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Kit Heathcock - EzineArticles.com Expert Author
Kit Heathcock is a writer and editor as well as a mother working from home. She juggles writing articles and editing and proofreading websites at the computer, with cake and bread baking and feeding a multitude of animals and children. Cookie dough on the keyboard is an occupational hazard.
She graduated in French and Italian from university, worked in Italy for many years for a walking holiday company, where food became a passion. Flower photography ... [More]
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- Luxury Safaris in the Okavango Delta
[Travel-and-Leisure:Adventure-Travel] The Okavango Delta offers the ultimate in exclusive African safari travel. A pristine wilderness with a huge variety of wildlife, the Okavango provides a number of luxury camps, assuring comfort and relaxation as well as a unique experience of being at one with nature.
- African Safari Travel - Luxury Tented Camps
[Travel-and-Leisure:Adventure-Travel] An African safari adventure is the dream of a lifetime for many. There is something about the majestic, wide-open landscapes, the limitless horizons, experiencing the wildlife in their own habitat, which captures the imagination and changes your perspective on life. Names like Serengeti and Maasai Mara, conjure up visions of vast herds of animals on the great migration over the plains, punctuated by statuesque or twisted thorn trees and dramatic skies.
- Luxury Wildlife Safaris - Exploring the Wild in Comfort
[Travel-and-Leisure:Outdoors] Luxury wildlife safaris are one of the ultimate holiday choices for relaxation and unforgettable experiences. Luxury lodges and tented camps in stunning locations allow you to enjoy the wild in comfort.
- Bags For Real Men!
[Shopping-and-Product-Reviews:Fashion-Style] The fashion for men's bags is now well established, but many men are still unsure of buying their own bag. Here are some tips to help them find a bag that is masculine, practical and stylish.
- Big Handbags - How Big Should They Be?
[Shopping-and-Product-Reviews:Fashion-Style] The fashion for big handbags has come at a good time for all of us. With so many wonderful gizmos in our lives we need somewhere to put them all. We are more mobile than ever but we need our MacBook, our Blackberry, our MP3 player as well as our traditional keys, wallet, make-up and the ubiquitous bottle of water along with us at all times, to keep in contact with the world, not miss out on anything and look good all the time.
- A Handbag is Not Just For Christmas
[Shopping-and-Product-Reviews:Fashion-Style] Do you need ideas of what to buy the special woman in your life? Read on for advice on how to select a very special handbag that will woo her heart at any time of year!
- Gold Handbags For the Holidays and Beyond
[Shopping-and-Product-Reviews:Fashion-Style] Gold and metallics are so incredibly chic right now and are set to be very fashionable next year too, featuring in many of the top designers' spring and summer 2009 collections, so now is the perfect time to invest in a gold handbag. Buy it in time for the holiday season, where it will shimmer and sparkle at your side, adding light and style to your most elegant little black dress, completing a glamorous party outfit, or just adding some life and fun to dull winter days.
- Flower Images Revitalize and Refresh Your Energy Levels
[Health-and-Fitness:Mind-Body-Spirit] Use flower images at home and at work to bring some positive energy into your life, to relax and revive your flagging spirits. On your wall or computer they are bound to uplift you and bring color and warmth into your life.
- Italian Lentil Soup Recipe For Warming Winter Meals
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Soups make an easy and warming winter supper for the family. Here is an Italian lentil soup recipe that makes a complete and nutritious meal and is delicious too!
- Luxury Villas For Holiday Or Business Travel - Comfort and Privacy
[Travel-and-Leisure:Hotels-Accommodations] There is an increasing trend in major destinations worldwide for those staying for extended periods on vacation or business to choose a luxury villa rather than stay in luxury hotels. Groups of friends vacationing together, large families and even those traveling for work reasons have discovered that a luxury villa can be every bit as comfortable as a hotel but provides a more relaxed atmosphere, a home from home that is both informal and private.
- Luxury Villas For Family Holidays - Relaxation and Privacy
[Travel-and-Leisure:Vacation-Rentals] A family holiday needs to be a relaxed affair, spending time with your family away from the pressures of daily life, you want to find a comfortable and informal place to stay where you can do what you want, when you want and not worry about the noise the kids make or whether their current food fads can be catered for. Renting a luxury villa in your destination of choice provides the perfect solution for a family that likes to be comfortable, but wants to avoid the formality of a hotel setting.
