Cake decorating tips and Ideas
Baking cakes can be difficult but decorating them can be more challenging. While decorating a cake one has to take into consideration number of factors like flavor, texture and design of the cake. Its very important that you know from where you have to start the cake decoration. This article can help you with some useful tips that can help you on your way to decorating sweet masterpieces.

• It’s very important that you allow the cake to cool down after it is baked. Give yourself at least 30 minutes before starting to apply frosting on the cake.
• You can use a whipped cream frosting to smoothen the decorating process.
• It would be advisable to start from the corners of the cake – they are hardest to frost
• Frost the sides of the cake with lots of icing and steady hands. Start icing with thin layers before moving to the thicker ones.
• Apply dollops of icing in the corners and in the middle of the cake.
• Make sure the knife only touches the frosting part and not the cake.
• You can apply icing to the cake as necessary. Be careful not to smear the icing that you already applied.
• Use strokes to spread the icing on the cake. If the icing is difficult to spread try dipping your knife in hot water, which makes the icing spread faster.
• Style the frosting once it is applied by using a fork across the top of the cake to create a lattice effect. You can also use a knife to create swirls along the top edges of the cake.

How to make cheese and onion pastry appetizers

Ingredients
5 yellow onions, sliced into thin strips
1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 prunes, sliced lengthwise
1/3 cup Kalamata olives, sliced lengthwise
5 ounces feta cheese
10 sheets phyllo dough
Melted butter to brush over phyllo dough

1. Thinly slice the onions. (To slice the onions, remove the top and bottom of the onion, and cut it in half lengthwise. Look at the grain of your onion and make sure you’re cutting along the grain as opposed to around the equator. Once you’ve cut it in half, remove the skin and the slice the onion, making sure all your slices are a uniform thickness so that it cooks evenly.)
2. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot so that your onions don’t burn; they just brown nicely as you cook them.
3. Add the onions. It may look like this is a lot of onions, but once they’ve cooked for 45 minute they’re really going to reduce down.
4. Add the dried thyme, red pepper flakes, and salt.
5. Stir the onions until they’re completely coated with oil and all the hers and spices are mixed in. Once you’ve sautéed them for about a minute or so, put the lid on, lower the heat and allow them to cook for about 15 minutes.
6. After about 15 minutes, remove the lid and continue cooking them over medium heat, stirring frequently for about another 35 minutes. You want the onions to brown really nicely — not burn, but take on a nice, caramel-brown color. Once we have our caramelized onions, I’m going to add in the rest of my ingredients.
7. When the onions are well caramelized, add the prunes and the pitted Kalamata olives. Stir until well combined, and then cook for about another five minutes to make sure that the flavors have melded.
8. Remove to a bowl and allow the mixture to cool down.
9. Add the feta cheese and mix to make sure that it’s very well combined.
10. Take one sheet of phyllo and lay it out on a cutting board. (You can buy phyllo at almost an grocery store in the frozen-food section. When you bring it home, put it in the refrigerator and allow it to thaw overnight. When you’re ready to use it, open the package and lay it out on a tray. Phyllo dries out really quickly, so once you’ve laid it out you want to take a lightly damp cloth and lay it across the top of the phyllo so that it doesn’t dry out while you’re working with the other pieces. Phyllo is also very delicate, so you want to make sure that you handle it carefully.)
11. Brush it with a little bit of melted butter. You don’t want to use too much butter or your triangles will end up having sort of a greasy flavor. But you want to get enough on there so that your phyllo doesn’t dry out. You can use olive oil in places of the melted butter if you’d like to, but the butter really gives a nice favor.
12. Cut the sheet into thirds. Don’t worry if its not exact; just get it as close as you can.
13. Take a small amount of the cheese and onion filling and place it at the base of one of the strips, towards a corner. (You may be tempted to want to overfill the pockets at this point, but don’t do that. If you overfill them, they may explode when you put them in the oven and bake them!)
14. Fold phyllo and filling up into a triangle shape. Make one fold them tap it down a little bit so that it’s even, and then filling spread out. Continue folding up, much like you’d fold a flag, until you’ve created a little triangle.
15. Place the folded triangle on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and go on to the next triangles to use all the filling. Once you get the triangles completed, place them on the baking sheet and brush lightly with butter on the top.
16. Place in the oven and cook for about 20 minutes, until they’ve turned a golden brown on the top. Place your delicious, flaky cheese and onion pastry appetizers on a platter and serve. (If you’re planning on freezing them, place them in the freezer before baking and make sure they are well-covered with plastic wrap so they don’t take on any other flavors.)

