Decorating Easter Eggs

Silk-Tie Easter Eggs

Materials and Tools Small- to medium-size raw eggs Glass or enamel pot Silk ties, blouses, or boxers, cut into pieces large enough to cover an egg White sheets (or pillowcases or old tablecloths), cut into pieces to cover silk-wrapped eggs Twist ties 3 tablespoons of white vinegar Warm water Vegetable oil Paper towels Tongs or spoon Silk Tie Easter Eggs How-To 1. Cut silk into a square (or a piece) large enough to wrap around a raw egg. 2. Wrap a raw egg with a piece of silk, making sure the printed side of the material is facing the egg. Silk can still be used if it doesn't fit perfectly around egg. 3. Place the silk-wrapped egg in a piece of white sheet, pillowcase, or old tablecloth and secure tightly with a twist-tie. 4. Place the egg(s) in an enamel or glass pot. Fill pot with water to cover eggs completely. Then, add three tablespoons of white vinegar. 5. Bring water to a boil, turn heat down, and simmer for 20 minutes (longer if you plan on eating the eggs). 6. Remove eggs from water with tongs or spoon and let cool. 7. Remove silk from cooled egg. 8. For shiny eggs, wipe with vegetable oil after completing step 7. Resources Silk goods such as ties, blouses, and boxers can be purchased at rummage sales or thrift stores. Silk can be reused on eggs.

Questions To Ask A Moving Company

Here are ten of the most important questions to ask any prospective movers before you actually hire them: 1. Is the company a mover or a broker? They are different and knowing who you are dealing with will help you choose the right moving company. While movers have to be up front, brokers can make just about any deal without the clearance of the company. What’s worse, the company doesn’t have to honor any deal you make with the broker under the guise of getting a moving quote. 2. Can I have references from satisfied customers? Good moving companies will have a list of references, people who don’t mind getting calls regarding the service of the company in question. 3. What services are considered extra, and how much do they charge? Make sure that you know what services are included, and which ones aren’t. Some additional charges might be added onto your bill for a long walk or stairs involved in the move. 4. Is the company licensed for state to state transport? What is their license number? All good movers should be licensed in the states where they operate. Always get the movers license number and check it with the FMCSA to ensure that the company is legit. 5. What kind of liability insurance does the company hold? All movers must carry some level of liability insurance. Check to see what your mover offers before you actually hire them so that you know how much additional insurance you need to cover the move. 6. What kind of cancellation policy do they have? Just in case something happens and you need to cancel, find out what kind of cancellation policy the mover has. 7. Is there a guarantee for pick up and delivery dates? It’s never good to wonder where your things are. Make sure that the company offers a guarantee if you need your things on a specific date. 8. How much does the company charge? This is the biggest question for any mover. Ensure that you are aware of the costs involved in a move before you hire anyone. 9. Who does the packing and the loading? Many movers offer packing services in addition to loading. Always ask who is responsible for these aspects so that you don’t end up surprised on moving day. 10. What is included in the services? Be sure to check on what exactly is included. Do you need to purchase boxes? Are you responsible for the inventory? Don’t leave anything to chance and you will be sure to enjoy a pleasant moving day.

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Poor Man's Caviar

1 medium, firm eggplant 1-2 cloves garlic,, chopped 3/4 cup chopped onion 3/4 cup peppers (bell and/or hot) Coarse salt and black pepper 1 handful flat-leaf parsley tops A drizzle extra-virgin olive oil 1 whole grain baguette or other long crusty bread Directions Preheat oven to highest setting, at least 500 degrees F. Cut 2 or 3 slits into whole eggplant. Place eggplant directly on the oven rack in the middle of the oven and roast the eggplant until it is tender, about 20 minutes. Keep the slits facing up so that the eggplant does not loose liquids as it roasts. Sauté garlic, onion & peppers in olive oil until soft. Using a sharp utility knife, carefully peel skin away from eggplant flesh. Add cooked eggplant flesh and sautéed vegetables to food processor and combine with salt, and pepper and parsley. Pulse grind the eggplant into a paste, add a drizzle of olive oil. Transfer to a serving dish. The seeds of the eggplant will make the spread resemble caviar eggs, and so the name: poor man's caviar. To serve, surround a bowlful of spread with crusty bread rounds. May be served hot or cold. Add olives and cheese on the side to complete.

Why Do Leaves Change Color?

