Chocolate

                                                  

Chocolate

I am a complete chocoholic. And that is so proved. After all, we need our chocolates. So let’s learn about our chocolate: The Whole Truth.

DARK CHOCOLATE

Dark chocolate is made by adding fat and sugar to cocoa. Said to be good for vision and healthy for hearts, this chocolate is also seen in expensive wrappers and boxes. The bitter taste present is enjoyed and is said to be luxurious.

     MILK CHOCOLATE

Milk chocolate mainly contains  chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, vanilla, milk solids and lecithin. This chocolate is sold as the most common chocolate, but also the most delicious. Hard to lay off on a diet….

    WHITE CHOCOLATE

White chocolate is just a derivative of chocolate, containing just cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids and salt. It is given a pale yellow or an ivory color appearance. Cocoa butter is its only primary cacao component. This chocolate is not really said to be pure chocolate, but served expensively all the same.

My Fun Life

^CH_ER^RY^’_S ^LI_FE = BORING!!!

Hey Guys I’m gonna tell you about my life back there where I am physically living (The mental presence is at Blogger) I just know that you’re gonna love this.

I live in Kolkata, United apartments. The fun in living in a society is your vast, increasing and gripping social circles. We do sooo much here.

I hang out with a few friends of mine. Sarah, Ashley, Begonia, Harris, Jacqueline (Jacky), etc. We have loads of fun together. By lots I mean, lots.

I think I’ll let you take a sneak peek…..

 A DAY ON THE CYCLE

My best friends circle lies with Ashley, Sarah and Begonia. I think we spend most of our time together downstairs.

But there was one such day when Begonia had her dance classes and me, Sarah, Ashley were getting bored.

Sarah has this habit of taking rounds with her house keeper Tina and sister Piya. She looks and acts like a teacher, with black rimmed specs, and chubby. Her habit of pointing out things and curt manner of obviously-ty is just so, annoying but fun.

She has this old red cycle which is pretty small for all of us and once while playing a rapid fire game, Ashley suddenly came up with this ridiculous idea, she could steer the handle and Sarah could peddle. I had my own scooty to control so I couldn’t join it at that moment. But I tried it on later on. It was not bad. Fun.

Ashley and Sarah found it so nice that we decided to take a whole round of the entire Unity apartments.

It was evening time and it was pretty risky to try out this stunt since people would be coming back home in their cars and we could crash or something. In the middle of one round, Ashley and Sarah lost their balance and fell on me on my scooty. We lay there, the three of us, laughing.

Then we went to our favorite place at that time, Chaturthi, which is the fourth tower of Unity Apartments. Sarah lives there. Me and Ashley are neighbors and live in Tritiya, the third tower.  There, I peddled with Ashley on the steering and had a lot of fun. I’ll remember these moments forever. These are just the little extents we can go to, to have fun. We have done such crazy things together….

I liked talking to you. I think I might post some other secrets…..

Bye. I have to join my pals for another crazy adventure now

 

Book Characters- Specials.

The first thing a person wakes up in the morning does is to clean itself up and sit with a strong cup of tea with the newspaper. As a child, I am not interested in newspapers. It’s obvious. But i would like to tell you about a girl I met....in a book!

This girl is from Eva Ibbotson's Star of Kazan. Published by Macmillan, this book won the Nestle` Silver Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. It was a character from this book I found interesting.

 

Pauline, a girl of 13, lived in her grandfather's house which was adjoined with a bookshop. This bookshop was their only source of income by which they could feed themselves. It was not a very popular one too, just a shop dealing with some dusty antique books on the streets of Vienna.

Pauline, you see, had a scrapbook. A great, big, fat one. She used to take the daily newspaper and search for articles. Articles on bravery.

How, a boy saves his father from drowning in the middle of the Pacific ocean, How, a girl saves a child from being hit by a bull. How, a young man risked his own life by fighting dacoits in order to save a girl of 16. Pauline had been born with a weak heart. She couldn't run long distances. She couldn’t eat everything. She couldn’t ride or take part in athletic things. She uses this scrapbook to inspire herself and give her the desire to live on, so that even she gets her name in the papers one day. She confides her fantasies in her best friends, Annika and Stephan.

