JCE Gazetta

New Posts and Pages on www.jcegazeta.com !!!!

jcegazetta — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 18:20:38 +0000

On www.jcegazetta.com we added brand new cool posts, pages, and information!!!! COME ON DOWN to www.jcegazetta.com!!!

Filed under: Arcade, Art Gallery, Ask Sasha, Have You Ever Wondered?, Holiday Updates, JCE Gazetta, Monthly News, Olympics, Optical Illusions, Polls, Riddles, Stereograms, Summer Cooking, Summer Crafts, Updates, Weekly News, Weekly Speeches

We Added a Forum and Playable Games

jcegazetta — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:39:17 +0000

www.jcegazetta.com is a transfered website and has everything just like this website and more! Every optical illusion, every cooking recipes and everything is EXACTLY THE SAME!!! (gasp) That’s a lot of stuff!

Filed under: Updates

New Forum of www.jcegazetta.com!

jcegazetta — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:04:52 +0000

Now we have a new forum on www.jcegazetta.com! Come and see what is on it. This website is just to update our NEW and IMPROVED website! IF you have any requests on what you want on email: jcegazetta@gmail.com. Then we shall see if we can do it. Posting will be a lot slower with school around…. We will try to update as soon as possible!

Filed under: Updates

New Webpage

jcegazetta — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:14:41 +0000

In our new website, www.jcegazetta.com, we have new and improved arcade! It includes Dune Buggy, Bloons Tower 1 &2 , and lots more! Have fun!

Filed under: Updates

New Webpage!!!

jcegazetta — Mon, 31 May 2010 20:11:16 +0000

We now have a new web page!!! ^.^ Our new web page address is www.jcegazetta.com. Enjoy!

Filed under: Updates

Memorial Day

jcegazetta — Mon, 31 May 2010 19:41:20 +0000

Today, May 31, is when the United States of America remembers the soldiers that fought in wars.

Filed under: Updates

New Domain

jcegazetta — Sun, 30 May 2010 15:24:48 +0000

Our website is going to change domains this summer. This website is still going to be here but there will be another one but cooler! If you are wondering what the domain is. It is: www.jcegazetta.com . I hope you will visit it! We will update it as soon as we can!

Filed under: Updates

Cobblers and Crisps

jcegazetta — Sun, 30 May 2010 14:00:08 +0000

Easier to prepare and faster to bake than pies, crisps and cobblers are a perfect way to showcase seasonal fruits.

Fresh fruit crisps can match fruit pies fork to fork in terms of flavor–and they win the race from mixing bowl to oven to table. From blueberry buckle to apple crisp to peach cobbler, these humble desserts are made with sweetened fruit topped with a biscuit dough, pastry crust, or crumbly streusel.
These desserts are the simplest of all: fruit is covered with a streusel topping and baked until the crust is crispy and the filling bubbles and thickens.
These desserts are the simplest of all: fruit is covered with a streusel topping and baked until the crust is crispy and the filling bubbles and thickens.

A crisp, a crumble, or a crunch

These desserts are the simplest of all: fruit is covered with a streusel topping and baked until the crust is crispy and the filling bubbles and thickens.

Cobblers

Cobblers can be topped with a sticky drop biscuit dough (which looks like stone cobbles on an old street) or a lattice of pastry.

Brown Betties

Apple brown betty is one of the first documented apple desserts in the United States. Popular during Colonial times, it’s still a nostalgic favorite. The fruit is layered with a mixture of fresh breadcrumbs, butter and brown sugar, and the concoction is baked until the apples are tender and the crumb topping gets crispy.

Credits to: http://allrecipes.com

Filed under: Summer Cooking

Butter Cakes and Pound Cakes

jcegazetta — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:55:58 +0000

Butter Cakes and Pound Cakes

By: Jennifer Anderson

These classic cakes have a fine crumb, a tender, moist texture and a rich, buttery taste.

Known as “shortened” cakes, these cakes are relatively easy to make. Bakers use the creaming method–beating the fat and sugar together to hold air bubbles–and chemical leaveners like baking powder, rather than beaten eggs (like sponge cakes and angel food cakes) to create their fine texture.

