DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

This dessert has it all — a pecan crust is filled with a layer of vanilla ice cream, topped with lemon curd, and then frozen. And the finishing touch? A golden brown crown of meringue. ingredients Lemon curd 2 large eggs 2 large egg yolks 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter 1 cup sugar 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel Pinch of salt Crust 1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted 3 cups vanilla ice cream, slightly softened, divided Meringue 4 large egg whites, room temperature Pinch of cream of tartar 6 tablespoons sugar preparation For lemon curd: Whisk eggs and egg yolks in medium bowl. Melt butter in medium metal bowl set over large saucepan of simmering water. Whisk in sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel, and salt; gradually whisk in egg mixture. Whisk until thick and thermometer inserted into curd registers 178°F to 180°F, about 8 minutes. Transfer to sma...

    Queen's Day  in Amsterdam is a unique night and day carnival like event on the 30th of April each year and during the night before...so called  Queen's Night .  What is special about the Queen's Day?  How about  having elements of a huge party across the whole city, it is combined with the market in the streets in the whole entire city.    Queen's Day in Amsterdam attracts 700,000 visitors, which makes the city crowded beyond any acceptable norm.  Despite overcrowding, the atmosphere on Queen's Day is traditionally relax and joyful.  The usually mild weather makes the Queen's Day the day to be in Amsterdam. The Tradition of Queen's Day    Queen's Day is celebrated in the whole country of the Netherlands for more than 50 years.  Amsterdam celebrations are the most raucous.  Over the years, the popularity of the event grows bigger and bigger, as crowds of people from ...

10 The Date In the early Church, Christmas was not celebrated as a major feast. The first evidence of the Church attempting to put a date on the day of Christ’s birth comes from 200 AD, when theologians in Alexandria decided it was the 20th of May. By the 380s, the Church in Rome was attempting to unite the various regions in using December 25th as the universal feast day, and eventually that is the day that stuck. As so often was the case in the early Church, the influence of the pagan feasts of Rome is seen, because December 25 was the festival for the birth of the sun. St Cyprian makes mention of this: “O, how wonderfully acted Providence that on that day on which that Sun was born . . . Christ should be born.” 9 The Nativity Scene Everyone knows who Saint Francis is – the famed saint who had an apparent miraculous control over animals, and who travelled to the Middle East to convert the Muslims – offering to be thrown int...

 Everyone gets the chills when they walk through a cemetery, especially at night but mostly it is all in our heads. How could walking through hundreds of deceased people that are buried six feet under, get you thinking that there's ghost in that thar graveyard? Come and take a walk through some of America's most haunted cemeteries and read about the ghosts that choose to hand around them. Bachelor's Grove Cemetery One of the Bachelor's Grove ghosts     This secluded cemetery located in Chicago is said to be the most haunted graveyard in America. Bachelor's Grove has had numerous paranormal investigators that have investigated this cemetery and it has been reported that it has had over 160 cases of documented paranormal occurrences, which include everything from floating "orbs" to light and full body apparitions. Lafayette Cemetery Collage of graves at Lafayette Cemetery     Located in New Orleans, ...

How they fight fat Greek yogurt's combo of protein, fat and carbs helps burn belly fat; the creamy stuff delivers twice as much protein as other yogurts do, so you'll feel more satiated. ingredients 1/2 cup reduced-fat cream cheese, at room temperature 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar 1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Vegetable oil cooking spray 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup granulated sugar 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 egg white 1/2 cup skim milk, divided preparation Beat cream cheese and confectioners' sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer on high until smooth. Add yogurt and vanilla; beat until well combined. Coat 3 baking sheets with cooking spray. Heat oven to 400°F. Whisk flour, cocoa powder and baking soda in a second bowl. Beat sugar and butter with an electric mixer on high in a third bowl ...

Dragon Boat Racing History     On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year, Chinese communities worldwide celebrate the  Duanwu Jie festival , which commemorates the death of the Chinese patriot/poet  Qu Yuan .     As a rival state conquered his home kingdom, Qu Yuan committed suicide, drowning himself in the Miluo river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.     His countrymen paddled swiftly out to the middle of the river to retrieve his body, while others threw packets of rice in the water to distract the fish from eating the poet's body.     These two acts, it is said, are the origin of the festival's two main preoccupations - the glutinous rice dumplings known as zongzi, and the dragon boat races. Dragon Boat Racing in Modern Times     Dragon boat racing, despite its roots in ancient tradition, are as exciting a sport as they come. Two or m...

    Trumpets blare, women weep and a giddy crowd roars as burly men carrying towering wooden pillars charge through narrow streets in a medieval tradition of pride and devotion to their patron saint.     For more than 800 years, the ancient central Italian town of Gubbio has erupted in a riot of yellow, blue and black each May for the " Festa dei Ceri"  ( Festival of the  Candles) to honor patron saint  Ubaldo Baldassini , a 12th century bishop. one of the teams grimacing with the heavy candle     In a day filled with feverish festivities that include hurling jugs of water onto a crowd, the highlight is a strenuous race where three teams tear through the town and up a mountain with 400-kg wooden pillars balanced on their shoulders.     The festival taps into a deep-rooted sense of local pride and tradition -- the sort of fierce identity tied to their town or region that Italians are famous ...