We all enjoy the colors of autumn leaves. The changing fall foliage never fails to surprise and delight us. Did you ever wonder how and why a fall leaf changes color? Why a maple leaf turns bright red? Where do the yellows and oranges come from? To answer those questions, we first have to understand what leaves are and what they do. Plants take water from the ground through their roots. They take carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. Plants use sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and glucose. Oxygen is released back into the air. Glucose is a kind of sugar. Plants use glucose as food for energy and as a building block for growing. Photosynthesis means "putting together with light" and it is the way that plants create sugar and oxygen from CO2 & H2O. A chemical called chlorophyll helps make photosynthesis happen. Chlorophyll is what gives plants their green color. As summer ends and autumn comes, the days get shorter and shorter. This is how the trees "know" to begin getting ready for winter. During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees will rest, and live off the food they stored during the summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along. We just can't see them in the summer, because they are covered up by the green chlorophyll. Since daylight wanes at a constant rate each fall, other factors, like soil moisture and weather, ensure that no two autumns are alike. Warm, sunny days mixed with cool, but above-freezing nights appear to produce the brilliant red hues associated with peak fall foliage. Leaf-peepers (people who annually follow the fall foliage) judge whether it has been a "good" or "bad" fall based on the proportion of red leaves—the more, the better. Other things being equal, that [ratio] changes more than anything else. The real question is: What's going on with these reds?" Native American lore explained the appearance of the magnificent colors as coming from above: After hunters killed the Great Bear in the sky, the story goes, its blood splashed down and turned the leaves red. And the yellow leaves? They get their tint from the bear's fat splashing out of the pot that it was being cooked in. The truth is the bright reds and purples we see in leaves are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves to turn this glucose into a red color. The brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves. Although scientists offer several different reasons for why some trees produce anthocyanins, they are responsible for the red colors. (The molecular structure of an anthocyanin includes a sugar, which is dependent on the availability of carbohydrates within a plant. Anthocyanin color changes with pH, so soil acidity affects leaf color. Anthocyanin production also requires light, so sunny days are needed for the brightest fall colors! The reason you'll see more vibrant reds during some years is that lots of sunlight and dry weather increase the sugar concentration in tree sap, triggering the tree to release more anthocyanins in a last-ditch effort to gather up energy to get through the winter. In addition, near-freezing weather, low nutrient levels and other plant stressors seem to trigger increased levels of anthocyanins. If it's been especially rainy and overcast, you won't see much red foliage. Without bright sunlight, the trees don't need the added protection that the red pigments provide, so they don't bother producing them. Here's a guide to the species of trees and the color they produce during autumn: Yellow: Green and black ash, basswood, beech, birches, butternut, and elm. In the maple species - boxelder, mountain, silver, striped and sugar. And don't forget mountain ash, poplar, serviceberry, willow, and witch hazel. Red and Scarlet: Red, mountain, and sugar maples; black, red, scarlet and white oak; hornbeam, sumac and tupelo. Brown: White and black oak Purple: White ash and witch hazel.

Composting For A Balcony Garden

Do you believe composting is a messy, smelly job not suitable for balcony gardeners? In truth, it’s no messier than regular gardening and the smell is easily contained. If it really stinks you are probably doing something wrong. And on your balcony, you probably don’t have to worry about animals getting into your compost, other than your own pets.
Here is the equipment you will need:
A covered container for collecting kitchen refuse, like a small garbage can.
A bin for holding the compost pile. It can be old and cracks are fine too, as your compost will need air. You’ll also want some holes in the bottom for drainage.
Saucer. Keep this under the bin so your balcony will stay clean.
Soil or sand. Soil can be of lower quality than you usually use for your plants.
Wet organic material. Collect kitchen refuse including peels, seeds, rotten raw or cooked produce, crushed eggshells, coffee grinds, seeds, and other organic material. You can even add some strips of newspaper and the lint from your dryer.
Don’t include animal products with the exception of crushed eggshells.
Wet or dried leaves, branches and grass.
Water.
To make compost you need to encourage bacterial growth. Like all living things bacteria need air, water and food. The organic material serves as the food, and bacteria are everywhere. So your main job is to make air and water available to your decomposing material.
Begin collecting kitchen refuse. Place your garbage can on the counter and instruct everyone in the house to contribute suitable material. When the container gets full, bring the contents to the balcony and empty them into the larger bin.
Once you have a few inches of kitchen material in the bin, layer with an inch or two of the garden material. Cover with a layer of soil or sand. The soil and leaves keep the smell of the kitchen refuse from being overpowering. Wet it all with a generous amount of water. Drainage is important, because you do not want the compost to be
soaking in water. There’s no need to cover the pile unless you are worried that kids or animals will get into it.
Check your compost pile every few days, adding water when necessary. Each time you add kitchen refuse, top with a layer of plant material and soil and wet the pile. Continue every few days until the bin is full.
At this point you can leave it, just keeping it moist until the compost is ready after a few weeks or months. But if you want to hurry it along, stir and turn the mixture every week or so to expose the inside of the pile to fresh air. During the early stages, while the decomposing food is still smelly, you will want to cover the pile with a new layer of soil after stirring.
The compost is done when it is all uniformly black with the texture of a rough soil. It’s fine if you can still recognize bits of seeds or shells. Mix the compost in with your potting soil and enjoy the fruits of your labor!

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