How to Make Crockpot Fisherman's Stew

Most people will not attempt seafood in the crockpot because it is so delicate. Overcooking is the worst thing you can do to seafood. However, there is no reason to keep seafood away from your crockpot. This delicious recipe for Seafood Cioppino, or Fisherman's Stew, is a great seafood dish to make on a cold winter's night. All the ingredients except for the seafood simmer gently all day long. You just add the seafood a little while before you want to eat. What better way to use your crockpot and still eat seafood?

This method for fisherman's stew lets all the flavors combine together into a fantastic dish that you can enjoy sitting in front of the fire with someone you love. Serve it up with a glass of wine and some crusty bread and you will be ready to withstand any winter storm. This hearty stew is full of nutrition and comfort. If you are lucky enough to live on the coast, make sure you pick up the catch of the day before you head home so you can add it to your cioppino. There is nothing like fresh seafood.

You can choose any type of seafood, do not feel constrained by the recipe. If you can get seasonal fresh crab, add it. Lobster, too. Clams, mussels, shrimp, fish, squid, scallops; you name it. This stew can handle them all. Cioppino is a rustic stew that originated in San Francisco in the late 1800s that is a combination between Italian stews and the local cuisine. You can also choose to serve it over pasta if you want a more substantial dish. Spaghetti, linguine, or other long noodle is perfect. If you choose to do so, you may want to provide extra napkins or even bibs so the tomato sauce does not end up on your guests' clothing.

Recipe for Seafood Cioppino

This delicious stew is perfect for a cold night.

What You Need

1 (28 ounces) can crushed tomatoes with juice 1 (8 ounces) can tomato sauce 1/2 cup onion, chopped 1 cup dry white wine 1/3 cup olive oil 3 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 cup parsley, chopped 1 green pepper, chopped 1 hot pepper, chopped (optional) Salt and pepper to taste 1 teaspoon thyme 2 teaspoons basil 1 teaspoon oregano 1/2 teaspoon paprika 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper Water, if desired to thin the stew 1 sea bass, cod or other whitefish fillet, deboned and cubed 1 dozen prawns 1 dozen scallops 1 dozen mussels 1 dozen clams

How to Make It

Place the tomatoes, sauce, onion, wine, olive oil, parsley, peppers, thyme, basil, oregano, paprika, cayenne and salt and pepper into the crockpot and mix. Cover and cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours.

Half an hour before serving, add the fish, prawns, scallops, mussels, and clams. Turn the setting to High and stir gently occasionally during the remainder of the cooking time.

Serve with crusty bread for dipping.

Note: You can use whatever types of seafood are available to you.

How to Fight a Traffic Ticket by Using Your Brain!

Now, there are some traffic tickets that you are going to get that you can do nothing about. These are the ones that kind of sneak up on you. However, you would be shocked to know that most of us can learn how to fight a traffic ticket just by using a little common scese. Today we are going to talk about a few things to look for so that you can avoid traffic tickets and not have to spend your hard earned cash buying one of those radar detectors.

First of all, you need to learn the location of the traffic cameras in your area. Not all areas have them, but you can easily spot them at intersections if they are in your area. The best way to do this is to look at an intersection whenever you are stopped at a red light. Check all around and see if you can spot a camera. If you do not spot one, then you know that the area you are in is safe. Over time you will be able to go through all the intersections in your area, and you will be able to know which ones are lookout spots and which ones are not. If you come up on an intersection that you do not know about, simply slow down going through it until you can figure out if it has a camera there or not. To be on the safe side, never try and look for these cameras when going through the intersection. Only look for them when you are stopped. Once again, taking your eyes off the road to check the lights for cameras is not using your brain.

Next on the list of things to look out for are hidden cops. Now, if you are from an area, you normally have a good idea of where cops hang out at, thus, it would be a bad idea to go speeding through there. If you are on the highway, it can be harder to know where the cops could be located. Although it's impossible to learn all of their spots, there are a few that you need to look out for. One thing that cops love to do is sit on exit ramps. They sit on the ones that lead onto the highway. That way you can not see them as you are coming up on them. By the time you know that they are there, it is too late. So as you come up on exits, slow down when you are coming up to the spot where people are getting on the highway, take a quick look to see if a cop is hiding out there.

