What Goes Best With an Easter Ham?

Posted on March 24, 2016 by savi0043

Traditionally, Easter ham is THE main dish of any Easter dinner with my family. I know others agree. However, there are many other side dishes that can be paired with ham. The choice is as varied as the number of hams being served. It’s often a matter of taste and preference. Here are my choices for side dishes and recipes that can be served with Easter ham:

What Goes Best With an Easter Ham?
By [http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tony_VM/1290700]Tony VM

Traditionally, Easter ham is THE main dish of any Easter dinner with my family. I know others agree. However, there are many other side dishes that can be paired with ham. The choice is as varied as the number of hams being served. It’s often a matter of taste and preference.

Here are my choices:

1. SWEET POTATOES:

Sweet potatoes go with ham like cereal goes with milk. They are a natural pairing. There are several ways you can make sweet potatoes, each one provides a great side dish that compliments your ham perfectly.
Candied: You can find lots of recipes for candied sweet potatoes on the internet. Choose one and you’ll have a great side dish.
Casserole: Boil the potatoes then mash them along with some evaporated milk, butter, salt, and brown sugar. Add liquid ingredients slowly so potatoes don’t get too runny.
Baked: Bake in the oven for approximately 1 to 1 1/2 hours then top with butter, cinnamon and sugar
2. GREEN BEANS:

Green beans seem to be served at Easter by a majority of families that I know. It’s one of those “classic” Easter vegetables. Here are some options for this green vegetable:
Casserole – The classic Green Bean Casserole combines 1 can cream of mushroom soup and 1/2 cup milk, along with canned “fried onion pieces” salt and pepper in a casserole dish with the green beans. Bake in the oven until done. Many people use “French” style green beans but this dish is also good with regular cut beans. I’ve used both.
Stove Top – Combining green beans in a saucepan along with canned diced tomatoes, a little sugar, salt oregano and fresh cooked bacon pieces (not bacon bits) will give them just enough flavor to make this dish good.
3. DEVILED EGGS:

What food could be more classic to Easter than deviled eggs? Although you’ll find a variety of recipes for this dish, many of which use a variety of ingredients, it can be very simply made by…
Hard-boil and peel eggs
Cut eggs in half and scoop out yolks
Mix yolks with a little mustard, mayonnaise, salt, pepper and a little relish.
Fill eggs with yolk mixture and serve
4. FRUIT SALAD:

Fruit can go with your Easter Ham because when thinking of spring, we like to think “colorful” and “flavorful.” Use fruits that are not too tangy, such as strawberries, melons and other berries. I’d stay away from all sour citrus fruits. Orange is the exception though, as it is the “sweet” citrus. Orange flavoring and ham are another great pairing.

This option will depend on the fruit that’s available in your local supermarket, so check and purchase fruit to your taste and preference.

Again, these are my own preferences, which are subjective. That’s what makes cooking so great. Great taste is in the eye of the diner. One person’s “not good” is another person’s “great.” Experiment and find your own great pairing with Easter ham.

Here are my choices for side dishes and recipes that can be served with Easter ham:

Tony VM – Easy Recipes For Busy Cooks – find some great recipes for Easter and other holidays, plus other cooking tips and hints: http://www.easyrecipesforbusycooks.com/easy-holiday-recipes.html

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?What-Goes-Best-With-an-Easter-Ham?&id=6960379] What Goes Best With an Easter Ham?

 

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Shoot for the Moon – Tips on Photographing the Moon

Posted on March 22, 2016 by savi0043

Shoot for the Moon – Tips on Photographing the Moon
By [http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Matt_Schrier/1848864]Matt Schrier

If care is not taken when photographing the moon it is likely that you will get either an overly dark photo, a moon that looks like the sun, a very small moon, or all the above. I would like to offer some tips on a different strategy for making compelling moon photographs.

So lets first discuss why it is so difficult to photograph the moon. The two main issues are: (1) The brightness of the moon, and (2) the size of the moon.