- Gourmet China Experience
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] China has a whole range of different styles of cooking and plenty of interest to the gourmet traveller. From sophisticated city restaurants to home cooking in rural towns you truly take in the culture of a country by experiencing its food. Do this in style with a luxury gourmet tour for a relaxing and memorable holiday of a lifetime.
- China As a Gourmet Luxury Travel Destination
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] Visit China for a gourmet travel experience like no other. A wealth of cuisines and traditions to explore makes for a fascinating holiday and if you choose the luxury options of boutiques hotel and experienced concierge service you can do it all in comfort too.
- Elegant Work Bags For Professional Women - Luxury and Style in Business
[Shopping-and-Product-Reviews:Fashion-Style] Professional women need top quality work bags that reflect their stylish and polished image. Here are some starting points for choosing a stylish bag that complements your professional look.
- Ostrich Leather Handbags - Luxury That Lasts For Years
[Shopping-and-Product-Reviews:Fashion-Style] If you are looking for a truly luxury handbag, one of the most exclusive leathers of all is ostrich leather. Soft and luxurious it is also a tough leather that keeps its good looks for many years and its elegantly patterned texture, spotted with the characteristic quill follicle polka dots, is the epitome of restrained chic.
- Buying Quality Handbags Online - Refine Your Search
[Shopping-and-Product-Reviews:Fashion-Style] Buying a luxury handbag online can be the answer when you are looking for affordable quality and style. Here are some tips to help you find what you are looking for and enjoy the search.
- Luxury Handbags - Choose 3 Essential Bags For Your Fashion Wardrobe
[Shopping-and-Product-Reviews:Fashion-Style] Every woman needs an elegant handbag but how do you choose between all the many styles of luxury bags available today? Here is a guide to choosing three quality handbags to start off a wardrobe of handbags that will last you for years and give you a stylish and elegant image.
- Audio Books - Download MP3s or Rent CDs
[Computers-and-Technology:Personal-Tech] Do you wish you had more time to read, keep up with the latest bestsellers or rediscover the classics? If your life goes by too fast for a relaxing read on the sofa, why not try an audio book? You can listen to your audio book on long car drives or during your daily commute, on your iPod while out running or at the gym.
- Audio Books for Kids
[Reference-and-Education] Audio books can play a useful role in helping motivate children to learn to read. They can also save your sanity on long car journeys or flights!
- Lasagna - The Real Italian Dish
[Food-and-Drink:Pasta-Dishes] Do you think of lasagna as a sublime gourmet sensation or a stodgy school food staple? Forget about microwave meals, and discover the gourmet pleasures of lasagne eaten in its homeland of Italy.
- Pitta Bread Recipe
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Pitta bread is a great standby that kids love. Filled with cream cheese and tomato or avocado, cold chicken and salad it makes a nutritious lunch or supper. It can be toasted straight from the freezer when you've run out of bread or made fresh from scratch just because it is so delicious. Here is a simple recipe to make your own pita breads.
- Malva Pudding - South African Dessert Recipe
[Food-and-Drink:Desserts] Almost every restaurant in Cape Town has Malva Pudding on its dessert menu. It is rich, delicious and indulgent and has to be tasted at least once on a gourmet tour of Cape Town. Essentially a rather homely, baked cake, its restaurant version soaks itself in a rich, creamy sauce to take on a mantle of decadence, while elegant versions serve themselves up with a few poached apricots alongside too.
- Flowers You Can Eat - Nasturtiums
[Food-and-Drink:Salads] Nasturtiums bring all the best qualities of edible flowers to your table. Bright colours, peppery flavour to add a zing to your salads and, not least, useful medicinal properties. A salad recipe and advice on how to use nasturtiums to banish sore throats.