Know Your Ingredients

The main ingredients of shortened cakes are fat, sugar, eggs and flour. Some recipes also call for chemical leaveners (baking powder or baking soda), milk, buttermilk or sour cream, flavoring extracts, and a pinch of salt to heighten the flavors.

A feature that characterizes shortened cakes–also known as “high-ratio cakes”–is their high proportion of fat and sugar to flour. These ingredients are what make cakes tender, moist and dense. Since there are so few ingredients in these cakes, use high-quality butter and pure flavoring extracts, measure with perfect accuracy and follow the recipe directions to achieve the best results.

Butter is usually the fat of choice, or a combination of butter and shortening. Shortening is easier to work with, because it is already partially aerated and remains at the same texture over a wide temperature range, but butter gives incomparable flavor and mouth-feel.

The “creaming method” is the same mixing technique you use for a batch of chocolate chip cookies–for cakes, however, you keep beating air into the mix. Over-mixing, which would cause the cookies to spread flat when baking, is hard to do when creaming butter and sugar for a cake. Beat room-temperature butter with granulated sugar (superfine, castor, or “bakers’ sugar” is best) until the butter is very fluffy and noticeably lighter in color.

Add room temperature eggs one by one, beating after each addition. Adding all of the eggs or too much cold liquid at once will cause the batter to look curdled. Add any extracts or flavorings after incorporating the eggs.

Once you start adding dry ingredients, be careful not to over-beat the batter. The gentle handling is critical to creating a fine, not tough, texture in a cake. Many recipes alternate adding dry ingredients and any additional liquid; mix well after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Stop mixing when each addition is well incorporated.

Make sure that all of your ingredients are at room temperature, particularly the fat, eggs and any liquid you may be using. It’s essential that all these items be at room temperature:

If the butter is too cold, it won’t beat evenly; it won’t incorporate air and increase in volume.
When eggs and liquid are cold, the batter will curdle. Instead of a smooth, homogenous batter, it will separate into liquid and fat. You can still proceed with the recipe, but the cake’s texture may be denser than you like.
If any of the ingredients are warm, the fat will melt and you won’t be able to whip air into the mixture.

The second thing you need to do before mixing the batter is to thoroughly sift together all the dry ingredients. Cake flour and cocoa powder are especially fine, and form small lumps that won’t get broken up during the mixing process. Unevenly mixed ingredients can result in a cake with big holes and tunnels through the middle, riddled with lumps of raw flour. Use a sifter or a wire whisk to make sure all lumps are broken up and those ingredients are really and truly mixed together.

You don’t have to have a stand mixer to make a butter cake or pound cake, but it sure helps. Begin by beating the softened butter at medium speed until fluffy and light in color, about three minutes. Add the sugar and continue to beat for about four minutes longer. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs one at a time and beat for several seconds between each addition. If the batter does curdle, just continue whipping it; it should smooth out once it warms up.

After you’ve beaten in the eggs, you must mix in the remaining ingredients as gently and quickly as possible to avoid deflating the air you’ve so carefully beaten into the mixture.

Slow the mixer down to low speed and sprinkle in about 1/3 of the dry ingredients.
Mix the batter while pouring in about 1/3 of the liquid (this includes milk, buttermilk, sour cream, juice, or coffee).
Continue in this fashion until all of the ingredients are incorporated into a smooth batter.
Any garnishes–nuts, fruit, chocolate chips or other additions–should be very gently folded in by hand after the batter is mixed.

Pour the batter immediately into a prepared baking pan–either greased and floured, or greased and lined with parchment paper–and bake in the preheated oven. As the cake bakes, it will rise high in the middle and turn a dark golden brown on the outside. Depending upon your oven, you may need to rotate the cake pans on their racks to ensure even baking.

Don’t wait until the cake has pulled away from the sides of the pan to test for doneness: test it by pressing gently with a fingertip near the center. The cake should slowly spring back. (You can also insert a toothpick or cake tester near the center of the cake; it should come out clean, with no batter sticking to it.) Once you remove the cake from the oven, let it cool on a wire rack. Run a knife around the edges of the cake pan to loosen the cake, and invert the pan onto another rack or plate. Cool completely before slicing or frosting.

Credits to: http://allrecipes.com

Filed under: Summer Cooking

Homemade Ice Cream

jcegazetta — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:51:48 +0000

Homemade Ice Cream

By: Allrecipes Staff

There’s something extra-special about homemade ice cream.

