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What's Business Coaching?

In the business world, managing as a coach is a necessity not only for your success, but also for your survival. Business coaching is about helping employees become more effective — and supporting and involving your employees in the process. Coaching influences employee adaptability, productivity, and retention. It helps you make better use of your time.

The definition of coaching, in a business context, has the two following aspects:

Coaching is an approach to management — how one carries out the role of being a manager.

Coaching is a set of skills for managing employee performance to deliver results.

Being a coach means that you see and approach the role of manager as a leader — one who challenges and develops your employees' skills and abilities to achieve the best performance results, and to function as self-sufficiently as possible. In other words, if you manage as a coach, your staff members learn, grow, and work hard, too. As you seek to get the best out of their performance, you also have to work very hard.

As a coach, you develop and possess various skills and efforts that are aimed at guiding employees to achieve high productivity and positive results. The more you manage as a coach, the easier you'll find coaching as a manager because you'll be putting those skills into practice.

In the business world, the terms "coaching" and "mentoring" are often used synonymously. But that's not always the case. When you hear employees talk about wanting a manager who is a mentor, they're essentially talking about wanting a manager who carries on as a coach. They want a manager who cares about their development and who challenges them to grow and perform to their best — in brief, what managing as a coach means.

Coaching is the sum of all the coaching skills — giving performance feedback, delegating, motivating employee performance, and so on.

Mentoring is one set in the overall skills of coaching. It's a significant part of coaching and the set that focuses on guiding employees to do for themselves. Mentoring promotes self-development and self-sufficiency.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/whats-business-coaching.html

What to Feed Your Chickens When

If you’re raising chickens, remembering what feed you need for different types and ages of chickens can get confusing. What you feed a young layer is different than what you feed a mature meat bird. The following table gives you the essentials:

Chicken Type (Age)	Feed	Protein Ratio
Pet, show, and layer chicks (0 to 6 weeks)	Chick starter	18 to 20%
Pet and show chicks (6 weeks on, if not laying)	Chicken feed	12 to 14%
Laying hens (6 weeks until laying begins)	Layer finisher or grower	12%
Laying hens (through laying years)	Layer feed	16% protein + correct calcium and mineral balances
Meat birds (0 to 6 weeks)	Broiler or meat bird starter	23 to 24%
Meat birds (6 weeks to butchering)	Broiler grower-finisher or meat bird grower-finisher	18 to 20%

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-to-feed-your-chickens-when.html

Office 2011 for Mac All-in-One For Dummies

Get the most out of Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac with handy tips for working in Office in general as well as word processing in Word, making spreadsheets in Excel, creating PowerPoint slides, and e-mailing with Outlook.

Tips that Work throughout Office 2011 for Mac

The applications in Office 2011 for Mac use many command commands and features. The following common commands and features work the same throughout all of Office 2011 for Mac’s applications (Word 2011, Excel 2011, PowerPoint 2011, and Outlook 2011):

Undo: Look for the Undo button on the Standard toolbar or press the keyboard combination Command-Z.

Multiple Undo: Click the tiny triangle next to the Undo button to see a pop-up menu of available Undo actions.

Select All: Choose Edit→Select All or press Command-A to select everything in your document, including tables, charts, pictures, and other objects.

Help: Free training movies and online courses are now available in Office 2008 Help. Click the Help button on any of the toolbars and explore topics under Popular Training. You can also find them in Help search results.

Pop-up menus: Right-click or Control-click just about anywhere on the screen to get context-sensitive menus.

Copy: Press Command-C.

Cut: Press Command-X.

Paste: Press Command-V.

Menu bar: Press Control-F2 to activate the menu bar. Then use the arrow keys to navigate the menu and press the spacebar to activate a menu item.

Dock: Press Control-F3 to activate the Dock. Then use the arrow keys to navigate the menu and press the spacebar to activate a menu item.

Tips and Tools for Working with Word 2011 for Mac

If you spend a lot of time using Word 2011, you’ll soon look for ways to make word processing faster and more efficient. The following commands and tools help improve word-processing efficiency in Word 2011 for Mac:

Print Layout view: Choose View→Print Layout to work with word-processing documents the traditional way.

Notebook Layout view: Choose View→Notebook Layout for taking typed notes and recording audio notes of meetings and classes.

Publishing Layout view: Choose View→Publishing Layout to make newsletters and other publications.

Customize keyboard shortcuts: Choose Tools→Customize Keyboard to set up keyboard shortcuts.

Customize menus and toolbars: Choose View→Customize Menus and Toolbars to create and fine-tune your menus and toolbars.

Change font sizes: Use the slider bar on the Formatting Palette.

Display Reference Tools: Press Option-Command-R to display Reference Tools on the Object Palette.

Tips and Tricks for Excel 2011 for Mac

When you work frequently with Excel 2011 for Mac, you’ll want to gather some tricks for staying in charge of spreadsheets. Use these quick tips for your most common activities using Excel 2011:

Rename a worksheet: Double-click a sheet tab to change its name.

Edit cells: Double-click a cell to edit the cell formula or cell contents on the worksheet.

File timesaver: Save your files as Excel Binary Workbook (.xlsb) to get a much smaller file that opens and saves faster.

Create table rows and columns: Choose Insert→List to start the List Wizard, which helps you create row and column tables for your data.

Alternative menu options: Hold down the Shift key while navigating Excel’s menus to see alternative options.

Perfecting PowerPoint 2011 for Mac Presentation Skills

Don’t let your audience suffer “death by PowerPoint” with the presentations you create in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac. Spruce up your slide presentations with these handy PowerPoint 2011 features:

Cross-platform presentations: To play your presentations on other platforms, install Flip4Mac, a free QuickTime codec that enables you to play Windows Media Video format in QuickTime.

Print handouts: To print handouts with lines for taking notes, choose File→Print. Look for the Print What pop-up menu and choose Handouts (3 Slides per Page).

Create a PowerPoint package: To create a package that has all DRM-free media properly linked, choose File→Save As. In the Format pop-up menu, choose PowerPoint Package.

Notes Page View: Choose View→Notes Page to work in a special view that allows you to see your slide and create extensive notes.

Outlook 2011 for Mac Basics

New to Office 2011 for Mac is Outlook 2011. With Outlook 2011 for Mac, you can manage and manipulate your e-mail, calendar, and contacts with these shortcuts:

E-mail: Outlook 2011 supports IMAP, POP, and Exchange protocols. To switch to Mail view, press Command-1.

Calendars: Outlook 2011 supports W3C standard calendar protocol and Microsoft Exchange calendar protocol. To switch to Calendar view, press Command-2.

Contacts: Outlook 2011 supports W3C standard vCard protocol and Microsoft Exchange calendar protocol. To switch to Contacts view, press Command-3.

Tasks: A built-in task manager with calendar tie-in. To switch to Tasks view, press Command-4.

