I got the idea for heating pads here years ago and gave them away as gifts one Christmas (thanks guys!)

Now I'm thinking of making some pocket warmers for my friends in Canada who are freezing.  I used rice in my last ones, but I know you can use other things as well.

Two questions:
1.  What is the best filling for heating pads? Rice was a little prickly for me.
2.  Can I use felt or something like that to make them?  I want to make hearts and have them nice and soft.  If not then can you recommend another soft fabric that would work? (I know they're supposed to be cotton but I don't know much about fabric)

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give!

I love Mexican Food and have been getting into more elaborate Mexican recipes.  I found these two on www.allrecipes.com.

The recipe for Carnitas is pretty simple, it just takes time (1 1/2 hours to boil, 1 hour to sit, then shred, then fry).  It was all worth it in the end.  My boyfriend moaned a lot while he ate it.



I had never used raw tomatillos before but the guacamole was really good! It did need some salt though. Oh, and I didn't have the red onions the recipe called for so I went ahead and used green onions.



Here are the links for the Recipes

Simple Carnitas
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Simple-Carnitas/Detail.aspx

Tomatillo Guacamole
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Tomatillo-Guacamole/Detail.aspx

I've only attempted one piece of jewelery ever, but I would like your opinions and recommendations. 

Could I make a necklace similar to this?  It's my best friend's 30th birthday AND she's getting married this year.  I told her this necklace would be awesome with her dress.  She loved it. 

I am a total rookie with next to no jewelery making experience.  Where do you recommend I start?  Or do you think it's an advanced piece that I would be better off to try to find to purchase?  I know it's a lot of questions, thanks in advance for your help!

So I've been replacing all my milk with Soy, and the expiry dates are months out.  One that I bought got some solid-ish particles in it... does this mean that it was bad?  No flavor/smell difference.
Also, what milk alternative do you prefer for cereal?  Soy/Almond/Rice?

As far as tofu goes, I've been buying solid firm blocks that don't come in liquid.  If I don't use it all, how should I store it, and for how long can I?

In case you didn't notice I'm a newbie to all this.  I'm actually not vegetarian but find myself leaning that way more and more lately.

So, my boyfriend went out of town last weekend for two days.  Besides having a Sex and the City Season 2 Marathon, and shopping at the "Everything $5.99 store"- this is what I did:







I was so excited but had no one to tell, so and impromptu photo session was in order:



Thinkin about it, this is probably the 3rd thing I've made from scratch without a pattern.  I'm still really new to all this. I copied the chest area from a shirt I already had, then winged the rest.  I know it's not perfect but I like it!  and thank god for not having to hem it.  It took me about 2-3 hours to finish it, and I took a few breaks.
It's a little tight in the stomach area so maybe I can wear it with a little jacket or sweater.  Comments?

So, I found this amazing recipe on allrecipes.com (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Apple-Pie-by-Grandma-Ople/Detail.aspx?prop31=3)and tried it out last night.  It's an apple pie recipe that callls for you to make up a super simple caramel sauce and pour it right over the lattice crust of the pie & let it melt down into the pie. 

Let me say, it was SO awesome.  The crust with the caramel stuff made this amazing glaze on the outside and just tasted wonderful.  The only changes I made to the recipe is to add cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg to the apples before putting them in the pie.  Without further adieu, here are the pictures.





The only thing I would've done differently is to bake the bottom crust a little before putting the apples in.  It was a little underdone for me.

So I made this awesome salad with roasted brussel sprouts, mushrooms, and fennel.  The greens were spinach, parsley, and fennel fronds, and the dressing is a balsamic honey dressing.  Then I sprinkled with toasted pine nuts.  It was SO good.  Even my brussel sprout hating boyfriend said "yum, I guess I like brussel sprouts". The only thing I would've done differently is to leave the fennel fronds out.  They tasted good but the texture was a little stringy.  Here's the pics:

Naked Greens


Roasted Veg



Dressing


Finished product with rotisserie chicken on the side

It's so easy, and it was so yummy and looked so pretty. I wish I had taken a picture.

Anyways, all you do is broil the salmon with skin (about 13 min per inch) I do 80-90% on the flesh side and the rest on the skin side because the skin can start to smoke and burn pretty easily.

For the butter I mixed all these ingredients together:

Butter
Lime Zest
Fresh Lime Juice
Grated Ginger
1 Grated Garlic Clove
Chopped Cilantro
Salt
Pepper

You can adjust the quantities to what you think you would like.

I wished I had some honey too, that would probably be good.
My Microplane was my best friend! I used it for the zest, ginger, and garlic.  I just put a glob on each salmon and it melted a bit and looked so good.  When I ate it I just spreaded the glob over the salmon so I got the flavour all over. SOOOOO good.  This could be done with any number of ingredients.

i recently heard about freezing tofu to make the consistency better.  i've heard conflicting ways though, some say just to freeze in the package you got it, to drain it first and wrap it, one said it has to be frozen for 72 hours, another said to boil the package (that was frozen) in water to unthaw it.  confusing, and the last one was kinda alarming.  can you really boil plastic?
anyways,  here are my questions:
have you tried it and what change did you see in the consistency and/or flavor?
what way do you freeze it and thaw it?

Hi All!  I had a question to see if anyone has ever made french fries (baked) with regular AND sweet potatoes at the same time?  I've actually never cooked with sweet potatoes but for some reason I think they'll take longer to cook than regular potatoes.  Would anyone recommend blanching them or just throw them in the oven with the oil and seasoning?