And all it takes is just a few ingredients.

Egg-Free Ice Creams

Ice cream comes in two basic styles: Custard (or French custard-style) and Philadelphia (also called “New York” or “American”).

Unlike custards, Philadelphia-style ice cream contains no egg yolks and does not require cooking. It’s based purely on cream and sugar, and is very delicate-tasting, with few ingredients.

Custard ice cream is, as the name suggests, made from a custard base. Egg yolks or whole eggs are whisked together with hot milk or cream and sugar, and cooked gently until the mixture becomes thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Egg yolks are natural emulsifiers, and the resulting custard makes an ice cream that is remarkably smooth and rich. Chill the custard for at least one hour before freezing.

Starting from a simple base of cream, milk, eggs, and sugar, and then mix in ripe summer fruits, chocolate, and toasted nuts to create your own flavor combos. Other good choices? Vanilla beans, lavender, green tea, fresh peppermint, and candied ginger.

To get the most flavor from a vanilla bean, split it lengthwise with a sharp knife and scrape the seeds into the milk.
After the bean has steeped, remove the pod and rinse in cold water and pat dry.
“Used” vanilla beans are still powerfully aromatic, and can be stored in a canister of plain granulated sugar to make vanilla sugar.
Infuse herbs and spices into the mixture as you heat the milk.
Extracts, liqueurs, and flavoring oils (citrus, peppermint, cinnamon) should be added after the custard has cooled slightly.
Add perfectly ripe fruits and berries to your ice cream base: sprinkle fruit with sugar and crush it with a potato masher before mixing it in. This adds much more flavor than plain chunks of fruit stirred into the mix.
To add nuts, chocolate, crumbled cookies, or whole berries, let the ice cream reach the consistency of soft-serve, and then stir in the garnishes; pack in airtight containers and freeze until firm.

When the mixture has thickened and is hard to stir, remove it from the ice cream maker and transfer it to a freezer container. If you can resist the urge to devour it while it’s still in this “soft-serve” stage, let it harden in the coldest part of your freezer for several hours or overnight. Your patience will be rewarded.

Tip: To keep your ice cream from becoming super-hard in the freezer, make sure both the ice cream maker and the mixture are kept ice cold as you’re making the ice cream.

Store leftover ice cream in an airtight container with a layer of plastic wrap pressed onto the surface to prevent it from absorbing odors.

Credits to: http://allrecipes.com

Filed under: Summer Cooking

Summer Fruit Desserts

jcegazetta — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:49:10 +0000

By: Stacey Schultz

Fresh fruits make summer desserts sensational!

Related Recipe Collection

Summer Dessert Recipes

Fire Up the Grill

Desserts made on the barbeque can transcend S’mores. Be sure to scrape the grate well between the meat course and dessert!

Fresh Fruit Cakes

Not your holiday doorstop! These are fruit cakes everyone will love.

Related Advice

Seasonal Fare

Summer berries, cherries, and peaches provide the perfect flavors for desserts that are warm from the oven or refreshingly cool and sweet. With so much luscious fresh fruit available, each month of the summer offers the chance to create something different.

Strawberry Season

With warm weather comes the ripening of aromatic, bright red strawberries.

On hot summer days, homemade strawberry ice cream is both refreshing and fun.
Marinated strawberries in balsamic vinegar create a surprisingly delicious and sophisticated dessert.
Strawberry shortcake, which originated from the Native Americans who baked crushed strawberries into a cornmeal cake, is a favorite dessert to round out a light summer meal.
Simplest yet, strawberries are famously delicious with fresh cream.

A Bowl of Cherries

By July, cherries and blueberries are ready to be picked. The time is right for cobblers, crisps, and the classic French clafouti, which combines cherries and cream. Tart cherries such as Montmorency are excellent for baking, but can be challenging to find fresh as they do not ship well. Sweet cherries, such as Bing and Rainier, are grown in the Northwest and Michigan and are plentiful this time of year.

Fresh blueberry pie is another welcome dessert at the end of a summer meal. Wild blueberries are smaller and more flavorful than the plumper ones grown on local farms.