Notes: A built-in notes manager. To switch to Notes view, press Command-5.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/office-2011-for-mac-allinone-for-dummies-cheat-she.html

Motivation For Dummies (UK Edition)

Ten Motivating Tips

Achieving things can be hard when you feel demotivated. Help yourself to get motivated and stay motivated by always keeping these ten quick and easy tips in mind:

Begin with the end in mind. Knowing where you’re heading allows you to steer a clear path and achieve your goal.

Know where to start. Choosing a simple step first gives you encouragement and a positive feeling to keep you moving forward to the next step.

*Keep on track. Checking your progress helps you to see how you’re getting on and enables you to make adjustments if needed, helping you to reach your goal.

Believe in yourself. Having faith in yourself and your inner strength helps you make positive changes that feel right for you.

Motivate your team. This tip helps everyone feel happier, more involved, and more productive.

Ask for support from colleagues and friends. Going to people you know and trust can help you greatly. You already know each other so there are no barriers.

Take a positive outlook. Being positive helps your unconscious mind to focus on seeing a way around the challenge.

Reward your achievements. Saying ‘well done’ to yourself can make you feel great and gives you the encouragement and incentive to keep going.

Have the strength to change tack. Making a change is a positive action rather than staying stuck in a rut. Changing tack can often help you see different and more effective approaches to keeping you moving forward.

Visualise your success and see a positive end goal. Visualising a situation helps you rehearse an event in your mind before it happens, allowing your body and mind to drive you towards your goal because you have already practised succeeding.

Consider Your Demotivators

You may need to check if there’s anything holding you back from getting on with the task in hand. Look at the following demotivators to see if they apply to you and if you need to change your situation.

You don’t have enough time. Be realistic about how long your tasks are going to take.

You can’t afford it. Spend time working out your budget beforehand.

You have too many other priorities. Decide on your priorities and stick to them.

You feel overwhelmed. Start with a few easy tasks so you aren’t taking on too many tasks at once.

*The deadline is too tight. Allow for the unexpected and build in enough time for your task.

You can’t see any benefit. Look for a benefit, however small!

Your task doesn’t tie in with your vision. Review your overall vision. To keep you motivated your task needs to be linked to your vision of what you’re trying to achieve.

The weather isn’t right. Always an excuse; too hot, too cold. But the weather changes and so can you!

Creating a Motivational Environment

Your surroundings can have a strong influence on how you feel. Distractions can affect your motivation and stop you getting on with what you need to do. Think about:

Lighting: Natural daylight, sunshine, or full-spectrum light are all ideal for keeping you stimulated.

Sound: Some people like working with background noise or having music playing. Others are distracted by the hum of office equipment, people talking, or noise of traffic from outside. Decide which sounds you find bearable and cut out the rest.

Space and view: You may need to rearrange furniture to give yourself more space. Having an untidy and cluttered desk can be very distracting and slows you up. Having windows you can open and shut and a nice view all help to create positive feelings about your surroundings.

Colour: Try adding colour and pictures to your walls to help brighten you up and keep you feeling cheerful and stimulated.

Seating: Make sure your chair is comfortable and the right height for you, especially for when you’re working at your computer. The position you sit in can make a difference to your breathing, your posture, and how awake and alert you feel while working.

Equipment: Make sure you have all the equipment you need for your task, so that you’re not being distracted by having to stop to find the right tools.

Fresh air: If your office is in the basement or the windows in your office aren’t the sort you can open and shut, make sure you have air-conditioning installed.

Temperature: Make sure you can control the temperature of the room where you’re working. Find out where the thermostat is and how to adjust the room temperature if needed.

Mini Motivation Questionnaire

Take a look at the following list of tasks and decide whether you want to achieve any of them. Select those activities you think you would like to take on:

Buying a new house

Decorating your house

Developing a healthier lifestyle

Getting a new job

Getting a job promotion

Passing your exams

Working for a professional qualification

Passing your driving test

From what you have chosen, list three things that are likely to motivate you into completing the task/tasks. Write down what’s stopping you from completing the task/tasks.

Overcoming Fear

Fear is a strong emotion and can be motivating for some people while being paralysing for others. Here are a few tips for overcoming fear:

Practise facing fear. Taking action helps you find ways of overcoming the fear.

Just do it. Do what you’ve been putting off.

Take the first step. You’re well on your way to overcoming your fear.

Build up your courage to tackle the fear. Confronting your fear gets you moving forward again.

Think of the worst-case scenario. Tell yourself you’re going to be able to deal with your fear.

Explore other options. Look around the situation for other possible alternatives.

Take small steps. Small steps are easier and increase your confidence that you can move forward.

Ask friends for help. They can often solve issues and help you see alternatives.

Plan to Take Motivating Action

Planning to take positive action helps you to overcome barriers and keeps you moving forward. Here are some general tips to help you with your planning.

Decide what your first steps are going to be, even writing a ‘to do’ list first! Your first steps are the mini-goals to achieving your end goal.

Know what’s going to keep you motivated: a deadline, family pressure, fear of failure. Having a timescale is wonderful for keeping you focused.

Make sure you have the time available for your task. Commit time in your diary, prioritise, and stop putting off what you want to achieve.

Get into a positive frame of mind. Feeling positive gives you the momentum to take action and believe that the task is worthwhile.

Tell yourself you need to have a positive outcome. For some people having a positive outcome is more important than for others. Decide if there is a specific outcome that could make all the difference for you.

Make sure you can afford what you are setting out to achieve. Don’t let the cost be a barrier to achieving your goal. If money is a problem, try to find cheaper alternatives or ways of overcoming your financial problems.

You need to have the right skills for your task. You may need to think about acquiring new skills, updating your current skills, or asking other people for help.

Visualising the Benefits of Motivation

Visualisation is about making use of all your senses: what you’re seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling. Visualising a situation heightens your motivation and allows your mind and body to experience your success before it actually happens. Here’s how you visualise:

See your success. Imagine you’re painting an image of what you want to achieve. Ensure you clearly see yourself in the picture, then add colour to brighten the picture and bring in action, as if you’re the lead actor in a movie.

Feel the benefits. Imagine your feelings as you achieve your goal. You can feel sensations in your body, positive inner thoughts, and strong emotions. Be aware where the feelings are in your body. Injecting positive feelings helps strengthen the visualisation further.

Hear the praise. Enhance and intensify your image further by hearing words of praise or even the sound of people clapping and cheering you. You feel yourself glowing with success from hearing what people are saying about you.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/motivation-for-dummies-cheat-sheet-uk-edition.navId-323001.html

Choosing the Key for Your Audition Song

When preparing for your audition try to find the song in the key that you want to sing it in. If you sing a song that’s in the wrong key, you may end up sounding more like Kermit the Frog than Kelly Clarkson or Renée Fleming on those high notes.

Opera arias are seldom transposed. You may find art songs in different keys in the music store, but the arias are usually sung as written on the page. Keep reading for help if you plan to sing something other than arias at your audition.

You can’t assume that your audition accompanist can or will transpose by sight (put the song in a higher or lower key while playing). Purchase the song in the key you want to sing it in, or have someone transpose it for you before the audition.