By these simple instructions you are on your way to a healthy and tasty meal.

To bake chicken we need either a whole chicken or six chicken breast pieces. Wash the dressed chicken thoroughly and coat with olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. If we want, we may put some marinade mix, like a concoction of rosemary herbs, thyme or oregano, dried or fresh. As we’re doing these, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Here’s the steps:

1. Put the chicken on the baking dish. Then place it in the oven and make sure it is uncovered.
2. Bake chicken for an hour in 350 degrees till we see the chicken skin turn into golden brown.
3. Place inside a meaty part of the chicken a meat thermometer to check if the meat temperature has reached 170 degrees. If it has then we’re ready to take it out of the oven. To bake chicken thighs we need the meat temperature to reach 180 degrees. These standard meat temperatures make sure we bake chicken well with all parts cooked.
4. Then we cut the fleshy part of the meat deep. This should reveal white meat inside instead of pink and clear lip-smacking juice, not reddish. To bake chicken correctly all these tests should be satisfied. If not, we bake the chicken some more. Then we’re ready to serve tender and juicy baked chicken, in all its yummy goodness.

When we bake chicken we can have a healthy and tastier chicken than when we fry it. Deep frying may be a good idea. But baked chicken is still many times better. When re-heating left-overs through the oven chicken often comes out tasting better than if we re-fry left-over chicken.

When we bake chicken we can mix it with things like potatoes, or garlic and onions. By adding these things will decrease the chances of burning the meat or ruining the skin cover. Lots of times, we need breading to fry chicken–that’s added cholesterol.

You will need:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup melted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

First set the oven to 350 degrees, then mix the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in the eggs one by one. Stir in the vanilla. Put baking soda in hot water and add it to the mix. Finish by mixing in the flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. When your batter is done take a spoon and drop large spoonfuls of cookie dough onto a cookie sheet. You should bake your chocolate chip cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, wait for the edges to turn brown. Enjoy this recipe.

Recipe and directions for how to make a basic cheesecake. Once you learn the basic method you can change the flavour with different add-ins!

This video shows you how to dehydrate spaghetti sauce in your oven to take on your next backpacking trip.

2 cup crabmeat
4 large baking potatoes
4 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup onion; chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms; sliced
1 ground pepper to taste
1 cup dry vermouth
2 tablespoon low-fat plain yogurt
2 tablespoon sour cream
1/4 cup half and half
3/4 cup gruyere cheese

Clean and bake potatoes. Cool slightly and cut in half, lengthwise. Place pulp into bowl, leaving about 1/4-inch shell. Reserve skins and mash pulp. Melt butter in skillet and saute onion until it takes on a light coloring (about 15-20 minutes). Add mushrooms and saute another 5 minutes. Add the crabmeat and pepper. Add vermouth and bring to a boil. Make sure you stir frequently. Cook mixture until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and add yogurt and sour cream, then add half and half. Combine crabmeat, onion mixture, pulp from potato, and about 1/2 of cheese. Add additional ground black pepper and a bit more half and half if desired. Place the mixture into the potato skins. Sprinkle with additional 1/4 cup cheese. Bake at 400 degrees F. until cheese bubbles.

Here’s an alternative method of baking crab potatoes:

Halloween originated from the Pagan festival Samhain, celebrated among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is now celebrated in several parts of the western world, most commonly in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom.