Just Peachy

Summer peaches are juicy and aromatic. When baked, they soften into sweet syrup that is too good to miss. Peach cobblers and crisps are homey and delicious, and faster to prepare than pies. And if it’s too hot and sultry in the kitchen, keep that ice cream maker on hand for frosty scoops of fruit ice cream or sorbet.

Dog Days of Summer Desserts

Raspberries, plums, and blackberries are also peaking in late summer.

Filed under: Summer Cooking

Drawstring Bandana Beach Bag

jcegazetta — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:45:47 +0000

Stitch up a bag to carry your towel, lotion and a magazine to the beach.

You Need:

Two Bandanas
6 Yards of Satin Cord
Scissors
Sewing Machine
Large Safety Pin

Instructions:

Line up bandanas, right sides together. Sew all around three sides 1/2″ from edge.

Fold remaining top edge down all around 1″ from top. Press. Sew 7/8″ from the edge, leaving a 1/2″ opening. This will create the pocket for your drawstring. Turn the bag right side out and press well.

Cut three 2 yard pieces of satin cord and tie them together in an overhand knot. Braid the strands together tightly. (Ask someone to hold the end and keep it pulled taut while you work to make braiding easier.) Tie the final ends together in an overhand knot. Trim. Pin a large pin to one end of your braid.

Push the pin with the braid into and through the pocket all around and out the same hole. Tie ends together.

Filed under: Summer Crafts

Watermelon Pony Bead Pattern

jcegazetta — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:45:13 +0000

TO PRINT JUST THE PATTERN, RIGHT CLICK ON THE IMAGE AND SELECT “PRINT PICTURE”.

You need:
–13 Lime Green Pony Beads
–29 Hot Pink Pony Beads
–8 Black Pony Beads
–1 Yards Satin Cord
–1 Lanyard Hook

Instructions:
Fold your cord in half to find the center. Use a half hitch (see detail below) to secure it to lanyard hook. Lace beads using pattern at right as a guide. Finish by tying off with a double knot.

Credits to: http://www.makingfriends.com

Filed under: Summer Crafts

Ice Cream Cone Pony Bead Pattern

jcegazetta — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:44:21 +0000

TO PRINT JUST THE PATTERN, RIGHT CLICK ON THE IMAGE AND SELECT “PRINT PICTURE”.

You need:
–1 Red Pony Bead
–16 Pink Pony Beads
–15 Tan Pony Beads
–1 Yard Satin Cord
–1 Lanyard Hook

Credits to: http://www.makingfriends.com

Filed under: Summer Crafts

Mini Sliced Fruit SWAPs

jcegazetta — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:43:21 +0000

With or without our mini knives, these fruit swaps make a terrific summer SWAP.

You Need:

Mini Fruit
Mini Knife
Tan Craft Foam
SWAP Tags (Optional)
Safety Pin or Jewelry Craft Pin
Low Temp Glue Gun
Pen or Fine Point Marker
Scissors

Instructions:

Trace around a credit card on a tan craft foam to make your cutting board. Cut out. Glue on 4 fruit slices. Cut a 5th piece of fruit in half. Glue to cutting board. Glue on knife. (You can make Girl Scout CookingSWAPs with the rest of your mini cookware.)

If SWAPping, write your name, your country, troop, etc on the SWAP tag. Add a pin. Hot glue the cup to the tag. Set up your swap or join our SWAP Sensation.

Credits to: http://www.makingfriends.com

Filed under: Summer Crafts

Mini Summer Drink SWAPs

jcegazetta — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:42:00 +0000

Make a mini fresh fruity drink to swap or make them for your American Girl Doll. It looks good enough to drink but made from gel glue and beads.

You Need:

Mini Cups
Mini Fruit
Clear Pony Beads
Clear Gel Glue
Coffee Stirrer
SWAP Tags (Optional)
Safety Pin or Jewelry Craft Pin
Low Temp Glue Gun
Pen or Fine Point Marker

Instructions:

Cut two or three mini fruit pieces in half. Place inside the mini plastic cup with a bunch of clear pony beads. Fill the rest of the cup with clear gel glue. Cut a 2 1/2″ piece off a coffee stirrer. Push inside the filled cup. Cut a slit in another fruit slice and place on the edge of the cup. Let dry overnight.