An accompanist may refuse to transpose at sight if the song is just too difficult, and it’s her choice. You don’t want her to transpose something at your audition if she thinks she may mess it up. You need the piano to sound really good as you sing.

Still, if you finally find a wonderful song that’s almost perfect for you — maybe the notes are a tad too low or too high — you can get it transposed. When a song is transposed, someone — you or someone you hire — puts the song in a key other than the one it was originally written in so the melody sounds higher or lower.

If you transpose your song (or have someone else do it), keep these points in mind:

You may want the beginning of the song much higher, but that means that the tricky middle section also gets higher. It’s one thing to have some really cool high notes, yet it’s quite another to sing those cool high notes over and over when you raise the key.

Look at the range and tessitura (where most of the notes sit in the song) to determine how much higher or lower to change the key. Practice the song in the new key, whether higher or lower, to make sure that you can manage all the notes in the new key.

Hiring someone to transpose an entire song is expensive. In transposing, the person has to copy the music (by hand or by using a computer program) into another key, which can be time consuming and costly.

You can expect to pay way more to have a song transposed than it would cost you to purchase one in the right key for you. A song in sheet music that costs you less than $10 may cost well over $50 to transpose. If you know a little bit about music, you may find software such as Finale helpful in transposing your song.

Make sure that you have an accompanist read the transposed copy of your music before the audition. Don’t assume that the person who transposed it didn’t make any mistakes. It won’t take long for someone to play through it, and then you know exactly how it sounds in the new key and whether this key really does fit your voice.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/choosing-the-key-for-your-audition-song.html

The Galaxy Tab Home Screens

The main screen on the Galaxy Tab is called the Home screen. There are actually five Home screen panels, each of which you can adorn with icons, widgets, and sneeze globs. Only the sneeze globs are easily removed with a microfiber cloth.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-galaxy-tab-home-screens.html

Belting Out Your Song

Belting is such an exciting sound for a singer. Belting is the high-energy sound that singers make in pop, musical theater, and rock music. It’s similar to yelling on pitch, but with more of a singing tone than yelling.

Many different styles of music use belting. You’ve undoubtedly listened to the sounds of belting — you just may not have known how to define it. Belting (or belt) is a combination of forward resonance and mix. In mix, the sound isn’t totally head voice or chest voice — it’s a combination of the two.

The first step in learning to belt is to discover how to properly use your speaking voice. Belting is such an exciting sound that some people want to jump right in and learn to belt before they develop their singing skills. You will need to work through exercises designed for belting slowly to successfully create your belt sound. Take your time, and you discover that belting uses all the skills you may have explored.

Working the speaking voice helps you to feel the middle ground in your singing voice. Many people, especially women, speak on a low pitch to sound tough. That’s fine, but you can also speak in your middle voice range and command attention. Men usually speak in their chest voice. If you happen to have a high speaking pitch, you may still be in chest voice.

You may be tempted to squeeze your throat to make some of the tones, but that won’t help in the long run; you still have to release that tension later. Keep exploring tones with an open throat, consistent airflow, and an abundance of gusto.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/belting-out-your-song.html

Selecting Elements with jQuery

jQuery allows you to select elements in a Web page with ease. You can find anything you want in a page and then use jQuery to add special effects, react to user actions, or show and hide content inside or outside the element you have selected. All these tasks start with knowing how to select an element. Here’s a handy list you can use to select almost anything on your Web page.

To Select By	Use This
Element type (for example, class="code"><img>)	$("img")
All elements	$("*")
ID (for example, class="code">id="thisIsTheID")	$("#thisIsTheID")
Class (for example, class="code">class="someClass")	$(".someClass")
Order (for example, the first or last class="code"><img> element)	$("img:first")class="code"> $("img:last")
Attribute, (for example, to get the length attribute of class="code"><img>)	$("img[height]").length
Parent (for example, the parent of class="code"><div>)	$("div:parent")
Child (for example, the first or last child of class="code"><div>)	$("div:first-child")class="code"> $("div:last-child")

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/selecting-elements-with-jquery.navId-405448.html

Easing the Itchiness on Your Pomeranian

The most common allergens for dogs are flea saliva, pollens, dust mites, and food. If your Pomeranian is itching to scratch for any reason, you can ease the itch at home with several treatments. Here are a few:

Apply an ice pack or even immerse the dog in cool water. Pat dry, but avoid blow-drying or vigorous rubbing.

Bathe with medicated shampoo and cool water, leaving the shampoo in contact with the skin for at least ten minutes; then rinse and dry thoroughly.

Pour a little aloe vera juice on the irritated area and leave it on.

Apply a topical nonitch spray, witch hazel, moisturizing spray, or topical steroid medication sold for humans.

Try to get your dog's mind off the itch. Play some games, go for a walk, or give a treat that requires extensive chewing or working.

Fatty acid supplementation (fish oil, which you can buy in any drug store, is one good source) can provide improvement over the long term. It's effective in up to one fourth of the cases of itchy skin, especially when used with antihistamines. Note: Don't confuse these supplements with those sold as food supplements to improve coat quality.

Your veterinarian can suggest a safe dose of antihistamines. Common human antihistamines safe for dogs are clemastine fumarate, diphenhydramine, chlorpheniramine, and hydroxyzine.

Histamines don't cause as much inflammation in dogs as they do in humans, so antihistamines may not be as effective in dogs. Finding the most effective types usually takes a couple of weeks of trying each one out.

Antihistamines may cause drowsiness, a desirable side effect in cases of intense itching but not great for long-term use.

Don't give your dog any over-the-counter antihistamines that contain other medications, such as those in sinus or cold-relief medications. Talk to your veterinarian ahead of time to find out the correct dosage for your puppy and keep some in the medicine chest.

If itching continues, your veterinarian may prescribe short-term oral cortisone medication. This treatment provides the most immediate and effective relief and may be necessary in order to start treating the itch.

A veterinary dermatology specialist can perform intradermal (skin) testing with common allergens but not food allergens. If the culprit is identified, a series of injections can often help the dog overcome the allergic reaction. A good clue: If your dog is biting at her skin, especially her front feet, scratching at her ears, or rubbing her rump on your furniture frequently, take her to the vet to see whether something else could be the cause and to get temporary relief.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/easing-the-itchiness-on-your-pomeranian.html

Approaching a Conflict between an Employee and Yourself

Confronting someone you supervise because the two of you are in conflict isn't fun, yet it’s a necessary part of being a manager. When you’re meeting about a conflict that you’re directly involved in, and that meeting is with one of your subordinates, you need to adapt your approach. Here’s how:

Keep in mind that, even though the person you’re addressing is below you on the organizational chart and you may not want to give her concerns credence, the two of you are in this conflict together. Only you, as a duo, can choose to resolve the conflict in a positive way — a way that reflects well in the eyes of other team members and upper management. It takes two to tango and two to untangle; you need each other.

