Cold Weather Blowouts

This is the time of year when we wind down from the holidays and start into the long haul of deep winter. A simple, low stress party can be just the thing to get us through the cold slog to spring. These party themes should inspire you to spend some time celebrating with friends and family.

1. Turn up the heat in your house, pick up some tropical and beach-themed decorations, and have a winter beach party. Serve tropical drinks and use a stovetop grill pan to make hamburgers and hot dogs or grilled fish for tacos.
2. Have a hot drink party – make several flavors of hot cocoa, mulled wine and cider, and hot teas. Accompany the drinks with all the fixings – flavored syrups, marshmallows, whipped cream, and sprinkles. Keep the theme going with sweet and savory fondues.
3. Celebrate February holidays and events – host a Super Bowl party with a football theme, have a sweetheart party for Valentine’s Day, or hold a movie-themed bash for Oscar night. You could even have a patriotic party for President’s Day.
4. Of course you can always have a plain old winter themed party. Decorate the house with snowflakes and white twinkle lights, and set out a hearty feast on a snow-white tablecloth. Encourage guests to bring a winter item, anything from a hat and scarf set to a winter mix CD, to swap!

Five Tips for Winter Driving

Driving in the winter can be lovely, with scenic views of snowy vistas, but it can also be dangerous if you don’t take the proper precautions. Here are some tips to make sure you don’t run into problems on the road this season:

Avoid Tailgating
Tailgating is something you want to avoid under any circumstances but especially during icy or snowy road conditions. When a road is even just lightly covered in ice or snow, the traction becomes significantly reduced, and this means that your car will take longer to stop.

Don't Use Cruise Control
If your car hydroplanes or skids on an icy road while you’re using cruise control, the wheels can start to rapidly spin – and this will increase the chances of you losing command of your vehicle.

Be Prepared
You’ll want to be sure that your car is stocked with the necessities of safe winter driving – antifreeze, windshield washer fluid, flashlight, first aid kid, blanket, and so on. Also make sure that the car itself has been checked so that the battery works, the headlights are clean and functional, and the tires are in good condition.

Handle Skids With Skill
Knowing how to recover from skids is a key feature of effective winter driving. When you brake on a slippery road, make sure you don’t lock up your wheels by braking too hard. Instead, if you begin skidding, turn the vehicle gently in the direction you want the vehicle to go and avoid heavy pressure on the brakes. Click here for helpful details about skid recovery.

Stay in Your Vehicle
If you get stuck in the snow or your vehicle becomes unable to move for any reason, stay warm in your vehicle and wait for help. Make sure that your exhaust pipe is clear of any obstructions (snow and ice included) so that carbon monoxide doesn’t build up in the car.

Five Tips For Safe Online Shopping

When it comes to online shopping, who can deny that buying online is much more convenient than navigating busy department store crowds? These five tips will help you stay as safe as possible when you're shopping online:

Keep Viruses Away

Anti-virus software scans your files and computer memory for patterns that may indicate an infection and then eradicates any problems. Because virus authors are continually creating updated bugs, it’s important to make sure you always have the latest version of your chosen anti-virus software.

Keep Modern with your Browser

When it comes to internet shopping, your browser is a key source of defense against online attacks. Newer browsers have the latest cutting-edge security offerings while older ones are more vulnerable to mayhem, so make sure to upgrade your browser regularly in order to stay as protected as possible.

Look for the Lock

To keep hackers away from your personal information, make sure to secure your connection to the online shopping venue. To do that, when you type in a web address, make sure it begins with “https” (hot “http”) and look for an image of a lock to appear in the address bar.

Be Careful With Email

Hackers, phishers, and other cyber criminals view your email inbox as a major target. Make sure you never open attachments from unknown sources, never share personal identification information over e-mail, change your password frequently, and use updated spam filters.

Protect your Wireless Network

If you leave your wireless network unprotected, it can compromise your safety in significant ways. Always make sure that your home wireless network is locked to others via a password protected security system. In addition, avoid connecting to a wireless network that isn’t yours since hackers can access your valuable materials through any public network.

Stay Pure: Five Vegetables To Buy Organic

With concern about pesticides and genetically-modified food products growing, more and more people are opting to purchase organic produce whenever possible. Unfortunately, the added cost to many organic products makes it hard to manage in a limited budget. If you have to make the hard choices on buying organic, this article should help. These five vegetables are the ones that you should buy organic whenever possible, for a number of reasons.

