

Making a Heart-shaped Love Cake for your Loved Ones
Materials Needed:
1 strawberry cake mix
Paper Cupcake Liners
Muffin Tins
Marbles
Aluminum Foil
Pink Frosting
Fruit Leathers
Scissors
What you will need to do:
Place the paper liners in the muffin tins and mix the cake batter as the package directs. Pour the batter into the liners. With the marbles and the foil, place a small piece of foil around the marble and shape it into a triangle on one side. So that you have a round bottom and a pointy top to the marble. Place the marble-covered foil in between the liner and the muffin tin side and point the round end toward the muffin tin and the pointy end into the liner. This will help the cake bake into a heart as it bakes.
Bake the mini cakes according to how the package directs and while you are waiting, cut heart with your scissors out from the fruit leathers and set aside. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely, frost with the pink frosting and top with heart-shaped fruit leather.

Heart-Shaped Pretzel Valentine's for your Sweet Heart or Sweetie
Materials Needed:
1 cup water, heated, but not hot
2 tbs. sugar
2 pkgs. dry yeast
1 egg
3-1/2 cups of flour
Coarse Salt
Stir together the yeast, sugar and the warm water in a large bowl and stir until dissolved. Set aside for about 15 minutes or until foamy. Once the yeast has grown stir in the flour and keep adding till the mixture becomes stiff. Knead on a floured surface and form into a ball. Place it in a buttered bowl and cover with a towel to rise in a warm location. It will double in size and at the time it is ready.
Punch the dough down and roll into a rectangle with a rolling pin and cut strips from the dough. Place the strips on a lightly oiled baking sheet and shape each strip into a heart, then set aside. Meanwhile, beat and egg with a fork and brush onto the heart-shaped strips and Sprinkle the tops with the coarse salt. Bake at 400 degrees for about 12-15 minutes or until each one turns golden brown. Give these with your paper Valentine’s Day cards for a special treat for your child's friends.
If you exercise during the day it's nothing new that it can add years to your life and help you shed unwanted pounds, but did you know that it can also help you sleep better at night as well?
If you suffer from insomnia, exercising can help you get those much needed zzzs at night even. It's unclear as why exercising helps you sleep better but elevated levels of serotonin and endorphins could be the cause.
Exercising at least for 30 minutes to raise your heart level like walking or even bicycling can help everyone. And doing relaxing exercises such as yoga can also help bring out the much needed sleep that everyone needs no matter what you age.
Herbs like oregano and cinnamon have been shown to help fend off the E. coli infection in humans. Most of these bacteria fighting herbs can be found in the ready-to-eat style of greens sold in supermarkets worldwide.
The Oregon grape root and the Gold seal herb can help fight the E. Coli infection once it has been ingesting into the body. They can also help against other forms of pathogens as well. They all contain a compound called berberine and it helps to stimulate the walls of the intestine to cause it to produce more fluids that contain antibodies.
So the next time you travel to where you think E. coli maybe an issue, carry and bit of Oregon grape root and gold seal tincture with you and take it three times a day.
Literally! Moving here to Oregon with a great dane, a Sheppard mix, two cats and a Styrofoam cooler full of goldfish was a challenge when it came to staying at hotels that weren't dives. And with another move coming soon, I thought I would get the low down on pet-friendly, quality stays.