Put yourself in your employee’s shoes and think about how you’d want your boss to approach you about your communication style or your integrity. Especially if you were in conflict with your boss and had your own opinions about her ability to treat others well or her attitude toward staff. You’d probably want to speak in private, in a neutral place, with enough time to allow each of you an opportunity to share your concerns and desires about these touchy subjects. You’d probably also want her to have done a little contemplating before she even asked you for a meeting. You’d want her to consider the situation from your point of view, and figure out exactly what she wants so she doesn’t “um” and “er” her way through the discussion. Then you’d want her to be prepared to propose solutions that meet both your needs, not just hers.

Set a goal for the discussion that allows the employee to get back on track and motivated to reach team goals. Keep her focused on what’s going well and what needs to be improved. Then be open to hearing what she has to say. If her ideas don’t lead to the outcomes you want, you can always be more direct later in the conversation, but initially see if she has any ideas about resolving whatever problems the two of you are having. Let her be a part of the solution so she has more buy-in and follows through with whatever pledges you make to each other.

Think about your part in the trouble. Being at odds with a subordinate is frustrating. Oftentimes, putting the entire responsibility for the problem on the employee is easier than taking personal responsibility — especially if you’re genuinely unaware of the negative impact that particular words or actions may have on him.

Being open to addressing your own behavior helps you create a management style that brings out the best in your employee, instead of resorting to playing the power card and insisting that she do everything your way “because you said so.” Don’t, however, own up to anything if you don’t know what you’re supposed to own up to.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/approaching-a-conflict-between-an-employee-and-you.html

Antifreeze and Pets — a Lethal Combination

Without a doubt, antifreeze is the most dangerous item in your garage. Autumn, when people are changing their radiator fluid, is the time of greatest danger. Antifreeze is apparently sweet and pleasant-tasting, but the main ingredient of many brands, ethylene glycol, is deadly poison to dogs, cats, and children.

Most commercially sold antifreeze is 95 percent ethylene glycol. Its metabolites attack and destroy the kidneys, and the results are coma and death. Unfortunately, when dogs start drinking the stuff, they don't stop.

Because antifreeze is necessary for drivers in colder climates, try using one based on propylene glycol, rather than ethylene glycol. A propylene-glycol-based antifreeze is more expensive, but it's worth it. Propylene glycol affects the central nervous system but not the kidneys. Tufts Veterinary Newsletter estimates that a medium-sized dog would need to ingest about 20 ounces of propylene glycol before getting seriously ill, while only 2 ounces of the more deadly ethylene glycol can kill. Propylene glycol is less tasty to dogs than is its deadly cousin. Remember: Even though propylene glycol is considerably less toxic that ethylene glycol, it is still a poison.

The best solution when it comes to antifreeze is prevention. Keep all antifreeze locked away from anywhere your pet may possibly go. And, no matter what kind of antifreeze you use, clean up any spills immediately. You can use cat litter to absorb most of the liquid; follow up with rags. And dispose of the stuff carefully. Although antifreeze is biodegradable, it takes a couple of months to degrade. Rinse the area of the spill thoroughly with water.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/antifreeze-and-pets-a-lethal-combination.html

Timely Substitutions for 30-Minute Meals

Even the most organized cooks have found themselves searching the kitchen for an ingredient only to find they’ve run out. When you’re missing an ingredient you need for a fast meal, use the following list for a quick substitution:

1 teaspoon baking powder = 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 5/8 teaspoon cream of tartar	1/2 cup bread crumbs = 2 slices crumpled bread
1 cup broth = 1 bouillon cube in 1 cup boiling water	1 cup buttermilk = 1 cup milk minus 1 tablespoon replaced with 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice
3/4 cup ketchup = 1/2 cup tomato sauce mixed with 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1/2 tablespoon cider vinegar, and 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon	1/2 cup chocolate chips = 3-ounce bar of semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 2/3 ounces chocolate, semisweet = 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate plus 4 teaspoons sugar	1 ounce chocolate, unsweetened = 3 tablespoons cocoa plus 1 tablespoon shortening
1 cup corn syrup = 1 cup sugar plus 1/4 cup water	1 tablespoon cornstarch = 2 tablespoons flour
1 whole egg = 3 tablespoons beaten egg or 1/4 cup egg substitute	1 cup flour for baking, sifted = 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour
1 tablespoon flour for thickening = 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch, arrowroot, or potato starch	1 cup flour, cake = 1 cup all-purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons
1 cup flour, self-rising = 1 cup minus 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour, plus 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt	3-ounce package, prepared gelatin, flavored = 1 envelope plain gelatin plus 2 cups liquid flavoring, such as fruit juice
1/8 teaspoon ginger, powdered = 1/2 teaspoon grated, raw gingerroot	1 cup half-and-half = 7/8 cup milk plus 2 tablespoons butter
1 cup heavy cream = 3/4 cup milk plus 1/3 cup butter. *Note:* Don’t use this mixture for whipping. It’s fine for sauces or custards.	1 tablespoon minced, fresh herbs = 1 teaspoon crushed, dried herb
1 cup honey = 1 1/4 cups sugar plus 1/4 cup liquid	1 teaspoon lemon juice = 1/2 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest = 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract	1 teaspoon dry mustard = 1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 medium whole orange = 1/2 cup juice	1 cup shortening, for baking = 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter
1 cup sour cream = 3/4 cup sour milk plus 1/3 cup butter whipped together	1 cup shrimp, cooked = 3/4 pound raw in shell shrimp or 7-ounce package frozen
3 medium whole tomatoes = 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) tomatoes	1 cup tomato juice = 1/2 cup tomato sauce plus 1/2 cup water

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/timely-substitutions-for-30minute-meals.html

European Stock ETFs

Europe is a good place to hold ETFs because it boasts the oldest, most established stock markets in the world: the Netherlands, 1611; Germany, 1685; and the United Kingdom, 1698. Relative to the stocks of most other nations, European stocks, as a whole, are seemingly low-priced (going by their price-earnings [P/E] ratios, anyway).

Europe’s strengths include political stability (well, for the most part . . .), an educated workforce, and a confederation of national economies making for the world’s largest single market. Germany, the largest economy in Europe, has been growing its export industry faster than any nation on the planet.

Europe’s great weaknesses include a persistently high rate of unemployment (outside of Germany); a rapidly aging population; and a few member nations, most notably Greece and Portugal (and to a lesser extent Spain, Italy, and Ireland), whose governments have racked up some very serious debt. These nations are collectively — and none too flatteringly — known as the “PIGS” (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain) or sometimes “PIIGS” (with Italy thrown in).

Even with its weaknesses on full display, the European market definitely deserves a piece of your portfolio.

Vanguard MSCI Europe ETF (VGK)

Indexed to: MSCI Europe Index, which tracks approximately 465 companies in 16 European nations

Expense ratio: 0.14 percent

Top five country holdings: United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain

This ETF has everything going for it: low cost, good diversification, and tax efficiency. You can’t go wrong (unless the European stock market falters, which, of course, could happen).