• Celery is top on the list of vegetables that should be purchased organic whenever possible. The unique shape of the celery stalk makes it very vulnerable to contamination from pesticides, and because the majority of the plant grows above-ground, it has a lot of exposure.
• Spinach is a great leafy green that packs a load of nutrients, but the nature of the leaves makes it very good at absorbing chemicals from the air. No matter how many times it is washed, it still retains traces of pesticides.
• Lettuce, as well, should be purchased organically-grown whenever you can. Most leafy greens are particularly vulnerable to chemical contamination because of their large cell structures and exposed surface area.
• Kale is one of the best vegetables in terms of nutritional value, but much like spinach and lettuce, the shape of its leaves make it dangerous in terms of absorbing pesticides.
• You wouldn’t think that potatoes would benefit from organic growing, but not only are organic potatoes better for you, they almost always taste better too. Many large-scale potato farmers keep a side crop of organic spuds growing away from their main crop to feed friends and family.

Santa Sweets: Five Great Holiday Cookies

The tradition of leaving a plate of cookies out for Santa Claus may have originated as a way to give a little love back to parents for their labors, but holiday cookies are great for Thanksgiving too. Here are five classic ideas for sweet treats that are welcome all winter.

-          Peppermint is one of the most festive of flavors, and making peppermint twist cookies in the shape of candy canes can be a great treat. These simple sugar cookies are flavored with peppermint oil to give them a little extra kick.

-          Chocolate drop cookies are also very traditional. To mix up the recipe a little bit, use peanut butter in the dough for the cookie base, then place a Hershey kiss in the center when they come out of the oven.

-          Gingerbread men are another commonly-seen holiday cookie, and they can be a great opportunity for a family craft night. Bake the cookies and then let kids use a variety of icings and decorations to personalize them. They can also be hung in the tree as ornaments.

-          Making homemade crème sandwich cookies – sort of like Oreos – is fairly simple – just cut small circular chocolate cookies, bake them crisp, and put buttercream frosting in the middle. Use green and red food coloring to color the frosting in a festive way.

-          Of course, sugar cookies in the shape of Christmas ornaments are a great choice. Use colored icing and colorful sugar crystals to make them glisten in the light. Happy Holidays!

Say Cheese: Five Great Classic Cheesecakes

Cheesecake is one of the most popular dessert dishes out there – it’s relatively simple to prepare and can support a wide variety of flavors. While a plain cheesecake is often satisfying enough, you can kick it up a notch with some of these exciting and unique cheesecake recipes.

-          New York style cheesecake has rightfully secured a space in America’s palates. As made by the famous deli Junior’s in Brooklyn, it’s characterized by the use of heavy cream to make the cake exceptionally smooth.

-          You can add a variety of fruits to the cheesecake batter during the baking process, but one of the most popular is pumpkin. The sweet, earthy flavor of the gourd is exceptional.

-          Cheesecake is very popular in Asian countries, and people there add a number of unique ingredients to their batter. One that always gets people talking is matcha, sweet green tea powder. It turns the cake an attractive color, adding a deep, complex flavor.

-          In St. Louis, they make what is called “Gooey Butter Cake” by baking a traditional flour cake with a second cheesecake layer atop it. This makes a delicious mélange of the two flavors.

-          Marbled cheesecakes are gorgeous to look at and delicious to eat. To make the best marbling, spoon 2/3 of the cheesecake batter into the crust, then melt chocolate chips and swirl them into the remaining third.

Going to New York This Fall? Don’t Miss These Broadway Shows

No trip to New York City is complete without a visit to the Great White Way. If you’re bound for the Big Apple this fall, make sure you head to Broadway to catch at least one of these exciting shows:

The Mountaintop
A moving and socially charged play that explores the events before Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 assassination. Starring performances by Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett. (Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, 242 West 45th Street)

Relatively Speaking
A laughter-filled evening of three one-act plays by some of today’s leading comedy writers: “Honeymoon Hotel,” by Woody Allen, “Talking Cure,” by Ethan Coen (of Coen brothers fame), and “George is Dead” by Elaine May. (Brooks Atkinson Theatre, 256 West 47th Street)