Almost everyone has experienced a “moon-lit night”. This is when a full moon, or nearly full moon, lights up a dark night. You see everything around you fairly well, which is evidence that the small amount of sunlight that the moon reflects is actually quite bright.

Why is this a problem for moon photography? When the moon is so bright and everything itself is much darker, it is impossible to make a photo where both the moon and the subject are clearly visible. Either the moon is very bright and washed out (and everything else is properly exposed), or the moon’s details are well-defined, but everything else is black or very dark. We’ll get to possible solutions in a little bit.

The other problem with moon photography is that it is actually quite small in the sky. Using a normal lens will cause the moon to appear very small in the resulting photo. This will not usually create a compelling image, even if the frame is properly exposed. Of course you can use a zoom lens and take a photo of the moon, but that is usually pretty boring.

So what is a photographer to do? My suggestions are as follows:

Plan on photographing a full moon at or near moonrise or moonset, when the moon is very near the horizon
Look for interesting subjects that are large (e.g. building or tree size), in a large flat region, and which are visible from a distance of a few hundred feet to a few hundred yards.
Research the direction (aka the azimuth) where the moon will rise or set in a given month, and select a subject where the moon will be easily be visible and adjacent to the subject from a distance

OK, you may not be able to easily visualize these ideas, but let me explain what I’m trying to accomplish here. I want you to photograph the full moon near the horizon, from a distance, and with an interesting subject in the frame. The reason I want to photograph the full moon near the horizon is because the light it is emitting nearly matches the ambient light of the rest of the world at that time. That’s because the sun would be directly behind you and it would be illuminating both the moon and your subject equally.

This concept of even lighting only works with the full moon, because during other phases of the moon the moon is either too high in the sky or below the horizon when the sun is behind you.

Now simply photographing the moon near the horizon does not alone make for an interesting image. So now think about making the moon LARGE in the frame, and in combination with an interesting subject. This is the hard part. You obviously will be using a zoom lens for this, so you will be shooting BOTH the moon and the subject from a distance. They need to be very near each other in the frame. This is where a lot of planning is needed. You need a large, unobstructed, flat area for this (i.e. no hills, trees, buildings, etc) so that the rising or setting moon is visible.

There are websites for researching the direction and time of moonrises and moonsets throughout the year. There will only be about 12 full moons per year (sometimes 13), so you may end up getting very few good opportunities to make the shots you are planning. Don’t forget about mother nature – a single cloud can ruin all of your plans.

I hope you can make use of these tips in your moon photography.

My Website: [http://shadesofgreenphoto.com]Bucks County Photography by Matt Schrier

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Shoot-for-the-Moon—Tips-on-Photographing-the-Moon&id=8420273] Shoot for the Moon – Tips on Photographing the Moon

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How to Harness the Power of Your Transition

Posted on March 18, 2016 by savi0043

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Do not resist them-that only create sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. LAO TZU

How to Harness the Power of Your Transition
By [http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Micaela_Becattini/1718548]Micaela Becattini

We can say that “change” is truly one of the few certainties of our life.

We change us and everything around us, at times in a hurry, other times more slowly, sometimes more obviously, other times in a more subtle way, but inexorably.

Change is a small death, we have to leave something behind, something that for us was a reference, to look toward a future that seems uncertain and sometimes threatening, especially if it is a change that makes us feel fear or we define as ‘negative’.

However, change is a natural and healthy process, change is inextricably linked to growth: without change there is no, physical, emotional or spiritual growth. Change is at the very foundation of our evolution, it is the factor of evolution. A life without change is in fact already a death.

Sometimes changes bring rivers of tears, feelings of helplessness and despair, but paradoxically, it is precisely in the transition that we build our power and our happiness. Not a power and a happiness ‘external’ and therefore fragile, but ‘internal’, deep and stable.