The mix of many nations and currencies (Euro, British Pound, Swiss Franc, Swedish Krona) gives this fund an especially good balance and an especially good way to help protect your portfolio from any single-country (or currency) collapse. Like all Vanguard ETFs, VGK trades free of commission if held at Vanguard.

BLDRS Europe 100 ADR (ADRU)

Indexed to: The Bank of New York Mellon Europe 100 ADR Index, a market-weighted basket of 100 European market-based ADRs (American Depositary Receipts) representing the United Kingdom (about half the money pot) and major nations of the European continent, in addition to, for some unknown reason, Israel

Expense ratio: 0.30 percent

Top five country holdings: United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Spain, Germany

Not as diverse as the Vanguard European ETF, but with 100 stocks, it’s plenty diverse enough. The yearly expense ratio is about midway between the Vanguard European offering and the iShares Europe offering. All told, the BLDRS Europe is a good choice, although it may not be the best. (That, as usual, would be Vanguard.)

iShares S&P Europe 350 (IEV)

Indexed to: Standard & Poor’s Europe 350 Index, a collection of 350 large cap companies in 16 European countries

Expense ratio: 0.60 percent

Top five country holdings: United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain

Like iShares domestic offerings, their foreign ETFs good products. The diversification is excellent. The indexes make sense. The tax efficiency is top notch. The only drawback: they’re relatively expensive. At roughly 3.3 times the cost of the Vanguard European offering, IEV just isn’t anything to write home about.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/european-stock-etfs.html

Attachments for Digital Point and Shoot Cameras

Find out what accessories, if any, are available for your digital point and shoot in order to improve the overall quality of your macro and close-up images.

Some point and shoot digital cameras enable you to attach close-up filters and lens adapters that increase magnification in your images, or macro specific lighting accessories. These can come in very handy in most macro and close-up shooting scenarios.

Typically you’ll find more accessories for compact digital cameras than you will for point and shoot digital cameras. This is mainly because point and shoots are marketed to mainstream consumers, and compacts are marketed to those who want the convenience of a smaller camera but still want more shooting options and higher quality.

Items to look for include the following:

Tele-converters (or tele-converter lenses) are available for most highend compact digital cameras (such as the canon G12 or the Nikon Coolpix line). You place a tele-converter in front of or behind the lens on a compact digital camera in order to increase magnification.

Macro lenses (or macro lens filters) increase magnification. You position them in front of the lens on your compact digital camera or point and shoot digital camera.

Mini-focusing rails can be used in conjunction with your digital point and shoot (or compact digital camera) and your tripod to make focusing and composing macro and close-up shots easier. Because mini-focusing rails are small and lightweight, they are great to travel with.

Ring lights are great for creating even lighting in macro and close-up situations — especially when using digital point and shoot and compact digital cameras, as these tend to have an extremely close effective focusing distance in macro mode.

Battery-powered flash units can light your subject from off-camera, assuming your digital point and shoot or compact digital camera has the ability to sync with the flash. Look for a hot shoe (a space on top of the camera that enables you to fix a flash or flash accessory to the camera) to see whether your camera is compatible with off-camera flash.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/attachments-for-digital-point-and-shoot-cameras.html

Different Uses of Margin in Financial Statements

You may come across several different uses of the term margin in financial statements and elsewhere: It may refer to gross margin, to true margin, or to operating earnings. Gross margin, also called gross profit, equals sales revenue minus the cost of goods sold expense.

Gross margin does not reflect other variable operating expenses that are deducted from sales revenue. In contrast, the term margin refers to sales revenue less all variable expenses.

Some people use the term contribution margin instead of just margin to stress that margin contributes toward the recovery of fixed expenses (and to profit after fixed expenses are covered). However, the prefix contribution is not really necessary. Why use two words when one will do?

Businesses that sell products report gross margin in their external income statements. However, they do not disclose their variable and fixed operating expenses. They report expenses according to an object of expenditure basis, such as “marketing, administrative, and general expenses.”

The broad expense categories reported in external income statements include variable and fixed cost components. Therefore, the margin of a business (sales revenue after all variable expenses but before fixed expenses) is not reported in its external income statement. Managers carefully guard information about margins. They don’t want competitors to know the margins of their business.

Further complicating the issue, unfortunately, is that newspaper reporters frequently use the term margin when referring to operating earnings. Strictly speaking, this usage is not correct. Margin equals profit after all variable expenses are deducted from sales revenue and before fixed expenses are deducted.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/different-uses-of-147margin148-in-financial-statem.html

How to Choose Printer Paper

There’s really no such thing as a typical sheet of printer paper. Printer paper comes in different sizes, weights (degrees of thickness), colors, styles, and textures. Printer paper can, however, be divided into a few general groups:

General-purpose paper: The best general-purpose printer paper to get is standard photocopier paper.

Inkjet paper: If you want good results from your inkjet printer, get specific inkjet paper (although you have to pay more for that paper). The higher-quality inkjet paper is really good for printing colors; the paper is specially designed to absorb the ink well.

Specialty papers: Such as photographic papers that come in smooth or glossy finishes, transparencies, and iron-on T-shirt transfers. Just ensure that the paper you get is made for your type of printer — inkjet or laser.

Large-size paper: Some printers are capable of handling larger-size paper, such as legal or tabloid sizes. If so, make sure that you load the paper properly and tell your application that you’re using a different-size sheet of paper.

The File→Page Setup command is responsible for selecting paper size.

Avoid thick papers because they get jammed inside the printer. (They can’t turn corners well.) And avoid using erasable bond and other fancy dusted papers in your printer. These papers have talcum powder coatings that gum up the works.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-choose-printer-paper.html

How to Make Your Training Stand Out

How do you set apart your training materials from information people can get online or at the library? Make your training memorable buy following these tips:

Create a supportive learning environment.

Let participants know how they will benefit from the training.

Find out what participants need and expect and fulfill that need/expectation.

Involve participants in the training from start to finish.

Show a high degree of respect for each participant.

Assure that the training mirrors the actual job situation.

Reinforce positive participant behavior with recognition and encouragement.

Put your heart into the training session. If you're giving it your all, your trainees will, too.

Take a personal interest in each participant.

Allow participants to get to know each other.

Know and polish your communication and training style.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-make-your-training-stand-out.html

Landscaping For Dummies

Putting together your perfect landscape starts with making a wish list customized to your needs, planning out your landscaping, and purchasing plants best suited for your landscape plan and hardiness zone.

