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.

An Overview of Business Consulting Activities

If you have a special interest or hobby, skill or experience, you can be a consultant. Consultants market their services or advice for payment to companies or individuals.

Here is a list of the business skills consultants find themselves most in demand for:

Assistance with various management tasks such as planning, strategies and procedures Management development which may include training in a specific field or skill Selecting, recruiting and training of staff Marketing strategy for promotions, advertising campaigns and other sales related activities Assisting with market research, new product development and distribution Accounting and bookkeeping services Specialist knowledge or skills in manufacturing, packaging and buying Research, development and organizational planning and implementation Office management and administration skills Operations management assists with planning and implementation of procedures to obtain the results as outlined in the business plan and goals Assistance with international activities such as import, export, duties, licenses and general international business relations Specialist assistance with activities such as strategic business planning, communications, business tenders, grants, buy-outs, liquidations, government consultation and the various fields of information technology Survey and data administration Event management

You could also consider expanding your special interest or hobby into the consulting arena. There are many people that would value your experience and knowledge.

Additional fields for consulting activities include:

Caregiving - train and manage a team of people to assist elderly or sick people with shopping, cooking, correspondence or just being companions who can read and talk to them Interior decorating - if you have a creative flair for combining color and style there are many people who need help with the right selection of interior products to give them the kind of environment or theme they want for their office or home Landscape or gardening projects - use your interest and knowledge of plants to create a beautiful garden for office blocks, homes or public spaces Health and safety - people with practical first aid skills are very much in demand by many different organizations Typing - if you type accurately and quickly, there are many students who would be willing to pay you to type out their notes, thesis or projects Writing - there are many organizations and individuals that would be willing to pay you for information about your particular field of interest Voice talent - get paid for answering phones, recording messages or reading books for digital voice transcription.

More than ever before people are in need of advice and assistance to help them balance their busy personal and business lives. Sometimes all they need is a simple, practical solution to their problem.

As an independent consultant you many have just the right kind of information and advice that is needed to help either a corporation or individual complete a task successfully.

How Much Is A Great Business Logo Really Worth?

A great logo can help a business project a positive image while a bad logo can bring a negative impression about a company. For many companies, a logo is the only identifiable mark a potential customer may ever see, so it needs to be memorable, descriptive and easily recognizable. If a logo is the company spokesman, how much is it really worth?

Cheap logo designs are all over the Internet - logo designs under $150! $99 logo designs, $75 logo designs, $49 logo designs and even lower! You will easily find a wide range of prices for logo design on the Internet. Be careful of cheap logo design offers, some designers may be using clip art. A logo design that includes a royalty free piece of clip art cannot be copyrighted. That same piece of clip art could be used on dozens of other logo designs. A designers portfolio should be displayed and there should be a wide variety of logo samples. At $49 each, do all of the logos look the same? Do the majority of them have block lettering and a swoosh?

Some logo designers charge one flat fee for a logo with no questions asked. Can you imagine Coca-Cola purchasing a logo design for $99? What a deal! Or how about Bob's bait shop paying $750 for a logo. There goes the budget! All companies are not equal in size, budget and usage. All designs are not equal. Does a swoosh take the same amount of time and effort as creating a detailed motorcycle?

The confusion doesn't stop there. Some logo designers charge additional costs for extra colors, extra modifications and extra preliminary designs. You have to get your calculator out just to figure the final cost of your logo. Do you really know what you are paying for?

How much is a logo design really worth? Ask Coca-Cola, Polo, Nike, The Hard Rock Cafe, Hallmark or any other company that relies on their logo as their number one spokesman. Not every company is as large as these but every company should have a logo that is easy to identify and stands for the integrity of that business.

A logo design is more valuable to a company than a single spot illustration. An illustration is normally used once or used for a limited campaign, whereas a logo is used for years and is placed on business cards, letterheads, envelopes, web sites, vehicles, buildings and products. Do you see the difference in value to a company? A logo has more value than just the hours spent on creating it. It becomes the companies identity.

With that said, shouldn't a logo be worth more than just the time involved in creating it? Professional graphic design rates average anywhere from $30 to $75 per hour. If you see a logo design priced at $125 and that designer charges $50 per hour for design work, do you assume that they spent 2.5 hours on your logo? That price would include the time spent to contact you, the research done on your company and competition, the preliminary ideas, the changes, the finalizing of the logo, the file prep for each different format, sending the logo, billing and allowing you to have all rights to the design. So how much time was actually spent creating your logo?

My conclusion is that a logo is much more valuable to a company than a standard illustration so the price should reflect the added value. Many professional graphic designers would be hard pressed to create a top notch illustration for under $150 let alone a creative, well designed logo. So beware of logos priced under $150, you may get what you pay for.

There's even more confusion about logo pricing. Some designers base their logo rates on several of these factors:

Logo Modifications - You could get charged for each time you want a change or modification to your logo. If a logo designer asks the right questions, does the research and stays in close communication with the client there should be no need for major changes during the creation of a logo design. Be a good communicator and explain to the logo designer exactly what you want your logo to be saying about your business. As a designer, you should get signed approval for each modification showing that the client was in agreement at the time.

Extra Colors - Printers charge more for extra colors. If a logo designer charges more for a two color logo than they do for a three color logo, get a detailed explanation as to why. It only takes the click of a mouse to add an extra color. In today's world there is very little need for color separations so there should be no need for a designer to charge by the color.

Preliminary Designs - A few choices is good, to many choices is overkill. A logo designer should be able to decide for you the correct amount of preliminary designs it will require to create your perfect logo. Be leary of eight, ten and more initial designs. How much time could actually be spent on each design? If you don't like your first two or three designs you can easily request two or three more.

