Plan Your Wedding – Give Back to the Earth

Offset the impact of your special day with ZeroCarbon™ Weddings
http://www.carbonfund.org/weddings

As you prepare for the beginning of a new life together, it is important to share this special time with friends and family. Your wedding is a celebration of the future, and now you can make it a celebration for our planet’s future as well!

Travel, whether by air or car, emits large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, and for most weddings is the biggest contributor to your wedding’s carbon footprint. WeddingWire has partnered with Carbonfund.org to bring you a new tool for your Wedding Website. Use our carbon calculator to determine the level of carbon dioxide your wedding events will emit into the air and give your guests the opportunity to contribute to your ZeroCarbon Wedding!

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Crunchy Critters

From: Martha Stewart Kids

Crispy cornflake chicks in a chocolatey cereal nest are a sure sign that spring is on the way.

Ingredients

Makes 7 Nests and 14 Chicks

  • 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for bowls
  • 3 cups mini marshmallows
  • 3 1/2 cups finely crushed corn flakes
  • 1/4 cup black and brown candy-coated chocolate pieces, crushed
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels, melted
  • 2 teaspoons smooth peanut butter
  • Candies, for decorating

Directions

  1. Toast coconut in 350 degree oven until lightly browned, about 5 minutes, stirring once. Butter seven 3 1/2-inch bowls; set aside. Melt butter in saucepan. Add marshmallows; stir until melted. Stir in cornflakes. Set aside 1 3/4 cups of the mixture in a medium bowl.
  2. Stir 1/2 cup coconut, crushed chocolate pieces, and melted chocolate into mixture in pan. Press into bowls to form nests. Refrigerate 1 hour.
  3. Form chicks from reserved mixture (attach 1- and 3/4-inch cereal balls with peanut butter).Decorate with candies. Remove nests from bowls; line with coconut. Add chicks.

Tiny Features: Try snipped licorice ropes for eyes, candy-coated chocolates for wings, and candy-coated sunflower seeds for beaks.

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Spring 2010 Wedding Dress Collections

From Martha Stewart Weddings:

Browse through gowns from the Spring 2010 Collections. From Vera Wang to Carolina Herrera to Priscilla of Boston, there are so many gowns to see!

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Make an Eco-Friendly Easter Basket

From eHow.com:
How to Grow a “Live” Easter Basket
By eHow Holidays & Celebrations Editor

Nothing says Easter and spring like a basket brimming with colorful eggs, chocolate bunnies and jewel-toned jelly beans. With just a little advance preparation you can tuck those goodies into a nest of real grass.

Instructions

Things You’ll Need:

  • Baskets
  • Grass Seeds
  • Potting Soil
  • Shallow Pots
  • Baskets

Step1
Gather your supplies and start about three weeks before Easter.

Step2
Find a shallow container that’s just big enough to fit inside the basket you want to use. (Make sure the pot has drainage holes.)

Step3
Fill the container with potting soil and sprinkle grass seed on top.

Step4
Place it outdoors in the sun or on a sunny windowsill.

Step5
Water it daily.

Step6
Wait until the grass has grown a few inches high and then tuck the container into a basket and let the Easter Bunny fill it with springtime treats.

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Hippity Hoppity History of the Easter Bunny!

From History.com:

Easter Bunny
The Bible makes no mention of a long-eared, short-tailed creature who delivers decorated eggs to well-behaved children on Easter Sunday; nevertheless, the Easter bunny has become a prominent symbol of Christianity’s most important holiday. The exact origins of this mythical mammal are unclear, but rabbits, known to be prolific procreators, are an ancient symbol of fertility and new life. According to some sources, the Easter bunny first arrived in America in the 1700s with German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania and transported their tradition of an egg-laying hare called “Osterhase” or “Oschter Haws.” Their children made nests in which this creature could lay its colored eggs. Eventually, the custom spread across the U.S. and the fabled rabbit’s Easter morning deliveries expanded to include chocolate and other types of candy and gifts, while decorated baskets replaced nests. Additionally, children often left out carrots for the bunny in case he got hungry from all his hopping.

Easter Eggs
Easter is a religious holiday, but some of its customs, such as Easter eggs, are likely linked to pagan traditions. The egg, an ancient symbol of new life, has been associated with pagan festivals celebrating spring. From a Christian perspective, Easter eggs are said to represent Jesus’ emergence from the tomb and resurrection. Decorating eggs for Easter is a tradition that dates back to at least the 13th century, according to some sources. One explanation for this custom is that eggs were formerly a forbidden food during the Lenten season, so people would paint and decorate them to mark the end of the period of penance and fasting, then eat them on Easter as a celebration.

Easter egg hunts and egg rolling are two popular egg-related traditions. In the U.S., the White House Easter Egg Roll, a race in which children push decorated, hard-boiled eggs across the White House lawn, is an annual event held the Monday after Easter. The first official White House egg roll occurred in 1878, when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. The event has no religious significance, although some people have considered egg rolling symbolic of the stone blocking Jesus’ tomb being rolled away, leading to his resurrection.