Create a Landscaping Wish List

Make a wish list when you begin landscape planning and use your imagination to customize your landscape around your family’s needs. Consider rain barrels, a fire pit or fire bowl, an arbor, or even a small greenhouse. Keep digging until you have everything you want in your yard. Consider these for your wish list:

Enough lawn to play catch

A brick patio or wooden deck

An outdoor barbecue

A privacy hedge

A fenced-in yard

A swimming pool or spa

A storage shed or potting shed

A compost pile

A fish pond or reflecting pool

A place where butterflies and birds come to visit

A private retreat with a hammock

A flower-cutting garden

A rose garden

A fresh herb plot or scented garden

A vegetable garden or fruit orchard

A rooftop garden

A bulb garden with flowers that announce the start of a new season

A patio garden with different pots full of colorful plants

Wildflowers

A drought-tolerant garden

How to Plan your Landscape

Planning your landscape helps to keep you on budget, find the right trees and plants for yous needs, and keeps you focused on your landscaping wish list. Use these steps when planning your landscape:

Measure your current landscape and draw a rough plan on paper.

Review your wish list.

Determine your budget.

Add potential structures (patio, deck, shed, bench, fence, pool, or pond) and pathways to your plan.

Determine the sun, partial shade, and shade availability for each area that you plan to grow plants. Determine your hardiness zone.

Add plants and trees to your plan.

Check costs and availability of materials and plants.

Call your local governing body and ask about permits.

Enlist a landscape contractor, if necessary.

Begin building and planting!

Buying the Best Plants for Your Landscape

Landscape plants can be expensive — they're an investment for your home. So, when you buy plants for your yard, seek healthy plants that fit your landscaping needs, beautify your property, and grow well in your area’s climate. These tips will help you get the right landscaping trees, flowers, and shrubs:

Plan your landscape on paper before you set out to purchase plants — you’ll know exactly how much to buy.

Establish a budget before you arrive at the nursery.

Choose plants suited to the amount of sun, partial shade, or shade in your garden.

Avoid plants that don’t grow well in your zone.

Buy plants that, when mature, are the right height, shape, and color for the scale of your landscape.

Choose plants that are compact, healthy, and (if applicable) just starting to flower. Avoid weak, spindly, or insect-infested plants.

Avoid buying plants that are rootbound or have outgrown their pots.

Note any special conditions before purchasing plants — soil requirements, watering needs, invasiveness, smells, and messiness (especially with berries).

Your Landscaping Hardiness Zone

When choosing plants for your landscaping, be sure to select plants suited for your weather zone. Most perennials are marked with a hardiness zone to indicate the minimum temperatures it can tolerate. Note the plant's hardiness for the best growing and ability to survive the winter. Use this table to find your area’s hardiness zone:

Plant Hardiness Zones for the U.S.
	Fahrenheit	Celsius
Zone 1	Below –50°F	Below –46°C
Zone 2	–50°F to –40°F	–46°C to –40°C
Zone 3	–40°F to –30°F	–40°C to –34°C
Zone 4	–30°F to –20°F	–34°C to –29°C
Zone 5	–20°F to –10°F	–29°C to –23°C
Zone 6	–10°F to 0°F	–23°C to –18°C
Zone 7	0°F to 10°F	–18°C to –12°C
Zone 8	10°F to 20°F	–12°C to –7°C
Zone 9	20°F to 30°F	–7°C to –1°C
Zone 10	30°F to 40°F	–1°C to 4°C
Zone 11	40°F and up	4°C and up

>
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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/landscaping-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

Inventory Turnover Ratio and QuickBooks 2012

You can use several activity ratios to help manage your assets in QuickBooks 2012. The inventory turnover ratio measures how many times in an accounting period the inventory balance sells out. The formula is as follows:

cost of goods sold/average inventory

A Simple Balance Sheet
Assets
Cash	$25,000
Inventory	25,000
Current assets	$50,000
Fixed assets (net)	270,000
Total assets	$320,000
Liabilities
Accounts payable	$20,000
Loan payable	100,000
Owner’s equity
S. Nelson, capital	200,000
Total liabilities and owner’s equity	$320,000

A Simple Income Statement
Sales revenue	$150,000
Less: Cost of goods sold	30,000
Gross margin	$120,000
Rent	5,000
Wages	50,000
Supplies	5,000
Total operating expenses	60,000
Operating income	60,000
Interest expense	(10,000)
Net income	$50,000

In the example business described by the balance sheet and the income statement, you can use the following formula to calculate the inventory turnover:

$30,000/$25,000

This formula returns the inventory turnover ratio of 1.2.

Technically, you shouldn’t use just an ending inventory balance. You should use an average inventory balance. You can calculate an average inventory balance in all the usual, common-sense ways. For example, you can use the inventory balance both from this year’s balance sheet and the previous year’s balance sheet and then average them.

The inventory turnover period, as you may have noticed, depends on the period measured in the income statement. If the income statement is an annual statement and, therefore, the cost of goods sold amount is an annual cost of goods sold amount, an inventory turnover ratio of 1.2 means that a firm sells 120 percent of its inventory balance in a year.

If the inventory turnover ratio uses the cost of goods sold amount reported in a monthly income statement, then the inventory turnover period is a month. For example, with a monthly cost of goods sold amount, a firm with a 1.2 inventory ratio sells 120 percent of its inventory in a month.

No guideline exists for inventory turnover ratios. A good inventory turnover ratio depends on what your competitors are doing within your industry. If you want to stay competitive, you want an inventory turnover ratio that at least comes close to your competitors’ ratios.

Dell’s competitors, to make a long, sad story short, found out the hard way not to compete with someone who turns around inventory much more quickly than they could. (Imagine soft, sad violin music playing in the background. . . .)

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/inventory-turnover-ratio-and-quickbooks-2012.html

How to Balance a Checkbook

When you use a checkbook, you need to know basic addition and subtraction to keep it balanced. Balancing a checkbook means you've recorded all additions (deposits) made to your account and subtractions (withdrawals). Each deposit and withdrawal is called a transaction. The purpose for balancing a checkbook is to know how much actual money you have in your checking account at any given time.

What's a checkbook register?

Step one in balancing your checkbook is to mark down all transactions in your register, which comes with your checkbook. The register is a little booklet where you write down each transaction (check, ATM withdrawal, debit card payment or deposit.)

Your register probably will have at least six columns:

Number: The check number.

Date: The date you made the transaction.

Description: To whom the check was written, or if you made an ATM withdrawal, or used your debit card.

Amount or Debit: The exact sum of the check, withdrawal or payment.

Deposit: This is where you mark down any deposits such as paychecks, money gifts (from a super-wealthy relative, perhaps?), money you may have transferred from a savings account into your checking account, and so on.

Balance: The actual amount of money that's in your account. You start with an opening balance (the amount of money you had when you opened the checking account). And then, by subtracting all checks, withdrawals, payments, and bank fees, and by adding any deposits or interest payments, you will arrive at your balance for that day.

Checkbook no-no: A bounced check

The lower your balance, the more important it is for you to be precise in recording all transactions; in so doing, you avoid bouncing a check. A bounced check is a check that the bank has returned (bounced back) to you because it's worthless; that is, the check is for an amount greater than the actual amount of money you have left in your account.

For example, if you send the phone company a check for $100 but your actual balance is only $75, then that check will bounce. When the phone company presents that check to your bank for payment, it will get a notice that your account has insufficient funds. Your bank will charge you a fee, in the range of $25 to $50 (this is a fee that you should ask about when opening an account) and the other party's bank will charge them a fee, as well. So bouncing a check is not only embarrassing, it can be quite costly.