If you are on a committee or a board, I assure you that you do not want to present ten logos to ten different people. You may never get down to a winning design.

On the other hand, if you need an additional presentation of logos due to a complete change in direction on the companies part, there should be an extra fee. An example would be asking for a yellow duck logo design and changing your mind to a red dog design once the logos are presented to you.

Adding an identity program to your logo is a legitimate cost. Designing the business card, letterhead and envelope layouts are normally a higher priced package. You should receive camera ready files for each design.

There is a standard reference for pricing graphic design and corporate identity projects. It is Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, published by the Graphic Artists Guild. Any logo designer can purchase the book. A professional graphic designer would have a tough time supporting a family and a studio designing all of their logos below $200.

I'm not writing this to give exact prices for a logo design because each logo designers circumstances are different. Amateur logo designers charge much less to get their feet wet, but slowly increase their rates as they gain experience and creativity.

The standard logo design rates are based on two major components, company size and application or distribution size. The majority of logo designs created over the Internet are created for small companies and individuals with limited application and distribution uses. Fortune 500 companies normally pay much higher logo design rates and use advertising agencies.

My conclusion is that the value of a logo should be based on a few important criteria:

1. Experience of the logo designer

2. Size & budget of the company using the logo

3. Scope and usage of the logo

4. Difficulty of the design

An individual or small company with small to average uses should be prepared to pay anywhere from $300 to $1500 for a top quality, professional logo design.

What's included with your logo? The worst part of paying for a cheap logo is finding out that you were not sent the correct file formats for printing and web. You will then have to pay another graphic designer or printer to create the correct files. Be aware of what file types you will be needing and ask your logo designer what file types are included in their price.

The most common file types needed are AI (Illustrator) and EPS for most professional print jobs. These are vector format files. These files should be in a CMYK color format. Vector art allows you to reduce or enlarge a design to ANY size without losing detail or clarity.

For home use and some print jobs you will need TIFF and BMP files. These are pixel files and should have a DPI (dots per inch) of at least 300 dpi. 600-1200 dpi is best for professional printing. These type of files lose their detail when enlarged but can be reduced.

The last file types you will need would be JPEG and GIF. These are pixel files and are used for web design. They should be in a RGB color format. Be aware that not all colors translate well on the Internet, especially GIF files. Ask if the logo designer used web safe colors. You should receive crisp 72 dpi files for the Internet. A GIF file should be transparent if you do not want a white box around it when displayed on your page.

Be sure and ask your logo designer about your logo colors. Ask them for the Pantone PMS color numbers for each color. You will need this information each time your logo is printed. This insures that you get the exact same colors with every printer that you use.

Will you get your files over the Internet or will you receive a CD? Try to get a CD, it is much easier to take that to your local printer. Ask your designer how long they keep your logo on file in case you lose your versions later down the road.

You should also receive all rights (copyrights) to your logo. Since a logo is a companies identity you will need to own all rights to get a trademark. Ask for this in writing if you have any doubts.

Ask for the background on the logo designer you choose, you should at the very least know their name. Do they have a degree? How long have they designed logos? Is this their profession or a hobby? Where is there portfolio? Can you contact their other clients? Can you speak to them directly? With the amount of software available today and the invention of the Internet, any sixteen year old kid can start his own logo design company.

In closing let me say that the information above is a personal opinion and is taken from years of searching logo design web sites and reading books on graphic design. The prices and information I have explained here only pertain to the work of graphic designers, not advertising agencies. An advertising agency handles logo design on a larger scale and incorporates an entire corporate identity service. Their logo design rates are many times higher than a graphic designers.

Multiple Sclerosis - Interferon, My Experience of Interferon

I was diagnosed with relapsing and remitting multiple sclerosis in 1999. A few months after words my neurologist prescribed me with interferon. It was at that time that interferon was in short supply and many many patients were forced to live without it, so naturally I was very grateful for getting it.

Multiple Sclerosis - Interferon, my experience

To be honest I never researched to too much about it. I'd just been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Interferon to me just seemed like any other prescription.I just followed the instructions and took it religiously three times a week. I was injecting myself Monday Wednesday and Friday and after a while and it became second nature. Although it was recommended to use eight sites I could only use six as I found my stomach to be much too sensitive to the needles. After a couple of years of continual use I began to bruise quite badly. The bruises were unsightly and prevented me from wearing a T-shirt or shorts in the summertime.

I also experienced some difficulty as I was injecting myself in some of the exact same locations where the needle had already been. This was incredibly painful. Over time I found myself thinking of excuses why not to take my medication. I knew this was not right, but I dreaded every Monday Wednesday and Friday. I also felt really guilty because this is an expensive medication that so many people want and here was I not wanting to take it.

Around this time as well I had changed my lifestyle significantly. I now looked after myself better, I ate better, I exercised more, and I was under a lot less stress than I previously had been.I began to think that maybe I didn't need this medication. It was only then that I actually began to research just what interferon does for a multiple sclerosis . Interferon I realised quite quickly, combined with my improved lifestyle was probably what was keeping me well.

With that in mind, I spoke to my neurologist several times, and with his agreement I changed my medication from a three weekly dose to a weekly dose. The weekly injection is much easier to take, although the side-effects for me were  more severe. It's a different type of injection and from a different manufacturer but at least I only have to take it once a week.

Aside from medication there are many other things that you can do to improve your quality of life if you have Multiple Sclerosis. Interferon is certainly one but there were four other main things for me, and the things that I changed were mindset, diet, exercise, and stress.

I've had MS now since 1999 but I have managed to control my condition and in some ways turn back the clock. Do not Give Up or Give In!