Long Distance Caregiving for a Loved One is Particularly Difficult

The phone rang at 5 a.m. John was sure it couldn't be good news at that hour. He was right. Mom's neighbors were calling him from 850 miles away in Texas to say that she was out watering her roses an hour ago on a cold, early spring morning. John knew that she had been failing. She wasn't the same Mom he could always count to stand by him. Now he needed to stand by her. But how?

Families are now living further apart from each other. This is difficult because your elders require ever-increasing assistance, yet the distance between you makes it difficult to perform the tasks of a primary caregiver. But most elders are reluctant to leave their home of many years to move to the town in which their adult children live. This reluctance can become a stressful point of contention between adult children and their parent(s).

Often, it is a financial issue. In-home care and assisted living can be much more expensive in New York or California than in the center of the country. Resources simply may not stretch as far to allow one to live as one chooses. Regardless of the reasons, many adult children find themselves far away and concerned that parents are not doing as well as they may insist in those telephone visits.

There are some ways to help manage long distance caregiving:

* Try to visit as soon as possible to assess the situation. Take notes of possible problem areas and gather information about senior resources in their area.

* Make sure legal and financial affairs are in place. Keep copies of important papers and telephone numbers of contacts.

* Plan ahead to have back up providers to care for your own family in case you need to make an unexpected visit to your relative. It is also a good idea to bank some vacation or sick days from work for these visits as well.

* Seek the assistance of a Professional Care Manager specializing in assessing and monitoring the needs of the elderly.

* Consider all the options before moving your relative, but begin talking with them about this possibility. You could be surprised to learn they are willing to move closer to you, but they never mentioned this for fear of burdening you with their problems.

* Retain a copy of the Yellow Pages that serves your parent's community. The next time your parent calls and you need to locate resources, you won't need to search out numbers or call information long-distance.

When you live hundreds of miles away from an aging loved one, there is a constant level of anxiety over his or her welfare. Every family must make their own decisions about how to handle the situation. Dr. Mary Pipher, in her book Another Country, Navigating the Emotional Terrain of our Elders makes a convincing argument for having the aging parent(s) move near the adult child who will, or currently handles their financial or care decisions. It is an option that should be given much consideration. Be sure to have a contact person who lives close to the parent periodically checking on their health and cognitive status. Better yet, also have someone who can act upon your and her or his behalf until you can.

Use this article freely in print or electronic media, but please use author's byline and let me know where and how it is used.

Harry Potter Party Games

You'll be happy to have these Harry Potter Party Games on hand the next time you're holding a Harry potter book release party for the kids.

The first game I suggest is called 'Play Time'. Before the party collect bundles of three odd items and put them in pillow sacks or bags. Then when you start the game have the kids get into groups and have each group take a bag. Each group must use all of the items they find in an undiscovered scene from one of the Harry Potter books.

Be sure to give all of the groups plenty of time to put together their scene. You may even want to let them have a practice run before they put on their mini plays. To make this kind of competitive, each group must use clues in the scene to indicate which of the Harry Potter books the scene is from and you can have the rest of the guests try to guess which of the books this undiscovered scene comes from.

The next game is called 'Wizards'. It's a fun version of tag for magic fans and Harry Potter fans, of course. Have all the players stand in a circle with their eyes closed. Then walk around the circle and place your hand on the backs of those who will become wizards. Try to average about one wizard for every five players. Then have everyone open their eyes and start running.

None of the players will know who each of the wizards are at the start of the game and the wizards won't know their fellows at first either. Each wizard runs around pressing their hands against the backs of runners to freeze them. Fellow wizards won't be frozen if they are tagged. Other players can unfreeze the frozen players with a warm hug. The point is to try and get all the players frozen. If the wizard manage to succeed in getting everyone frozen you should give them a Harry Potter party themed prize like chocolate wands, which are really chocolate covered pretzels.

Security Is An 'Inside' Job

While I was growing up, my dad repeatedly told me that when I completing my schooling, I needed to get a good job. In fact, I should try to land some sort of good paying job, preferably one that was done indoors. This kind of inside job was his idea of security.

This concept was reinforced by the repeated comments of all sorts of people I knew. My friends, my relatives, even my teachers and coaches reiterated the need to land that ideal job. By the time I got out of college, I was already working overtime to find that inside job.