- Roast Potatoes - The Secrets of a Successful Satisfying Crunch
[Food-and-Drink:Cooking-Tips] A Sunday lunch with roast chicken, roast potatoes, steamed vegetables and gravy is one of those classic English meals that can soar into the culinary sublime or dive into the dismals. Here are five tips to make sure your roast potatoes are golden, crispy and soft and fluffy but not soggy inside, lifting your family Sunday lunch into the realm of gourmet meals.
- Summer Sorbet Recipe
[Food-and-Drink:Desserts] This citrus sorbet recipe served in the hollowed out peels of the orange, mandarin or lemon is the perfect thing to make for a summer celebration. The bright colours of the skins look cheerful, the sorbet is fragrant and refreshing. It is elegant enough for an adult dinner, fun and tasty enough to delight children.
- Healthy Muffin Recipe with Yoghurt and Oats
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Sweet treats for kids that are also healthy can be hard to come by, healthy treats that the kids actually like even harder. This recipe has been tried and tested by a part of the blogging community all around the world and as far as I can tell has been universally a hit with kids and parents alike. The muffins are moist and keep for a few days, have a good crust and flavour and get devoured as soon as they have cooled down enough to eat.
- Recipe for a South African Crustless Milk Tart
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] South African Milk Tart is a wonderfully comforting dessert. This very quick and easy recipe can be thrown together in minutes and left to bake while you get on with other things.
- Shopping in a Tuscan Market
[Travel-and-Leisure] Market day is the high point of the week in a Tuscan town. Each town has its regular market day, a very small town maybe hosting just a few stalls of fruit and vegetables, bigger ones filling several streets with all the goods under the sun. One of the joys of being on holiday in Italy is having the leisure time to explore its tastes and flavors, by wandering the small food shops and observing what the locals buy.
- How to Shop for Food on Holiday in Italy
[Travel-and-Leisure] So you've booked a self-catering holiday in Italy, on a farm in Tuscany or by a beach in Liguria? Enjoy exploring the flavours of Italy with this basic guide, to help you enjoy food shopping as part of your holiday experience.
- SEO Writing for Your Own Website
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online] Writing copy for your own website is a complex business. Not only do you have to write good copy to publicise your business and sell your services but, if you want your website to get seen, you have to understand a little about how the web works. SEO, Search Engine Optimization is the buzz word. Big businesses will pay for specialist SEO services, but what can small business owners do, if they are writing and building their own websites?
- Proofreading Websites
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online] Your business website is the virtual equivalent of your bricks and mortar reception area. Your potential clients get their first impressions of your business in about ten seconds’ perusal of your home page. More tips on proofreading your website to keep your professional image sparkling.
- The Role of Copyediting and Proofreading on the Internet
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online] A website is the most important marketing tool for many businesses these days. Make sure yours conveys a professional polished image by proofreading the text properly. Here are a few points to watch out for.
- Home-Cooked Ham
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] A home cooked ham glazed with mustard is a worthy centrepiece for any celebration. Cold, it gives a focus to a buffet lunch, its warm colour and smoky flavour providing an excellent counterpoint to plain roast chickens and creamy quiches. Served hot in winter it is warming and can sit alongside mountains of potatoes and roasted vegetables to make a good hearty meal.
- Home-Made Chicken Nuggets Recipe
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Why should anyone bother to make their own Chicken Nuggets, when they can buy them conveniently ready made? If you are concerned with what goes into processed and ready packaged food in the way of preservatives and additives though, you might like to produce your own chicken nuggets for those occasions when your children demand comfort food. These home-made chicken nuggets taste much nicer than bought ones and you know exactly what's in them - that there are no unwanted preservatives, that it really is chicken, if you have a source of affordable organic chicken you can use that and they will also be really fresh.
- Italian Lamb Stew Recipe
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Simple, no-effort recipes, with clear uncomplicated flavours are called for after all the rich Christmas feasting. This Italian lamb recipe, based on Marcella Hazan's excellent and authentic recipes, is simple and straightforward but satisfying. The lamb juices are a concentrated drizzle of intense and aromatic flavour. My mouth is still watering at the memory!
- Christmas Cake Recipe
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Fill your kitchen with the aromas of Christmas by baking a traditional Christmas cake. All you need is this recipe, spices, dried fruit, brandy and all the rest of the ingredients to get the Christmas spirit flowing.