The modern holiday of Halloween has its origins in the ancient Gaelic festival known as Samhain (pronounced /ˈsˠaunʲ/ from the Old Irish samain). The Festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is regarded as ‘The Celtic New Year’. Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The Ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, where the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them. When the Romans occupied Celtic territory, several Roman traditions were also incorporated into the festivals. Feralia, a day celebrated in late October by the Romans for the passing of the dead as well as a festival which celebrated the Roman Goddess Pomona, the goddess of fruit were incorporated into the celebrations. The symbol of Pomona was an apple, which is a proposed origin for the tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.

Now that I have children, I enjoy making Halloween special for them. My son wants to make Pumpkin Cookies for his Kindergarten party. Since my mom couldn’t find her recipe (which is the best sugar cookie recipe I have ever eaten), I use a sugar cookie recipe that I found on a bag of generic sugar (below is the recipe). It is the only recipe that tastes most like my mom’s lost recipe. I usually make my own icing to decorate these cookies, but with an additional 1 year old, I don’t have time. So, we are going to use orange & green sprinkles; less time, much cheaper and less sugar

My son loves jack-o-lanterns, and we may have to make two this year. One of our traditions is to roast the seeds after taking them out of the pumpkin. It makes a tasty (and healthly: they are a good source of iron, zinc, essential fatty acids, potassium, and magnesium) snack, and we all love to eat them. Using pumpkins as jack-o-lanterns goes back to the Celts, according to Wikipedia:

Using pumpkins as lanterns at Halloween is based on an ancient Celtic custom brought to America by Irish immigrants. All Hallows Eve on 31 October marked the end of the old Celtic calendar year, and on that night hollowed-out turnips, beets and rutabagas with candles inside them were placed on windowsills and porches to welcome home the spirits of deceased ancestors and ward off evil spirits and a restless soul called “Stingy Jack,” hence the name “Jack-o-lantern.”

So, take time to enjoy Halloween with your little ghosts & goblins. It is a special day indeed

Relevant pics from Flickr

By myhappylittleplace

By dEEsign photography

By EightJs

By peggy.

Related News
Witherspoon red-faced about Halloween costume – Ireland Online
Reach for these Halloween treats – Chicago Sun-Times
LET THEM FROST CUPCAKES: Tinted icing and Halloween sprinkles give … – Detroit Free Press
Sexy halloween costumes – Chicago Tribune
Musical Mayhem: Top 5 Creepy Halloween Classics – NPR
Family fright night: 10 Halloween movies for kids – Arizona Republic

It makes you wonder what is going on? As previously posted on this site in February, the FDA has been struggling to keep us safe from contaminated foods.

JTK sez: it’s always better to make your own food than to eat some processed food anyway, and that is just what the recipe maven did: Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot Pie

And then when I was congratulating myself on making my very first from-scratch Chicken Pot Pie, my husband says “It’s not all ‘from-scratch’, is it? I mean, you didn’t make the puff pastry, did you?”

And don’t forget that ConAgra was also the conglomerate that was responsible for the earlier recall of the Sam’s Burgers.

Relevant pics from Flickr

By MatthewA

By cecilnhou2

By girlychimp

By sunnybrook100

Related News
Stores abide by pot pie recall – Hope Star
Ultimate Chicken Pot Pie – KUTV
Pot pie problem – Winnipeg Sun
ConAgra hit by another salmonella scare – FoodNavigator-USA

Yahoo Answers
Chicken pot pie receipe help?
Chicken pot pie recipe?
Chicken Pot Pie Recipe?
Chicken Pot pie concerns?
Chicken pot pie the old fashioned way?

These special heart shaped homemade soft pretzels were the perfect valentines day food. While it is not simple it is not as intimidating as you may think. I started with this recipe from Paula Dean from the food netwrok and then made it my own.

These are the actual photos from the batch that I made, they went very fast.

……………..
……………..