Much to my delight, I quickly snagged a good job - an inside job at that - just as my peers had suggested. "What luck," I chuckled to myself. I had managed to snare my security at a nice young age. How could it get any better than that?

Over the next three years, the initial luster of this inside job gradually eroded away. During this three year span, I gradually discovered that this job was someone else's idea of security, but not mine. I soon realized that this nice, secure inside job came with a lot of strings attached.

I was told how much I could make and when I might get a raise, when I was to report to work and when I could go home, how much vacation time I could take and when I could take it and so on and so forth.

As I witnessed other coworkers being laid off and let go, I began to realize that I could lose my job as well. All of a sudden, this job and all of its security didn't feel so secure any more. The people who counseled me earlier in life did get it half right when they said security is an inside job. The only true security you will ever enjoy in life is inside of you.

True security in life, by that I mean the kind that really counts, is finding that special "something" you hold inside of yourself. Security is a deep down belief that proclaims loud and clear that you can do it, while it continually reinforces your personal feeling of pride and self worth. Security is knowing that you have accepted personal responsibility for you and your family's well being.

Real security is derived from living life on your terms, having fun, bringing value to others and being the best person you can be. Yes, that is the only true security you'll ever enjoy. Hey, I am not suggesting that you immediately go out and quit your job. Not at all. But I am suggesting that you should make absolutely certain that you enjoy the best life has to offer in terms of your family life, your spiritual life and yes, your working life as well.

Your security begins with a good, healthy, I can do it self image. With this high powered, self assured attitude in place, nothing on earth can possibly hold you down or hold you back for very long. When you boldly take charge of yourself on the inside, you'll enjoy the best security you could ever possibly have on the outside as well.

The Bottom Line: Make your life the daring adventure it should be.

Sump Pump Failures and How to Avoid Them

Every time a major rainfall hits an area, countless tales of woe are heard from homeowners who have gambled with a low-quality sump pump installation in their basement. During the worst storms, plumbers can work around the clock to pump water from basements and crawl spaces. Homeowners pay whatever it takes to help minimize the already extensive damage dealt to their home and personal possessions. Despite this these stories, sump pumps are better and more reliable than they've ever been. But not all sump pumps are created equal, and the low-quality systems that were unreliable years ago are still available and still unreliable today. Most common failures can be narrowed down to three major causes.

Power Outages

If you have a sump pump installed and the power goes out, you may no longer have a working system. This is true for the major power outages common in large rain storms, when a fuse blows, or even when it accidentally comes unplugged. If you're counting on a generator to back up your sump pump when it loses power, ask yourself these questions:

Will I always be home during a power outage to start the generator? How will I know if the sump pump simply came unplugged? (Generally, you'll know when the basement floods.) Will my generator have enough power to keep it running until the power comes back on?

Unless you have a good answer to all three of these, consider adding a battery backup sump pump system to your basement waterproofing solution. A good battery backup system should be able to pump at least 7,000 gallons of water out of your basement on a single charge and is set to turn on automatically if the main pump loses power for any reason.

Sump Pump Failure

If you have either a plastic sump pump installed in your basement, a do-it-yourself kit, or an inexpensive one installed by a plumber, it's a matter of time before it fails. Plastic pumps often fail due to mechanical failure, but any sump pump installed directly in a sump pit without a strong, well-built sump liner and a stand will eventually clog the pump due to dirt and debris from the pit that gets in.

If you install a backup sump pump, you can feel confident that when there's mechanical failure or the sump pump clogs, you have a second pump to keep the basement dry. Considering the cost of pumping a basement out and the damaged personal possessions you have when a failure and the basement leaks, this is a small investment. Even a battery backup can offer temporary relief from a pump failure until a new primary sump pump can be installed or the existing one is repaired.

Sump Pumps Overwhelmed

In a torrential downpour, your system may be overwhelmed with heavy volumes of foundation water. In these cases, a single pump can be overwhelmed and the basement can flood. Keep your basement protected by installing a reliable backup. In the case of overwhelming rain, both pumps can work to protect your home and keep the basement dry. If you also have a battery backup, it can turn on if one pump fails, and it'll be there to pick up the slack if even both are overwhelmed.