Saturday, March 29

Crispy at the edges and soft in the middle.


"A cookie is a cookie, what else is there?"-asked a novice who knows only how to swallow cookies without giving a notice to its real taste.

Do you know most people are like that? Such persons never appreciate the taste of anything they eat and never mindful of the person who cooked the food-be it a veal steak or just a brownie.

I have been learning the art of making cookies ever since I started my adventure in the kitchen. I have tried out several new delicacies and other members of my home took the risk without complaining.

Today, I happened to read a valuable tip on how to make cookies that are crispy at the edges and soft in the middle. The tips from Day Tipper goes like this: "freeze the batter and cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes beforehand. You can do this while the oven is preheating. This way, the cookie bakes evenly and there are no burnt outside edges while the middle is nice and soft."

Worth trying-right?

Image courtesy: Google Images

Thursday, March 27

What is your BMI?

BMI-Body Mass Index is something that is measured taking into your weight and height. This BMI figure indicates a measure of body composition because it correlates highly with body fat in most people.

Don't take this as something not approved my medical science. The formula was endorsed by the National Institue Health in 1995 and in 1998.

The statistics of people in various ages is a bit too long to write here. The table might be irrelevant because, why you should bother about others.

To know your BMI, just head to Health Scout.

If you look for more information on BMI in wikipedia, it may not give you full insight as I found it difficult to understand.

Monday, March 24

Spectacular waterfalls at Athirapalli.


Athirappally-a remote place located 65 KMs away from Trissur, Kerala, India. I read about it only yesterday in a local Tamil magazine.

The photograph of the Athirapally water falls was far from clear. So, I searched on he internet and excited to have found out a slide show of the waterfalls that is shown from various angles.

It is near the entrance to the sholayar forest range east of Chalakkudi is this 800 foot high water falls. I have visited Kerala a few times but none mentioned about this great sight seeing location.

I must thank the local Tamil magazine and the website mentioned below. If you like this slide show, please stumble it on Stumbleupon.com
A Slide show of Collection of Photos of Waterfall

Sunday, March 23

Corporate gifts store online.


I took a break of about 60 minutes from blogging and I took my husband to a nearby mall. My husband acts as my driver.

After paying our bill, we were presented with a short form to fill up. As usual, my husband got annoyed at such delay causing activities. I managed to make him wait a little longer and finished the job.

I was presented with a good looking air tight container with the logo of a two wheeler spare parts manufacturing company. The logo was attractive and the container for pulses was cute.

At the bottom of the gift, there was a mention about Source-Promo, a leading online store for corporate gifts.
Their range of products include
Bags & Luggage,
Business World,
Clocks & Watches,
Electronics,
Food & Drink,
Keychains,
Kitchen & Decoration,
Kitchenware,
On the Road,
Seasonal Articles,
Sports & Games.

This is a Source GmbH company.

Pure solid gold buying.

A metal is classified as precious mainly due its rarity. The next important factor is its usage, the wider the usage, the more precious it becomes. Such precious metals include not only gold but also silver, platinum and palladium.

In the commodity market, trading in rare metals also known as bullion market involves in depth knowledge about the world precious metal market condition. Without that, both the hedger and the speculator may stand to lose.

The commodity market offers the same equal opportunities to everyone. But the loss or gain in the commodity market depends on your status either as the one who hedges or the one who speculates. A full pledged investor in gold never loses.

Investing in precious metals can be done either by purchasing and taking possession of your purchase or you can arrange it to be stored safely on behalf of you. Through Monex Deposit Company (MDC) you can purchase silver, gold or other precious metals and coins for immediate personal delivery or arrange for convenient and safe storage at an independent bank or depository.

For over 30 years, the Monex companies have been America’s gold, silver and precious metals investment leader.


Friday, March 21

Do you know the Forbidden Library?

Probably, most of us didn't know that such a thing as Forbidden Library exists! In this library, you can search and find books that are banned for various reasons.

In news papers, I have come across several incident where a book is banned for public reading mostly because some ethnic group has felt offended by a sentence or a word contained in that book.

But, browsing through the Forbidden Library, I was shocked to find so many books that are either challenged or banned. The books are listed by title and by author.

Do you know that "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" was banned in China in 1931? We are also allowed to purchase the books that are in the banned list.

But then it is not banned-right?

The website sites American Library Association as one its resources.

Thursday, March 20

Have you tasted an Abalone?


The name Abalone sure invokes fear in me. And when I heard that it is an edible shellfish, it is even more fearsome. Hi hi, I am a staunch vegetarian.mrgreen

Well, that won't hold me writing about Abalone. The image you see here is the raw meat of Abalone. For more images of Abalone, here is a search I made in Google Images.

Other names of Abalone:
Abalones are also called ear-shells, haliotis, sea-ears and Venus's-ears, as well as muttonfish or muttonshells in Australia, ormer in Jersey and Guernsey, perlemoen in South Africa and pāua in New Zealand.

I read in a travel related web site long ago that Hawaii is often visited to taste the Abalone. Hawaii's big island is famous for Abalone. The farm uses pure, nutrient-rich cold seawater from 3,000 feet below the Kona Coast to raise the mollusks. Guests are able to hold, taste, and purchase the live abalone Monday through Friday.

For more information on Abalone please Wikipedia and Offbeat Travel.

Monday, March 17

Do you know buttercup family?


Don’t go around searching for a buttercup family in your neighborhood if you are living in hot country.

Buttercup family is a family of flowers also known as Ranunculaceae family. The flowers belonging to this family are known for lustrous petals. This family of flowers are said to consist of 2500 species and are common in the temperate and cold areas of the northern hemisphere.