It is important to recognise that there is nothing dangerous or evil in change, except our interpretation of it, the negative judgment that we attach to it. What makes a painful transition is not so much what happens – the facts as such- but our way of interpreting them.

When something changes, we are in a hurry to label the new situation as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘right’ or ‘unjust’, ‘luck’ or ‘tough luck’, while if we were truly honest with ourselves we should admit that we do not really know anything about the consequences of that change!

How many times has something that we have judged at first sight as catastrophic is later then detected as a blessing?

But, let’s get back to that part of us which brakes, kicks and punches in the face of transition. This part is the control. In each of us resides a “controller” that will not rest. It is full of expectations, and the first expectation is precisely that the situations remain fixed and immutable.

Our marriage and our relationship must remain fixed and unchanged… if it changes it means that there is something wrong (preferably in the other); our working situation must remain fixed and immutable… if it changes we live it as a disaster. Not to mention the economic situation…

Security (understood as non-change) has always been only an illusion. The only constant on which we can make a real expectation and that we have the possibility to completely dominate is “trust”. Have confidence in life and in every change that it proposes us. Even those that appear more tragic to us: tragic is our vision, not the change in itself.

Learning to follow the flow of life is essential to finding our inner harmony. When we reject a change (and we reject every time that we suffer for something) we are swimming against the current, and since we need lots of energy to swim against the current, we feel exhausted.

The way to avoid this is to not judge, remain open to every possibility and say a full and unconditional YES to any situation life proposes us, learning to leave behind with love what has been and what is no longer.

This is not diminishing the cycle of loss, which is a fundamental personal journey, and suggesting that the process of surrendering and accepting will conclude in one week. Those losses will always be part of our life… we just need to acknowledge them, accept the transition and find the strengths to launch forth into your new situation!

So now grab a pen and a sheet of paper… a useful, simple and practical suggestion to facilitate a change that scares us and to harness the power of your transition is that of focusing on the emotional and practical implications that are behind your resistance: on the paper draw a vertical line to divide it into two vertical columns, in the left column list all the advantages of remaining in the current situation always and in the right column the benefits which would result from changing the situation. Or, in the left column, write how miserable you perceive your current life and in the right column, write what you can do to slowly bring some light on it.

This is the first step to help change your attitude and mindset toward any kind of Life Transition.

Transition is that difficult process of letting go of your old situation, suffering in your present confusion before launching forth into your new situation.

Are you trying to change your life, to go beyond, but you’re afraid and you are tempted to let your dreams go?

Join me on a 8 Week Program… I will share with you some IMPORTANT KEYS TO OPEN THE DOOR… the keys that you were looking for to overcome fear and open opportunities to the life you want!

Be accountable to yourself and grab this opportunity to shift in your way of being which will inform and influence every decision you make, every action you take, and the way you approach that action during your intense transition.

I will hand you a blank canvas… you will now have an opportunity to paint a new picture!!!

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Harness-the-Power-of-Your-Transition&id=9351369] How to Harness the Power of Your Transition

 

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Success Stories: Making Them Happen for You

Posted on February 22, 2016 by savi0043

True success stories do not happen overnight generally.  Winning the lottery is not one of the true success stories-it is just a case of someone getting lucky.  Whether you want to lose weight, start your own business, move up the corporate ladder, or just be a success in your own home, there are things that you can do to be successful.

Success Stories: Making Them Happen for You
By [http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Eriani_Doyel/23197]Eriani Doyel