And then, when her best friend Annika was in danger, Pauline runs to the ship where she was being taken away by her so called mother ( you will read and find out) and faints in the attempt, but succeeds in saving her friend's life from turning into a disaster. I have learnt so much from Pauline . I wanted to share this with you.

Please read the Star of Kazan and Journey to River Sea, another book by the same author which won the Nestle Gold Award, The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and was the runner up for Whitbread Children's Book of the year.

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composition de florale: arranging flowers

Composition florale, or, the arrangement of lowers in a decorative manner.
People have been decorating flowers since generations. They say that flowers are the soul of every  home. They are the most decorative sweet and fragrant compared to every other decoration piece on your mantle.
Decorating flowers is an art. An art to master life long. Let me tell you today how to bring these flowery friends in your home today.
     

The container or the vase you use should be cleaned properly.  You can use any container for your arrangement  You can use a regular glass vase as well. You can add different sea sand and coloured stones at the bottom to support the stems. Water should be able to pass through it. This will also give your arrangement a very lovely and attractive finish.

Cut the stem of your flowers in a slanting manner so it can receive more nutrients. It should be at least two inches from the bottoms. to keep your flowers fresh, remove any leaves below water level.


     


The water should be of room temperature and slightly warm so that the buds open quickly and add to the attractiveness of the arrangement.


Small flowers look good in short and stout vases whereas the bigger ones look nicer  in tall and slender vases.

Place your flowers in different angles to make the most of their individual shapes and then add the foliage to fill any gaps and accentuate the mixes of the colors.

  

Remove any stamens with pollen as pollen discolors the flowers and also prevents pollination so that the flowers last longer and stay fresh.

          

 

Unusual Religious Customs.

                                                        

Uncommon Customs.

There are several customs in the world which are unheard of. They are practiced in different parts of the world. Here are some customs I saw on my trip.

GERMANY
POLTERABEND.
Polterabend is a German before wedding tradition carried on between the bride and groom. The friends and family of the couple come together for an informal party where they shockingly break everything in the house except glasses and mirrors.
To show that the couple will help each other in future difficulties, both of them are given the responsibility to clean everything up.
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THAILAND
MONKEY BUFFET FESTIVAL

In here, over 3,000 kilograms of fruits are presented  to the monkeys in order to please the monkey gods!!!
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ENGLAND
 GURNING

This tradition is not the least bit religious. The English have celebrated this tradition since the 1267. The participants try to make the most grotesque faces as possible. This is also a very serious game. It has been converted into championships like the World Gurning championship, England.

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SCOTLAND
  BLACKENED BRIDE
Scottish brides to be have to undergo a very gruesome and foul ritual before marriage. Friends of the bride can wet and dirty the bride with anything disgusting such as rotten eggs and vegetables, spoiled milk and feathers, etc.
The scottish believe that after going through this, the bride will be pretty much ready to face all martial problems.
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Pink and purple lemonades

You will need:

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

Squeezed lemon juice

Pomengrenate juice or grenadine. ( for pink lemonade)

Grape juice ( for red purple lemonade)

And maybe honey.
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This is a very simple recipe. Prepare your own lemonade by mixing sugar, salt and lemon. Then, for pink lemonade, add pomengrenate or grenadine, and for purple red lemonade add the grape juice

Then add honey.

Garnish with ice cubes. Cherish with a slice of thinly sliced lime.

Best enjoyed with garlic bread and cheese dip.
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How to make excellent Cheese dip

The garlic bread is the main course and this dip shall be its appetizer. Catch up on the next one - lemonades!!

You need
2 cups milk
1 cup cheese (grated cheddar)
Salt to match your taste
4 tbsp butter
2 teaspoons flour
4tbsp cream cheese
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Melt the butter in a pan. Add the flour in it. Then put the milk until it thickens.
When your paste is ready, adds the cream cheese and grated cheddar.
When the paste is ready, add the salt.
This dip works very well with nachos and salty crackers. It hardly takes time to prepare.

You can eat the cheese dip in your style. Add nimbu achar to give it your Indian twist, or add unique herbs to it.

Best enjoyed with Crackers in Garlic bread.
 Serve hot in a bowl. Arrange crackers on it in a circular manner. Sprinkle some powdered cheese or herbs in the middle for presentation.
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