- More Spice for Kids
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] A recipe for a mild Chicken Korma as part of my campaign to introduce spice into my children’s taste experience. As a mother I am rebelling against plain nursery food and trying out new recipes, so that kids and adults alike can vary our menu and try out new flavours.
- Alternative Remedies for Children
[Health-and-Fitness:Alternative] Author recounts her experience as a mother of using alternative medicine when her children are sick. She tells of the benefits of using Tissue Salts to support the immune system through mild fevers and flu instead of reaching for the Calpol bottle.
- Baking Bread - A Recipe for White Bread
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Fresh bread is one of the simple joys of living: the smell of it baking, then with the loaf fresh out of the oven the temptation of tearing a hunk off the loaf before it has even had time to cool down. Try this simple recipe for baking white bread at home and you'll never want to buy your bread from a supermarket again!
- Alternative Remedies for Every Day with Kids
[Health-and-Fitness:Alternative] Alternative medicine is becoming more and more popular these days, as informed parents try to minimise their use of antibiotics for treating minor ailments in their children. Here I share a few simple homeopathic remedies that I use regularly to get my kids through the everyday ailments and accidents that inevitably crop up in a family with young children.
- Kids and Spice
[Food-and-Drink] How do you cook yourself spicy food, when your children won’t eat it? Do you have to subsist on nursery food until they leave home or is there an alternative. Madhur Jaffrey’s Book inspired me to find a way round this culinary impasse, so that both the kids and the parents are happy.
- Lemons Add Zest to Life
[Food-and-Drink] Lemon trees laden with their winter crop, boughs drooping under the weight of many hued lemons: dark green, lighter green becoming suffused with yellow, vibrant yellow bursting with life, then as they go unpicked and overripe a flush of orange seeps into the knobbly fruit. On hot summer’s days the lemon comes into its own. Refreshing, iced, home-made Lemonade garnished with mint to slake your thirst – much healthier than commercial fizzy drinks, despite the sugar. It is additive-free, with loads of Vitamin C and far more delicious than anything that comes in a can.
- Shepherd's Pie Recipe
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Traditional nursery food has made a come back in our family recently. I haven't bothered making shepherd's pie (or cottage pie, as it is also known) for ages, as the children just used to eat the potato from the top and leave the mince. If I use the same minced beef to make meatballs or burgers the kids devour it, but they hate picking out all the little bits of vegetables that I hopefully put into it, when I make the shepherd's pie, in the hope of smuggling a few vegetables into their diet. Anyway my son actually requested shepherd's pie the other day, so yesterday I made it and they gobbled it up, vegetables and all
- Lavender Heart Cookies
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Lavender, its bushy hedges wafting a delicate scent in the winter sunshine, is one of my favourite herbs. I was going through my recipe books yesterday, looking for something new to try in the biscuit baking line and saw a recipe for Lavender Heart Cookies. Every time I'd glanced through the book it had always intrigued me, but I'd never tried it before, as the idea of using lavender in baking seemed a little bizarre -interesting but probably getting results of 'yuk Mum, what are these bits?'
- Marmalade Recipe
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Making marmalade is pure self-indulgence for me. Nobody else in our house likes it, but I love the zesty tang of marmalade on hot buttery toast. Maybe the taste for it is peculiar to the English – peculiar taste buds we must have to like marmite too with its salty bite. Anyway a few times each winter I make a batch of marmalade, sell a few jars at the market and keep the rest to last me till next year.
- Recipe for Cheese Biscuits
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Every end of term at my daughters’ kindergarten, finds us baking cheese biscuits for their festival. These are delicious, easy to make, light flaky mouthfuls of crunch, just like cheese straws only more fun, as you can use any shaped cookie cutter you like. We have pigs, bunnies, stars, moons, hearts, fish. They are the perfect answer to the dilemma of providing a treat snack for school feasts and festivals, that doesn’t break the school guidelines of minimising sugar but is still fun for the kids.