If SWAPping, write your name, your country, troop, etc on the SWAP tag. Add a pin. Hot glue the cup to the tag. Set up your swap or join our SWAP Sensation.

Credits to: http://www.makingfriends.com

Filed under: Summer Crafts

Sunglass Holder

jcegazetta — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:40:48 +0000

Too cool! Make a sunglass holder to take to the beach or on your vacation.

You need:

Sunglass Pattern
Designer Rainbow Foam
2 Yards Rat-tail Satin Cord
16 Pony Beads
1/8″ Hole Punch
Scissors
Tacky Glue

Instructions:

Print Sunglass Pattern. Cut out. Trace around pattern onto the reverse side of the rainbow foam. Mark holes by pushing pen through paper and leaving a mark on the back of the imitation leather. Punch out holes where marked.

Stiffen ends of cord with tacky glue. Let dry. Fold eyeglass case in half. Begin lacing by tying a knot on the inside bottom by the fold. Whip stitch case in half along the bottom and up the side. Lace a pony bead every other stitch. At the top curve, stitch only through one side of the case. When you get to the fold, double back along the other side of the case. Tie off when you reach the side. Dab a bit of blue on the knots. Let dry. Trim close to knot.

Sunglasses Pattern:

Pattern should measure 7″ x 7″. Size may vary according to browser.

Credits to: http://www.makingfriends.com

Filed under: Summer Crafts

Miniature Sundaes

jcegazetta — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:39:16 +0000

Girl scouts have been making these for years! Make delicious-looking doll-sized ice cream sundaes. You can serve them to your favorite teddy bear or glue on a pin for SWAPping.

You need:

Mini Plastic Cups
Pom Poms
Assorted Seed Beads
Red Pony Bead
Tacky Glue and Toothpicks
Jewelry Craft Pin and Low Temp Hot Glue (Optional)

Instructions:

Glue one large or several small pompoms in the “flavor” of your choice in a mini plastic cup. Glue on a white pompom or cotton ball for whipped cream. Use a toothpick to dab on tacky glue and place seed beads as sprinkles. Glue on a red pony bead as a cherry. Hot glue pin to the back if SWAPping.

Credits to: http://www.makingfriends.com

Filed under: Summer Crafts

Travel Lap Desk with Wipe-off Top

jcegazetta — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:37:56 +0000

Make one for the car on your summer vacation. Your kids will love it!

You need:

Large sturdy cardboard box.
Shipping Tape
Empty Snack Food Container such as Fruit Roll Up or Granola Bars
Mat Knife
Glue Gun
Colored Contact Paper
Clear Contact Paper
White Poster Board
Paper Cup
Dry Erase Markers
Piece of Felt

Instructions:

Tape box closed. Use a matte knife to cut away areas shown below. Opening in front should be at about 8″ high so a child can fit comfortably underneath without the table being too high. Save scraps. Cover with contact paper.

Cut a piece of poster board to fit the top. Cover it with clear contact paper. The surface will work with dry erase markers. Hot glue it to the top.

From your scrap, cut three 1″ corrugated strips the same length as your table top. Glue them together one on top of the other. Glue on the bottom edge of the table top to form a lip to keep the markers from falling off.

Trim the top off a snack box and cover with contact paper. Hot glue it to the side of the box. Push a paper cup into the snack box to hold markers. Use the rest of the box to hold small activity books and felt for erasing.

Credits to: http://www.makingfriends.com/

Filed under: Summer Crafts

Back Pack Money Holder

jcegazetta — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:37:00 +0000

With whistle and compass! Wow!
Take them to the beach, camping, hiking or to school. These containers will hold money or even a personal first aid kit. Great camp project!

You need:

Whistle/Compass Containers
16″ of Plastic Lace (8″ each of two colors)
Plastic Clip
8 Pony Beads
Vinyl Tape
Scissors

Instructions:

Remove the string from the container. There will be two plastic loops near the top. Insert a plastic clip into one by the split ring. Feed your two 8″ pieces of plastic lace through the other. Tie in an overhand knot tight to the plastic loop. String two pony beads on to each lace. Tie off with a double knot at the end to hold beads in place. Trim

Decorated the canisters with plastic lace.

Credits to: http://www.makingfriends.com/

Filed under: Summer Crafts