Chinglish
An innovative new comedy by Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, “Chinglish” follows an American business who travels to China for work. The play explores communication, miscommunication, and human connection, packing in lots of laughs along the way. (Longacre Theatre, 220 West 48th Street)

Other Desert Cities
This is a wry and sometimes scathing drama about a woman who returns home after a six year absence to celebrate Christmas with her parents and siblings. When she announces that she's about to publish a memoir focusing on an intense chapter in the family’s history, the tension escalates. (Booth Theatre, 222 West 45th Street)

Seminar
A sharp comedy with dark undertones, centered on four young writers participating in a private seminar taught by a major literary figure. Attractions, allegiances, and rivalries abound. Alan Rickman stars. (John Golden Theatre, 252 West 45th Street)

Making Pictures: Great Photography Websites

In the age of digital photography, there are advantages and disadvantages to the steady stream of images being shared with the world. Help your photos stand out from the crowd and find quality work by others with these photography websites.

Flickr: The old reliable of online photography sites, Flickr offers great organization, simple editing tools, and a streamlined design. Look for photo pools organized by theme, subject matter, and geographical location.

Polanoid: Polanoid’s content is made up entirely of scanned instant photographs. Due to the difficulty of obtaining instant film and cameras, contributors tend to be more serious about their art than the typical digital photographer.

Strobist: This popular blog is all about lighting in photography, specifically the use of off-camera flash. The tutorials are a must for anyone starting out behind the camera, and the blog is a great resource for keeping up on new techniques and photographers.

Instagr.am: Instagr.am automatically crops your photos into a Polaroid-like square for a vintage look; then you can apply interesting filters and easily share them on social media. Instagram is also available as an app for iPhone and Android.

Picasa: With a robust set of editing tools, Picasa is one of the best places to store your photos on the web. You can keep your albums private or share them with the world, and storage space is unlimited for images and videos under a certain size.

Hold Your Breath: Five Classic Suspense Films

One of the most enduring movie genres is the suspense film – twisty, dark mysteries that leave viewers guessing until the very end. From masters like Alfred Hitchcock to modern practitioners, here are the five suspense movies you need to see.

1.     Psycho. Hitchcock’s most famous film, this tale of psychological horror features one of the most iconic murder sequences of all time, and the twist at the end made cinema history.

2.     The Silence Of The Lambs. Young FBI Agent Clarice Starling works with the iconic Hannibal 'The Cannibal' Lecter to track down a serial killer. One of the few films to win all five major Oscars.

3.     Cape Fear. The original version is great, but Martin Scorsese's remake may exceed it. Robert De Niro is spectacular as a revenge-motivated psychotic out to ruin Nick Nolte and his family.

4.     Blow-Up. This twisted British take on the suspense film is a modern classic, featuring a photographer who accidentally captures a murder on film, then discovers that even in pictures, nothing is really what it seems.

5.     Blood Simple. The first film by thriller specialists the Coen Brothers, this neo-noir crime flick revolves around an extramarital affair that soon turns deadly.

Unplug The Cord: Five Online Cable Alternatives

In 2011 you can watch TV in more ways than ever before. Companies like Apple, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, and ESPN have developed a variety of ways to watch hit TV shows, movies, and sporting events on your own schedule!

Each service has its own strengths and weaknesses. Here's a quick rundown of some ways to watch online:

1.     Hulu. By far the closest to viewing actual cable TV, many new shows are on Hulu the day after they air. The site also has an archive of classic shows to browse and watch. Many shows are free, but the paid “Hulu Plus” service adds full seasons and more. You can also watch on your TV with a modern game console.

2.     Netflix. The DVD-by-mail company has added a wide variety of streaming video to its library. You won’t find current seasons or episodes here. Only after they’ve officially hit DVD does Netflix get them. The selection is second to none, though.

3.     iTunes. Apple’s online media retailer lets you buy shows individually or by season, and the prices are reasonable. Episodes are generally available the day that they air on TV, but are usually held back until after the show screens on the West Coast. You can stream to your home entertainment center with AppleTV.

4.     Amazon. The online retailer is similar to iTunes as it lets viewers pay for individual TV shows or full seasons. Prices are about the same as iTunes, but some people prefer Amazon’s interface and selection.

5.     ESPN3. Sports fans have only one real choice, and that’s ESPN’s streaming service. The channel boasts millions of hours of available content, both live and archived, and can be watched on the Xbox 360 console as well as computers.

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