Faint At Heart

Maybe I’m alone in this but I’ve gotten sick of Halloween candy. It’s so boring and unoriginal. In order to exercise some creativity, I decided to give out homemade Halloween cookie treats to friends and family last year, instead of candy and it was a big hit. It’s not so much about the cookie or its flavor or how it tastes. It’s all about the decorations, of course. Check out this recipe for easy easy frosting to frost your cookies or cupcakes. It’s a great addition to your Halloween party food spread. You’ll only need a few ingredients and basic kitchen tools and a drop of elbow grease for the whipping.

2 teaspoons of lemon juice
1 cup of egg whites
5 cups of sifted and powdered sugar

1. In a big, metal and chilled (in the fridge, 20 min) bowl, beat the egg whites fast and rigorously until the egg whites form peaks. Use a cold whisk. You can also use an electric mixer with a wisk attachment, if you have one. Bit it’s not necessary.

2. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar. If you’re doing the mixing by hand, add about 1/4 to a 1/2 cup at a time. If using the electric professional mixer, just sprinkle it in slowly. Once all of the sugar is added and it’s well incorporated, add that lemon juice in and mix it all up so that it’s very thick, like thick toothpaste. If it’s not thick enough, add a little more powdered sifted sugar until it is.

3. This icing can be stored, if it isn’t used right away or if there is leftovers, for up to five days. Just cover the bowl and place it in teh fridge.

4. You can color the frosting to any color, using the right amount of well mixed food coloring. Always ice anything, cookies, cake, cupcakes, with room temperature frosting for easy spreading.

If you are aimlessly buying Christmas presents for people with hopes that just one of those things will please them, then you need to read this article. Learn how to buy something they want, or better yet, get them a gift card and spend the rest of the day enjoying time together.

year after year, Christmas continues to get more extravagant Everyone says that Christmas will be different next year but it will be the same boring holiday. When we are gift buying for adults, do we really need to go bonkers? Kids get excited for gifts, but adults buy for themselves what they want to have most of the time.

No one can ever know what everyone else knows. The theory espoused is apparently that if you buy a lot of things, eventually you will hit on something that pleases the receipient. It it best to do research before you put the time and effort into going all out for someone. Check with people who know what they want and need. Over the course of the year, a mild interrogation with in depth and probing questions will aid in identifying a suitable gift. Hopefully this will deter you from spending your money on worthless trinkets and gadgets. There isn’t anything wrong with a gift card when ideas elude you. You can personalize these with a few home-baked cookies or ornaments, or with a personalized card that lets them know that you wanted them to have the last say about their gift. Even if you get to spend all your time surrounded by gifts, the best gift of all is spending time with loved ones.

While gift cards may be considered a bit impersonal, it is better than getting that loved one a gift they do not need or like. Gift cards are a great back-up plan when research and questioning have failed to provide you with any ideas. Most of the time people don’t know what they want, or won’t answer if they do. This group can also be pleased in a variety of ways. Here is a great site for some personalised gift ideas for everyone.

On the 15 July, the Florida Public Services Commission granted FPL permission to begin work on three major Solar Power plants across the state.

The first of these projects is ‘The Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center’, scheduled for construction at the company’s already existent ‘Martin Plant’ site. It is expected to be operational in 2010, and will produce a maximum 75W output. It will combine steam with solar thermal power in order to reduce the amount of natural gas used in the energy conversion process.

Second is ‘The DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center’ which is due for completion and operation in 2009. It is named after the county in which it’s being developed, and boasts a 25MW photovoltaic maximum capacity. This figure, when reached, would make it the largest photovoltaic center in the world.

The final project in the trio is ‘The Space Coast Next Generation Solar Energy Center’, and is the product of a partnership between NASA and the FPL. It has a photovoltaic capacity of 10MW, and will reportedly serve the needs of more than 2500 people. It is expected to be operational in 2009, and is to be built on the same grounds as the ‘Kennedy Space Center’.

With the green light now given, it signifies another step towards a greater and more proficient level of sustainable energy in the US. FPL reports that - pending the successful completion of the three plants - the energy saved would amount to the prevention of 3.5m tons of various green house gases over the three power plant’s lifetimes. The Environmental Protection Agency calculate that this has the same effect as 25,000 cars being removed from the roads of the United States each year.

Along with ‘Solar Tres’ the European Union commissioned large scale Solar Thermal Power plant, the Florida plants contribute to a Trans-Atlantic development of sustainable energy sites. Add ‘Nevada Solar One’ - the replacement for ‘Solar One’ and ‘Two’, on which ‘Solar Tres’ was based - and the number of substantially funded solar powered facilities is growing.

And it is not just Europe and North America that has been affected: The Japanese Companies ‘Kansai Electrical Power’ and ‘Sharp Japan’ announced plans in June for two solar power plants to be built under the ‘Sakai City Waterfront Mega Solar Power Generation Plan’, and are expected to be operational in 2010. The two sites are reported to have a combined maximum power of 38,000KW, and will therefore become two of the largest solar powered sites in the world.

Three of the world’s biggest political players, then, are continuing their commitment to sustainable energy sources. Include ‘Kigali Solaire’, the largest solar power plant in Africa - opened in Rwanda in 2007 - plus a maximum capacity 400KW photovoltaic array in New South Wales, Austrialia, and it amounts to sustainable energy in four of the six world continents.

Perhaps, then, the FPL centers are simply bucking the trend.