DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

   The kitchen can either come with great amounts of pleasure or great amounts of stress. Luckily, with a few great kitchen tools that have multiple purposes, you'll be able to fret less and whip up many more delicious meals. These 10 affordable tools are essentials in any kitchen, and you probably have several of them in your own. Read on to find out the many uses for each tool and share your tips in the comments! Silicone Spatulas    Silicone spatulas come in pretty colors that brighten up your kitchen, and they come in very handy while baking, but I like to use mine for frying or scrambling eggs. They're delicate on the egg and help keep things from sticking to the pan too much. Pastry Scraper    Typically, pastry scrapers are used for handling pastry dough. This handy tool is also incredibly useful when it comes to transferring chopped vegetables from your cutting board to your pan. Microplane Zester/Grater    One of my very favorite tools in the kitch

   This diy/recipe comes from www.comeonilene.com .  Enjoy these tasty little treats! For my friend Jane’s bridal shower, I volunteered to make cupcake pops. After seeing cute pictures floating around on the web, I’ve been dying to try it myself and Bakerella makes it seem so simple. It must be easy for the normal person, but I am clearly anything but normal and this project took a lot longer than I thought. Don’t attempt to make these unless you really love the person you are making them for. It took me over 8 hrs from start to finish, not including the time it took to make the stand . (I this idea directly from Bakerella’s website .) Ingredients: 1 13X9 baked cake (from a box cake mix or from scratch) 1 can cream cheese frosting (or about 2 cups equivalent from scratch) 1 flower shaped cookie cutter 1 package chocolate melts 1 package white chocolate melts gel food coloring 5″ lollipop sticks m&ms and sprinkles 1. Bake a cake from a mix or fro

    The Sapporo Snow Festival is a famous festival held annually in Sapporo, Japan, over 7 days in February. Currently, Odori Park, Susukino, and Tsudome are the main sites of the festival. The 2011 Yuki-matsuri dates are February 7th to the 13th. The festival is one of Japan's largest and most distinctive winter events. In 2007, about 2 million people visited Sapporo to see the hundreds of snow statues and ice sculptures at the Odori Park and Suskino sites, in central Sapporo, and the Satoland site. The festival is thought to be an opportunity for promoting international relations. The International Snow Sculpture Contest has been held at the Odori Park sit since 1974, and teams from various regions of the world participate.     The subject of the statues varies and often features as event, famous building or person from the previous yer. For example, in 2004, there were statues of Hideki Matsui, the famous baseball player who at that time played for the New Yo