- Recipes with Rosemary
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Rosemary is one of my favourite herbs – its clean, spiky scent pervading my kitchen takes me to the South of France on a warm summer’s day. It is the hardiest plant in my herb garden, surviving our driest summers and putting out new growth as soon as the winter rains begin. You can pick from it all year round and it has useful medicinal properties too.
- Recipe for South African Buttermilk Rusks
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Rusks in South Africa are part of the cultural identity – one of the things that exiles in a foreign land long for. Children are brought up on Rooibos tea (a herbal bush tea) and rusks.
- Just Desserts, Pudding Recipes Galore
[Food-and-Drink:Desserts] We are a pudding family. There is something satisfying about the word pudding. It brings connotations of comfort, of tastebud-tantalising things, rich and luscious. Dessert suggests something elegant, delicate, restrained - a sweet mouthful to finish off a meal. Dessert just doesn’t do it for me.
- A Hymn To Baked Potatoes
[Food-and-Drink] What better on a cold winter’s night, than to come home to a supper of crisp-skinned baked potato, piping hot, a knob of butter soaking into the fluffy centre. Perfect for days when you get home in good time but have a million things to do and cooking supper is last on the list.
- Poppies in Tuscany 2 – The Digital Photography Alternative
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Photography] Taking photos in Tuscany – the digital photographer searches for fields of poppies to create the perfect photo of Tuscany in May
- Poppies in Tuscany 1 –The Definitive Flower Picture
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Photography] Tuscany in May the ultimate travel photo would be a medieval hill town with a field of poppies in the foreground. Here are tips on trying to find and shoot that elusive image.
- Bars in Tuscany – a Gastronomic Experience
[Travel-and-Leisure] A small town in Tuscany, ancient red brick and stone, narrow cobbled streets winding around the contours of the hill upon which it is built, a few shops, all closed now, as it is siesta time. The only sign of life comes from the doors of a bar, an appetising aroma of espresso coffee wafting out...
- Summer Smoothies
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] The summer sun swelters outside. Inside it is warm, the fruit bowl sits lusciously on the window sill, bursting with seasonal plenty – peaches, mangoes, grapes as well as the year round banana...
- Advocating Avocado Pears
[Food-and-Drink] Avocadoes are back in season – hurrah! All summer I’ve been looking at the exorbitantly priced sad-looking specimens in the shops, refusing to buy, as I know they’ll be disappointing.
- Baking with Jam
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Jam-making is over for the year, the summer heat has finished off the strawberries, the apricot season went by in the blink of an eye, it’s too hot to think of cooking anything at all until evening cools the air. Even the memory of standing over a simmering pot of jam makes me perspire.
- Strawberry Jamming Finale
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] So the strawberries are finally slowing down, the end of the season is in sight… and do I feel relief that I will no longer be chained to the kitchen counter, three nights a week, preparing strawberries for jam?
- A Recipe for Rye Bread
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Every time you make bread you’re guaranteed a good ten minutes of contemplation as you knead it, the mechanical rhythmic activity frees the mind to wander or switch off…very therapeutic.
- Flower Pictures in Tuscany
[Travel-and-Leisure] It’s springtime in Tuscany, early May. Arriving at Pisa airport the air smells different, dryer, lighter, brighter with the alluring waft of some flower scent, even amid the concrete hustle and bustle common to airports everywhere.
- Strawberry Jammed Out
[Food-and-Drink] Latest news from the strawberry jam front – the tide of strawberries is advancing, threatening to engulf me in a wave of strawberries waiting to be processed, taking up whole shelves of the fridge, lurking in corners just when I thought I’d done the last batch.
- Strawberry Jamming Again
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Just taking part in this process, I feel a bond back through the centuries with all the women, who preserved, jammed, pickled, prolonging the goodness and abundance of the seasonal produce to last the whole year through.
- Strawberry Jamming
[Food-and-Drink] So why am I standing at the kitchen counter, blurry eyed at 9 o’clock at night, sorting and chopping organic strawberries, when I should be tucked up on the sofa falling asleep over the latest Katie Fforde?
- Chakras and Flowers
[Health-and-Fitness:Meditation] How do you connect chakras, the energy centres of the body in Eastern tradition, and flowers, pretty, ephemeral, bright, cheerful manifestations of nature?
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