True success stories do not happen overnight generally.  Winning the lottery is not one of the true success stories-it is just a case of someone getting lucky.  Whether you want to lose weight, start your own business, move up the corporate ladder, or just be a success in your own home, there are things that you can do to be successful.  So, the next time you see those success stories on the news or in your favorite magazine, don’t just walk away and say “that will never happen to me.”  Let the stories and the individuals in them inspire you to make something more of your life.  Here are some principles you will find in success stories:
1.  Make sure that you define success clearly for yourself.  If you think that success would be to make a million dollars in the next 5 years, then that is your definition of success.  Most people in success stories have clear goals and outcomes that they want to achieve before they even start out.  These goals may change over time and the journey, but you must have something to work for.
2.  Outline the steps to your success.  Success stories are more than a beginning and an end.  They have chapters in between.  Set smaller attainable goals which lead up to your big goal of success.  For instance, if you want to lose 50 pounds in year, you will need to lose about 1 pound a week.  Set goals that will help you to reach that.
3.  Enjoy the journey.  When people are writing success stories they will have many victories along the way.  Document and celebrate those victories.  Give yourself a reward-even if it is just a pat on the back and saying “You did it!”  This can be a time to refocus on your goal.
4.  Changes happen.  Anyone who has ever traveled knows that things happen which change your plans.  They may be as small as a speed bump, or as big as a fork in the road or a dead end.  When the big things happen, you can pick up and start again or you can change your goal and head out again.  Failure only happens when you stop trying.

Eriani Doyel writes articles about Success.  For more information about sucess stories [http://www.fullysuccess.com] visit fullysuccess.com [http://www.fullysuccess.com]

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Success-Stories:-Making-Them-Happen-for-You&id=219856] Success Stories: Making Them Happen for You

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Defeat Your “Ground Hog Days” With This Powerful Success Activity

Posted on February 2, 2016 by savi0043

Defeat Your “Ground Hog Days” With This Powerful Success Activity
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Wendy_Heyworth]Wendy Heyworth

Do you remember the movie “Ground Hog Day” when the TV Presenter kept waking up and having the same day, every day, till he changed his attitude and actions towards people.

Rita: What did you do today? Phil: Oh, same-old same-old.

Well, does this sound familiar? You know how the day starts, you make a list, plan when to do the list items and start taking action. Then life happens; there are interruptions, visitors, phone calls and so on… Some items on your list never even got started, because they seem to be too difficult to deal with. Some items just seem to eat up all your time. Well – the list goes on and on. The end of the day comes and you are frustrated with your poor progress. The day finishes on a low note. The next day same things happen again.

So how do you change the pattern?

Try this powerful exercise and you will be amazed how things improve dramatically for the better!

In the Dale Carnegie book “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, there is a great example on how to defeat those “Ground Hog Day” results. A Wall Street Bank President used a self analyse system as a form of self improvement with outstanding results. This gentleman had little formal training yet had managed to rise to his prominent position. He confessed he owed most of his success to the constant application of his “Homework System”. He kept an engagement book which detailed all his appointments, calls, discussions etc that he had during the week. Once a week he would analyse his results for the previous week, by going through his engagement book. He would think through every discussion, meeting etc, that he had and ask himself various questions, such as:

What mistakes did I make? What did I do right? How could I have improved my performance? What lessons did I learn?

What a powerful way to improve your results. You need to keep detailed, honest notes on all your actions, discussions etc. When you choose to examine your notes, (either on a daily or weekly basis), you will notice things you did well, and things to be improved. Pat yourself on the back for your successes especially when you quickly see not only how to change from a negative action to now a positive action but you have made the changes! Often just by making yourself aware of what actions you have done or not, you will be conscious to make an improvement next time the issue comes up. You will learn to deal with difficult issues straight away and move on. Remember each success will breed success!

Check on your progress after a few weeks. This daily focus to improve helps you to remain zeroed in on what is important and you will be blown away by how quickly you are heading towards your goals. You will actually become addicted to success.

Wendy Heyworth lives in Tauranga New Zealand

Wendy has had a successful business career and is now working in e-commerce. She is aware of the difficulties of working and running a business over the Internet.

She is now advising others how to be successful the first time in their new home online business.

Wendy has her blog http://homeentrepreneuralsuccess.blogspot.com/

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Defeat-Your-Ground-Hog-Days-With-This-Powerful-Success-Activity&id=4217671] Defeat Your “Ground Hog Days” With This Powerful Success Activity

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