Protect yourself against ever bouncing a check by having overdraft protection; ask your bank if it offers this service. The bank will then honor your bounced checks, but start charging you interest, usually at a high rate, from day one.

To avoid bouncing a check, you need to know how much money is in your account, which you do by balancing your checkbook. (Going online or to an ATM to check your balance will not give you an accurate number if you have any outstanding checks, that is to say checks you've written that have not yet been presented to the bank for payment.)

The most common mistakes when keeping a checkbook

The most common mistakes when keeping a checkbook is forgetting to record each transaction, and forgetting to record it at the time it happens. Yes, your monthly bank statement will give you information on checks you've written, or an ATM withdrawal, or a debit card payment — but by the time your statement comes in, you could have written several more checks that remain outstanding.

If you always keep more money in your account than you spend every month, you'll be safe. But if your balance is usually low by the end of the month the more careful you have to be in making sure you know how much money you actually have.

To avoid making mathematical errors, buy a register cover with a built in calculator. Some even keep track of your balance for you, provided you enter all transactions.

When your statement comes in, you should compare it to your register, fixing any mistakes, such as those times you took cash from an ATM and didn't record it when you got home. Of course, you can also just believe the bank and adjust the balance in your register to agree with the bank's closing balance on the closing date, which you can also do at any time by checking on line or at an ATM. But remember, your actual balance may be less than what the bank says if you have outstanding checks.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-balance-a-checkbook.html

How to Create an Account for Your ETFs

You — you personally — can’t just buy a share of an exchange-traded fund (ETF). You need someone to actually buy it for you and hold it for you. That someone is a broker, sometimes referred to as a brokerage house or a broker-dealer.

Some broker-dealers, the really big ones, are sort of like financial department stores or supermarkets where you can buy ETFs, mutual funds, individual stocks and bonds, or fancier investment products like puts and calls. You’ll recognize the names of such financial department stores: Fidelity, Vanguard, TD Ameritrade, and T. Rowe Price.

ETFs are usually traded just as stocks are traded. Same commissions. Mostly the same rules. Same hours (generally 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Manhattan Island time). Through your brokerage house, you can buy 1 share, 2 shares, or 10,000 shares.

Here’s one difference between ETFs and stocks: Although people today rarely do it, you can sometimes purchase stocks directly from a company, and you may even get a pretty certificate saying you own the stock. Not so with ETFs. Call BlackRock or State Street and ask to buy a share of an ETF, and they will tell you to go find yourself a broker.

The first step, then, prior to beginning your ETF shopping expedition, is to find a brokerage house, preferably a financial department store where you can keep all your various investments. It makes life a lot easier to have everything in one place, to get one statement every month, and to see all your investments on one computer screen.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-create-an-account-for-your-etfs.html

Getting to Know 3D Features in AutoCAD 2007

Two new features in AutoCAD 2007 help you get your 3D feet wet: the 3D Modeling workspace and the Dashboard. Before you start making stuff or even start looking at already-made stuff, it's important to get a firm grasp on these two features:

A workspace is a named collection of toolbars and tool palettes that you use for specific processes. The new 3D Modeling workspace loads the Dashboard and adjusts some of the other tool palettes.

The Dashboard is a large, palette-like area at the top-right of the screen. It contains a number of panels that give access to different aspects of working in 3D.

Rather confusingly, selecting the 3D Modeling workspace (or the AutoCAD Classic workspace, for that matter) doesn't visually change the drawing area. You need to start a new file and choose the appropriate drawing template file.

The new 3D visualization and rendering abilities of AutoCAD 2007 have upped the system requirements substantially. The full version of AutoCAD will run in 512MB, but if you want to work in 3D, Autodesk recommends 2GB of RAM and a video card with at least 128MB of its own memory. If you're thinking of buying a new system, check Autodesk for a list of supported video cards.

When you start AutoCAD, by default you see a Workspaces dialog box that asks whether you want to work in the old 2D environment (AutoCAD Classic) or in 3D (3D Modeling).

You may have checked the Don't Show Me This Again option in the Workspaces dialog box that displays when you start AutoCAD. To restore the dialog box, choose Tools --> Options --> System, and in the General Options area, check the box beside Show All Warning Messages.

If you don't see the dialog box (probably because you checked Don't Show Me This Again) you can switch between the 2D and 3D environments by switching workspaces. Here's how:

1. Choose Tools --> Workspaces --> 3D Modeling.

Toolbars and palettes flash on and off, and eventually AutoCAD settles down and displays the Dashboard and the Modeling tool palette.

You now have a 3D Modeling workspace, but you're still in a 2D drawing.

2. Choose File --> New.

The Select Template dialog box appears.

3. Choose acad3d.dwt if you're working in imperial units, or acadiso3d.dwt if you're working in metric. Click OK.

A 3D modeling space appears.

To switch from 3D to 2D, follow these steps:

1. Choose Tools --> Workspaces --> AutoCAD Classic.

After more flashing toolbars and palettes, AutoCAD settles down and displays (by default) the Sheet Set Manager and Tool Palettes. Again, you need to start a new drawing to complete the process.

2. Choose File --> New.

The Select Template dialog box appears.

3. Choose an appropriate template file and click OK.

If you want to work in imperial units, choose acad.dwt for color-dependent plotting, or acad -Named Plot Styles.dwt for named plot styles. For metric, choose acadiso.dwt or acadISO -Named Plot Styles.dwt.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/getting-to-know-3d-features-in-autocad-2007.html

Crop an Image in Adobe Photoshop CS5

Cropping an image in Photoshop Creative Suite 5 is a simple but essential task. Cropping means to eliminate all parts of the image that aren’t important to its composition.

Cropping is especially important in Photoshop. Each pixel, no matter what color, takes up the same amount of information, so cropping eliminates unneeded pixels and saves on file size and processing time. For that reason, you should crop images before you start working on them.

You can crop an image in Photoshop CS5 in two ways:

Use the Crop tool.

Select an area with the Marquee tool and choose Image→Crop.

To crop an image by using the Crop tool, follow these steps:

Press C to access the Crop tool and drag around the area of the image you want to crop to.

If you need to adjust the crop area, drag the handles in the crop-bounding area.

When you’re satisfied with the crop-bounding area, double-click in the center of the crop area or press the Return or Enter key to crop the image.

If you want to cancel the crop, press the Esc key.

Ever scan in an image that ends up crooked? When using the Crop tool, if you position the cursor outside any handle, a rotate symbol appears. Drag the crop-bounding area to rotate it and line it up the way you want it cropped. When you press Return or Enter, the image straightens out.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/crop-an-image-in-adobe-photoshop-cs5.html

Cooking Basics For Dummies

To save money and boost your health, you may be doing more home cooking than ever before. You can use simple tips and tricks to cook healthy meals, bake yummy desserts, throw a fabulous party, and save time in the kitchen. With a bit of planning, some expert advice, and fresh ingredients, you’ll be cooking delicious meals in no time — even if you consider yourself a kitchen novice.