Easter Candy
Easter is the second best-selling candy holiday in America, after Halloween. Among the most popular sweet treats associated with this day are chocolate eggs, which date back to early 19th century Europe. Eggs have long been associated with Easter as a symbol of new life and Jesus’ resurrection. Another egg-shaped candy, the jelly bean, became associated with Easter in the 1930s (although the jelly bean’s origins reportedly date all the way back to a Biblical-era concoction called a Turkish Delight). According to the National Confectioners Association, over 16 billion jelly beans are made in the U.S. each year for Easter, enough to fill a giant egg measuring 89 feet high and 60 feet wide. For the past decade, the top-selling non-chocolate Easter candy has been the marshmallow Peep, a sugary, pastel-colored confection. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based candy manufacturer Just Born (founded by Russian immigrant Sam Born in 1923) began selling Peeps in the 1950s. The original Peeps were handmade, marshmallow-flavored yellow chicks, but other shapes and flavors were later introduced, including chocolate mousse bunnies.

Easter Parade
In New York City, the Easter Parade tradition dates back to the mid-1800s, when the upper crust of society would attend Easter services at various Fifth Avenue churches then stroll outside afterward, showing off their new spring outfits and hats. Average citizens started showing up along Fifth Avenue to check out the action. The tradition reached its peak by the mid-20th century, and in 1948, the popular film Easter Parade was released, starring Fred Astaire and Judy Garland and featuring the music of Irving Berlin. The title song includes the lyrics: “In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it/You’ll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.”

The Easter Parade tradition lives on in Manhattan, with Fifth Avenue from 49th Street to 57th Street being shut down during the day to traffic. Participants often sport elaborately decorated bonnets and hats. The event has no religious significance, but sources note that Easter processions have been a part of Christianity since its earliest days. Today, other cities across America also have their own parades.

See more here at history.com.

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Little Lamb Cupcakes

From Food Network Kitchens

Ingredients

  • 1 vanilla cupcake, taken out of the paper, recipe follows
  • About 1 cup White Fluff Frosting, recipe follows
  • 1 large marshmallow
  • 2 white candy eyes
  • 1 purple jujube candy
  • 1 short 1/4 inch and 1 long piece 2 inch black string licorice
  • 35 mini-marshmallows
  • 4 purple and 2 pink jelly beans

Directions

Frost cupcake. Place the large marshmallow in the center. Lightly frost candy eyes and press onto the marshmallow. Frost the back of the jujube candy and put below eyes to for a nose. Frost the short piece of licorice lightly and press underneath the nose to make the mouth. Press mini-marshmallows all around the cupcakes and the face to make the lambs coat. Frost the tips of the pink jelly beans to make ears. Stick the purple jelly beans in the front and back of the cupcake for feet. Curl the long piece of licorice and press into frosting to make the lamb’s tail.

Vanilla Cupcake:

  1. 2 2/3 cups sugar
  2. 1 cup (2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
  3. 2 large eggs
  4. 2 large egg yolks
  5. 2/3 cup milk
  6. 2/3 cup water
  7. 2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  8. 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
  9. 1 1/3 cups cake flour
  10. 4 teaspoons baking powder
  11. 1/2 teaspoon fine salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 12-cup cupcake tins with paper liners. (To avoid cupcakes sticking if they overflow slightly, lightly spray the tops of the pans.) Put tins on a baking sheet. Set aside.

Process sugar and butter in a food processor until very creamy, scraping sides as needed, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the eggs and yolks, one at a time, pulsing after each addition. Add the milk, water, and vanilla and process to blend.

Whisk both flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the dry ingredients, in 3 batches to the wet, pulsing, and then scraping batter off the sides of the processor as needed after each addition. Process until the batter is very smooth, about 2 minutes.

Evenly pour the batter into the prepared cups, filling them 3/4 of the way full. Bake until the cakes are just firm and spring back when gently pressed, and the tops are golden, 18 to 25 minutes. Cool slightly in tin, and turn out of tin when cool enough to handle. Cool cupcakes completely on a rack before frosting.

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Inactive Prep Time: 30 minutes

Ease of preparation: easy

Fluff Frosting:

  1. 1/4 cup whole milk
  2. 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  3. 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  4. 5 cups confectioners’ sugar
  5. 1/2 cup marshmallow fluff
  6. Pinch fine salt

Whisk the milk and vanilla extract together in a small bowl.

Slowly beat the butter and sugar, in another medium bowl, with an electric mixer until incorporated. Raise the speed to high and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 to 7 minutes. (Occasionally turn the mixer off, and scrape the sides of the bowl down with a rubber spatula.) Add the fluff and salt and reduce the speed to low. Add the milk and vanilla mixture, scrape the bowl down, and mix until fully incorporated. Raise the mixer to high and beat briefly until fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes. Use immediately.

Yield: 3 3/4 cups

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Hello…Lover!

We are busy these days putting together some new favors for the summer and fall! We are using Merckens chocolate, the most heavenly, smooth chocolate I have tasted in a long, long time. Several years ago, The Chocolate Report did an extensive blind-tasting, with a crew of top chefs. Merckens was ranked #1 in both bittersweet chocolate and milk chocolate, and #2 in white chocolate. We have always carried the Fall Chocolate Foil Leaves Kit, and now we have improved it by changing the chocolate to this smooth, creamy milk chocolate. In addition, we are now offering chocolate seashells with silver, blue and pink foil.

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