adding noodles is a good idea.

• Now you can serve the soup in soup bowls and garnish with bean sprouts, cilantro, lemon/lime quarters. If you like spicy food, you can add garlic chili sauce, but that is optional. To enhance the taste of soup one table spoon of hosin sauce can be added to the bowl of soup.

• Add basil leaves and Enjoy the soup. Replace one meal, preferably dinner/supper with this soup, you will lose weight and inches.  If it works for you, gradually do it more than one day a week.

Good luck with weight loss. <source: eHow.com><Photos by Zensoft.vn & Google Images>

Things You’ll Need:

• 6 medium potatoes
• cheddar cheese
• lettuce
• tomato
• my salsa
• corn tortillas
• garlic salt
• oil

• Turn your stove on medium heat. Fill a pot half way with water and put it on the stove. Peel your potatoes and cut them up in bite size pieces. Add the potatoes to the water. Boil potatoes until they are soft. Make my salsa see resources below.

• Shred your cheese. Cut up your tomatoes and lettuce in little pieces.

• When the potatoes are soft drain all the water out. Take a glass cup and crush the potatoes. Don’t use a mixer you don’t want them like mashed potatoes. Add some garlic salt for taste.
• Put as many tortillas you are going to use in a plastic bag. Then put them in the microwave for about a minute and a half to soften them up.
• Turn your stove on medium heat. Pour some oil in a medium size frying pan. Take a corn tortilla and put two scoops of potato and fold it like a taco. Fry it on both sides until it is crunchy. Then add your cheese, lettuce, tomato and salsa.

You have recently found a lucrative job where you will have to work in the morning but you generally get up late in the morning. You may be going to start a class that begins in the morning. You simply may wan to be an early riser. Now you need to get up early in the morning but don’t know what to do? You have to do it anyway. No? However, some of us may have to work late in the night so that we are bound to get late in the morning. If you have this habit and you are fine, there is nothing to worry about getting up early since we need at least 5-6 hours of daily sleep.

Some benefits of getting up early

Certainly, there must be many good things about getting up early in the morning since large number of people either have this habit or just make their try. Such benefits can be discussed from social, psychological or physical point of view. Nevertheless, I am going to list some of them in general;

1. Great start of the day: Rise of the sun in the east means we should get up. If you get up late, you already will have left some time of the day doing nothing (If you seriously want to get up early but if you work late in the night so that get up late, it’s ok for you as I have said above). Some people (even some of my friends and relatives) worship sun as God in the morning. Early get up means new sun!

2. Freshness: We all know, early morning is the freshest part of the day. Not much noise, low traffic, cool and fresh environment etc. all makes early morning the most enjoyable and not miss time of the day.

3. Exercise and health benefits: In today’s world, due to busy schedule and every day growing fierce competition, people are unable to give enough time to keep them fit and healthy mentally and physically. Nevertheless, many of them don’t know the fact that even an hour of simple exercise daily can keep them fit and provide relief from various stress, anxiety, pressure etc. The best and fruitful time to do all these is definitely the early morning.


4. More time to do things: By the time your neighbor just get out of bed, you might already have breakfast, checked email, prepared Tiffin for your kids because you got up two hours before him/her.


How to get up early in the morning

Now, you’ve decided to get up early. Here are some ideas:

1. You know you are going to get up early in the morning. Ask yourself again. Are you mentally and physically ready? Are you serious? Do you really know why you are going to get up early?

2. There is no any exact time getting before that is called early morning. It is up to you to decide the time for you. In this article, I suppose you generally get up at 8 am and want to lower this time to 5 am. Must people make mistake by getting up at 5 am from the next day. For sure, it becomes difficult. As a result, your whole day will be gloomy and probably you may decide not to get up at that time the next day thinking, “Oh, this is not for me. I don’t have bone that will help me to put off the bed in the morning!” Hey, common! You still can do it.

3. My idea is to reduce your getting up time gradually. So, you will need some time before it becomes natural for you to get up at target time. Before going to bed, think to get up at 7:45 am next day means this is like any other plan for the next day. For this, you will (may) need alarm. Set the alarm exactly at the set time. Suppose that you got up at the fixed time. Next day, try to get up at 7:30 am. In the same way, you will lower the time by 15 minutes a day. If you can’t do 15 minutes a day, there isn’t any problem. Try 10 or 5 minutes a day. You will continue this process until you are at the target time. You may miss the planned time some day but don’t go back. Just continue.

4. I think it’s not compulsory but putting the alarm some distance away from your bed may become helpful since you will have to get out of your bed to switch off the alarm. Nevertheless, forget about the concept of multiple alarms at every corner of the room. This simply may disturb other members of your family or neighbor. If there is anyone in your family who gets up earlier than you do, ask him/her to wake you up in the morning at the time you set.

5. It is better to have something important to do in the morning so that chances may be you will immediately get out of your bed once you wake up.

6. After waking up, do not spend any time thinking you will get after 5 minutes or you will do this from the next day. Rather, think only going out of the bed is the thing you should do at that moment. You will have to do this only in the initial days. After some time of practice, this will happen to you automatically. After leaving bed, have bath do exercise or simply go for morning walk or jugging. During my college day, I had habit of getting up at 4 am every day. Certainly, it used to be very difficult in the beginning but after sometime, I didn’t need any alarm. I used to wake up at 4 am without any alarm. This happened to me naturally. This will also happen to you. How? Let me tell you. Do you need any alarm to get up at 8 am (I supposed)? If no then you may also not need any alarm to get up at 5 am (again I supposed), as I already said above once this becomes your habit of getting up at 5 am. If not, at least your alarm will hundred per cent put you off your bed!

7. There is no possibility of getting up early unless you go to bed early. If you do not have enough sleep, how can you get up early? So, have well and enough sleep.

What do you think? Why do you get up early in the morning? At what time do you get up in the morning? How do you get up in the morning? Do you have any other ideas?

Source: Internet

Waking up early doesn’t come easy for everyone. Some people are early risers, while others take a bit more coffee and alarm clock snooze button pushes in the morning. If you need to get up early, or are trying to figure out how to program yourself to get up early, this article will help you.

Waking up early can be learned if you do it slowly. If you take the time to program yourself into waking up early, it will be much easier to do. Keep reading to learn how to start programming your brain into making you get up earlier!

1. Step 1

   Be sure you have an alarm clock that wakes you up in the morning. A good one is loud and annoying.

2. Step 2

   Set your clock for 20-30 minutes earlier every morning until you are getting up at the time you want. This also might require going to bed a little earlier at night.

3. Step 3

   Once you’ve slowly programmed your mind to wake up earlier, it isn’t as hard to get up early. Good luck!

Source: Consult from Internet

So you want to start an exercise regime early in the morning? Morning workouts can energize and motivate you for your day. Carpe Diem!!!

1. Step 1

   GET UP!!! I will get up at 5:30 a.m. to get my early morning workouts in. The secret to getting up is to do it RIGHT AWAY. Don’t hit the snooze button or you’re done. Get right out of bed like you would rip a band-aid off quickly.

2. Step 2

   Have some sort of energy drink or supplement. Make sure it is not carbonated and has a good sugar content. This will get your blood sugar up and get you through your workout. Something like GU Energy Gel is great. Or you can mix up a fruit shake.

3. Step 3

   Stretch and Work out!! I try to keep it to one hour unless I have energy after that one hour (you’ll find a lot of times you do)

4. Step 4

   Conquer your day! Here is where the best benefit of early morning workouts will kick in. I still have my coffee after the workout but I find I am energized throughout the whole day. I’ll even have energy to go to my martial arts class in the evening.

Source: Consult from Internet