Tips for Reading Recipes before Cooking

Preparing, understanding, and completing a recipe require looking ahead and thoroughly reading the recipe before you start cooking or baking. Save yourself from a cooking catastrophe by following these valuable tips on how to read a recipe.

Read through the recipe at least twice to make sure that you understand the directions.

Make sure that you can perform all the techniques.

Look at the recipe yield and decide if the number of servings is what you need. If not, consider whether you should cut the ingredient amounts in half or double them.

Check that you have all the necessary equipment and ingredients.

Make sure that you have enough time before serving to prepare and cook the recipe.

Check whether you can (or need to) make any part of the recipe ahead of time.

Read through the ingredients to see whether you like them all, as well as whether the recipe has too much fat, sugar, or salt for your dietary needs.

Check whether you need to use an ingredient, such as butter or oil, at different stages in the recipe so that you don’t make the mistake of using that ingredient all at once.

Find out whether you need to preheat the oven.

How to Cut Fat, Calories, and Carbs when Cooking

To reduce fat, calories, and carbs, try these alternatives when cooking your favorite dishes. You can create healthier meals without sacrificing flavor just by trying these simple substitutions. Bon appétit!

Substitute lowfat or nonfat dairy products for full-fat dairy products. For example, use 2 percent or skim milk rather than whole milk or cream, lowfat or nonfat cottage cheese and yogurt rather than the full-fat versions made with whole milk, or lowfat or nonfat cheese for regular cheese. These products often give soups and sauces a thinner, less creamy consistency and may influence the texture in other dishes, but the health benefits may be worth it.

Substitute lowfat or nonfat mayonnaise for regular mayonnaise and lowfat or nonfat salad dressing for regular salad dressing. Find brands you like so you don’t feel deprived.

Looking for lower-fat meat options? Try ground turkey rather than ground beef, or choose ground beef that is at least 95 percent lean. (Just be aware that hamburgers made from very lean beef will be dryer and less juicy than those made with a higher fat ground beef.) Choose white meat over dark meat poultry, and find cuts of beef with the words loin or round in them.

Choose olive oil and canola oil over butter when sautéing. These ingredients contain monounsaturated fats, a healthier option than saturated fats for heart health.

To cut carbs, use lettuce leaves rather than bread for sandwiches or wraps. Just roll up lean meat and lowfat cheese with a dash of mustard inside a Romaine lettuce leaf.

Decorate your salads with hard-cooked egg whites and walnuts rather than croutons and full-fat cheese.

Avoid processed foods, especially those made with white flour, sugar, and hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats, which are found mostly in prepared meals that come from a box or package.

Timesaving Cooking Tips

Save time when cooking with these handy tips. Serving up a meal is a snap with these timesaving hints. You'll cook more efficiently and enjoy more time with family and friends at the table!

Have all ingredients prepared, measured, and set out within reach before you start cooking.

Precook pieces of chicken or meat in your microwave before finishing them on the grill.

If you’re using the oven, turn it on at least 15 minutes before you’re ready to roast or bake your dish. Don’t waste time waiting for the oven to heat after you’ve prepared the recipe.

Buy vegetables that are already washed and cut, if doing so will get you to eat more vegetables or cook more often. Prepared ingredients such as bagged salad mix, stir-fry vegetables already cut to size, and boneless cuts of meat cost a bit more, but saving some time may be worth it.

Remove steaks and other meats from the refrigerator about 15 minutes before cooking so that they warm to room temperature. They’ll cook faster and more evenly.

Line the broiler pan with aluminum foil to ease cleanup when broiling hamburgers, fish, steaks, and chops.

Don't bother chopping onion, garlic, fresh herbs, and the like for a salad dressing. Instead, use a food processor or blender to save chopping time, add your liquids, and then blend for a quick dressing.

Place a garlic clove on a cutting board and whack it with the flat side of a heavy knife or a cleaver to make removing the skin easier. The skin should split right off.

Roll a lemon or orange under the palm of your hand on the countertop to make extracting the juice easier.

Clean up as you go. You’ll be glad you did when the meal is over!

Staples for Your Pantry, Refrigerator, and Freezer

Family hungry and nothing to cook? Make sure that never happens again. If you always keep these staples in your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer, you’ll never again be stuck with no option but takeout. You can certainly add to these lists, but these essentials can always help you make a good meal. For items you use regularly (such as bread, eggs, and milk), plan to restock about once a week.

Pantry

Baking powder

Baking soda

Bread

Brown sugar

Canned beans (pinto, white, or black)

Cereal (hot or cold)

Chicken, beef, or vegetable broth

Cider or white vinegar

Cocoa powder

Coffee and/or tea

Condiments: ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, soy sauce, pickles, and pickle relish

Cornstarch

Dried herbs: Basil, bay leaves, oregano, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, and parsley

Flour

Granulated sugar

Ground spices: Black pepper, cayenne pepper (or red pepper flakes), chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, curry powder, ginger, dry mustard, nutmeg, and paprika

Jam, jelly, or preserves

Pancake syrup

Pasta

Peanut butter

Powdered sugar

Rice

Salt

Tomato sauce, paste, and canned tomatoes

Vanilla extract

Vegetable oil

Refrigerator

Butter

Cheese (hard and soft)

Eggs

Fresh fruit

Fresh vegetables, including leafy greens

Meat, fish, poultry, or tofu to last three to five days

Milk

Yogurt and/or sour cream

Freezer

Frozen fruit, for smoothies and sauces

Frozen vegetables you will actually eat

Ice cream or frozen yogurt

Meat, poultry, and/or fish to last about a week

>
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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/cooking-basics-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

How to Be a Good Personal Training Client

When you sign up with a personal trainer, you’re not employing a counsellor or a mind-reader. Here are some simple tips for maintaining a good relationship with your trainer:

Show up on time. Trainers are professional people with busy schedules and bills to pay, so show them some courtesy.

Have a good attitude. Your trainer doesn’t want to hear you whine about your boss or your latest speeding ticket.

Listen to your trainer. When your trainer advises you to perform 12 repetitions per set, don’t say, ‘My stockbroker said I should do 40.’

Speak up. Don’t be afraid to ask why you pull a bar down to your chest rather than to your belly button.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-be-a-good-personal-training-client.html

Entrepreneurs: How to Screen Business Ideas Quickly

Entrepreneurs develop business ideas all the time, but how do you know when to pursue one further? Some entrepreneurs have a hard time screening product ideas, but you can do it very quickly by answering a few simple questions. You’re on the right track if you answer "Yes" to the first three questions and very positively to the final two:

Am I excited about this idea or opportunity?

Do others also think it’s a great idea?

Are there people willing to pay for what I’m offering?

Why am I the person to make this happen?

Why should I go forward with this idea or opportunity now?

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/entrepreneurs-how-to-screen-business-ideas-quickly.html