DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

   Here's another great recipe from www.saveur.com  .  Instead of buying one of those frozen ones from the grocery store.  Try and make your own.  It will probably taste bettter and you will enjoy it more making it from scratch. Chocolate Cream Pie A crunchy crust and pudding-like filling make this pie a standout. This pie should be well chilled before it’s served. 1 6 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 1⁄2"  
   cubes and chilled, plus more for pie plate 1⁄4 cup packed light brown sugar 1  9-oz. package chocolate wafers,  
   such as Nabisco, finely ground  
   (about 2 1⁄4 cups) 3 1⁄2 cups half-and-half 2⁄3 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar 1⁄4 cup cornstarch 9 egg yolks 9 oz. semisweet chocolate,  
   finely chopped 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate,  
   finely chopped 2 1⁄2 tsp. vanilla extract 2 cups heavy cream Dark chocolate, for garnish 1. Heat oven to 375°. Grease bottom and sides of a 9" glass pie plate with butter; se

   Here's another great tutorial from www.sweetopia.net   .  Enjoy! How to Make Logo Cookies There are a few ways I make edible ink logo cookies. Both involve using frosting sheets but the difference is in how they’re applied. Putting the frosting sheets onto wet icing is one fast technique, but I find it a little less neat than my second method, which I’ll be sharing in this post, and have also  shown here . If you’d like to make logo cookies too, you’ll need: Sugar Cookie Recipe  here   or  Gingerbread Recipe  here. Royal Icing Recipe  here . *White is the best colour to tint your icing. Any other colour as the base tends to cloud the image when applied to the cookie. Edible Frosting Sheets Edible Ink Printer and Food Coloring Cartridges Edible Marker Clear Corn Syrup Paintbrush or Foam Brush Piping Tips (#2, star tip #14) Coupler Piping Bag White Gel Colouring Optional –  Disco dust * Instructions Before decorating: You’ll need to print

   Pongal is a harvest festival-the Tamil equivalent of Thanksgiving.  In an agriculture based civilization, the harvest plays an important part.  The farmer cultivating his land depends on cattle, timely rain and the Sun.  Once a year, he expresses his gratitude to these during the harvest festival.  With the end of the est month of Margazhi (mid December to mid January) the new Tamil month of Thai heralds a series of festivals.  The first day of the month is a festival day known as "Pongal Day".  Pongal means the 'boiling over" of milk and rice during the month of Thai.     The act of boiling over of milk in the clay pot is considered to denote future prosperity for the family.  Traditionally celebrated at harvest time, it is a celebration of the prosperity associated with the harvest by thanking the rain, sun and the farm animals that have helped in the harvest.  Pongal is celebrated by the Indian state of Tamil Ndu as well as Tamils worldw