Would you like to be presented with a bunch of Ranunculaceae roses? No, don’t pay me any money! I will arrange two bouquets of Ranunculaceae roses to be delivered at your doorstep. They have a long vase life.

Along with the bouquets, I will send a note carrying my wedding day. You can then reciprocate my kindness on that day. Is it ok with you?

When it comes to wedding flowers or flowers for any occasion, FiftyFlowers.com can be your best source. FiftyFlowers provides wedding events with premium roses, calla lilies, rose petals, gerbera daisies, hydrangeas, peonies and many other flowers and greens.

I have a reason to recommend FiftFlowers.com. Even when you order wholesale flowers from them, it will cost you below wholesale cost because they remove the wholesalers and retailers from the flower supply chain, which saves customers up to 75% on their flower cost.

Saturday, March 15

Do you know the Copper Canyon Train Journey?


Ah, a train journey that is liked by everyone. No age bar for this-right? A flight may take you to your destination in a few hours but it cannot give you the pleasures of watching myriad landscapes pass by during a train journey.


It also gives us a lot of freedom of movement, freedom of speech etc without bothering about the pseudo etiquettes of the flight travel.

If only I have a chance to undertake the Copper Canyon train journey, I would consider it as the ultimate pleasures of traveling.

Copper Canyon is the number one tourist attraction in Mexico. The canyon covers over 20,000 square miles and our times larger and deeper than the Grand Canyon.

As you would expect from all these prelude, the scenery is incredible. The train journey traversing the Copper Canyon covers beautiful and rugged series of canyons that have led some to call this the most scenic railroad trip on the continent.

The tracks pass over 37 bridges and through 86 tunnels, rising as high as 2,400 meters above sea level near Divisadero, a popular lookout spot over the canyons. Each one-way trip takes roughly 16 hours.

Thursday, March 13

Do you know Offbeat Bride?


I know-the title Offbeat Bride will urge us to imagine weird things about a bride. smile

OffbeatBride is a blog for you to check out and find some unique ideas of how to mix the modern with the a taste of the traditional.

My curiosity was aroused because you can say I was once an offbeat bride as I rebelled against traditional marriage ideas and rituals. Fortunately for me, my husband also conformed with my opinions.

Well, Offbeat bride blogs about many aspects of wedding, wedding gifts, bride's dress, bride's make up and so on.

Look at this magnificent fruit and flower cake

You can find a lot of offbeat advice too. Well, this blog is for independent brides for sure.

Monday, March 10

Do you know Soylent Green?

Soylent Green-an odd name when you first come across-right? You can't make out anything from it; I mean it doesn't suggest anything.

Actually, to my mind, it meant a sort of dye. But I am nowhere near the meaning.

Soylent Green is a movie, a science fiction that was released in the year 1973. It is about the planet earth and it's bleak future because of threats to our environment due to growing population and global warming.


This film tell you how people will be living in the year 2022. Yes, the word 'bleak' is the apt word because of the living conditions that are going to worsen over the years.

Would like to know more? Then, read the review of this film "Soylent Green' at Unlikely Stories.

Wednesday, March 5

Do you know 'Along'?


I have not misspelled any dear. 'Along' is a place. It is actually a hill station in Arunachal Pradesh, India.

The entire family of us love to visit hill stations. We like cool retreats because, we live in Madras, a year long hot place in India.

I happen to know about this place while reading Yahoo! answers. But apart from what Yahoo! says, I could not find any other information on the hill station.

As per Yahoo!, this hill resort is located 125 km away from Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh. Set in a wide open valley where the Sipu river merges with Siyom against the backdrop of hills covered with snow during winters, it presents a panoramic view tot he delight of visitors.

Hey, wait! I have found something else on Along on North east India. May be you would like to read it for yourself?

Saturday, March 1

Can you shop by a condition?

You have a particular physical condition that prevents you from being normal. Let us assume that you want to find the latest remedies for constipation. You might have already tried out several medicines but over a period of time, your body has turned immune to all of them. So, you want to find out if there is anything new in the market. How do you search for it?

Just go to AllegroMedical.com and key in ‘constipation’ in the search box and you get what you want. Isn’t this facility to search and shop by a condition of your body, fantastic?

This useful website Allegromediacl.com was founded in 1996 and is now being used by more than a million customers. It is the first eCommerce website in the medical equipment field and now stocks about 55,000 products that are conveniently cataloged under 50 categories and hundreds of subcategories.

This is the first website I have come across where I can shop by condition, shop by brand and shop by category.

Can you search with a picture?

Let us say that you have a picture of a rare bird. Thats all you have. You don't know its name. You don't know where can it be found. But you want to know the answers to all these questions.
Where can you ind the answers?

It is only at Yahoo answers can you find. It is more than an encyclopedia because you get a personal answer.

Here is an example:
Question: How do I search about a flower using it's picture?
Answer: Go to landscape solutions.

Obviously, there is more to than just 'Go to'. It is answered by a person named Kimberly C.

Do you know that Yahoo answers has more than 150 million answers? But are we using Yahoo answers at all?

The hanging monastry.


Well, it looks like the monastery is just hanging on to the rocks at the edge of a cliff.

This monastery is in Bhutan, a neighbor of India. This monastery is called 'Tiger's Nest Monastery'
due to a legendary belief that the Guru Rinpoche flew there on the back of a tiger.

The monastery is said to house seven temples in it. It can be accessed only by foot or on a mule. But will the mule climb the 10,200 feet?

This Taktshang monastery is the most sacred for Buddhists all over the world. I am scared certainly to look at its location. May be that is why it is not for ordinary people like me and only for Buddhist monks.

I had an encounter with three Buddhist monks several years ago. But I don't remember anything out of it.