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You may have heard the popular saying that ‘people fear public speaking more than death’. Whatever the truth of that claim, there is no doubt that a fear of public speaking is very common. If you are scared or nervous about speaking in front of an audience, you can take heart that you are not alone.

Today, perhaps more than any point in history, effective verbal communication skills are essential to success in all types of businesses and workplaces. The majority of students and professionals in all walks of life are likely to be called upon to give a presentation at some point.

A fear of public speaking can hamper your performance or even worse, cause you to purposefully avoid situations where you may need to present in front of an audience. It can prevent you from getting your point across, from performing at your best and advancing your business or career. I know all this, because I myself have suffered in the past from the paralysing effects that a fear of public speaking can have on your life and career.

Change your focus

The first step on my journey to overcoming this fear was to change my perspective of the problem. If you are a nervous or fearful speaker then you are likely to have an aspiration to ‘overcome my fear of public speaking’, or something similar. It is this aspiration that you need to change before anything else. You need to change what you are trying to avoid e.g. ‘ I don’t want to be scared of public speaking anymore’ to what you want to happen instead.

I am asking you to substitute a negative statement with a positive one. So your new aspiration might be something like ‘I want to become a relaxed and professional public speaker’. Once you have identified what it is you want in this positive way, then make it a firm goal by writing it down on paper. Review that goal every single day. Think about what it will mean, what you will hear, see and feel when it becomes reality.

If you keep on focusing on overcoming your fear of public speaking you may be creating what psychologists call a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’. By focusing on what you positively want instead you create an impetus for changing the way that you think about public speaking and consequently the way you feel about it.

Your ‘problem’ of public speaking is ultimately caused by the way you think. There is no doubt that you really are nervous and you may have physical effects just thinking about speaking in public. But, all these effects are directly caused by the way you think about presenting.

So my advice is to change the way you think about you fears before you do anything else. Focus on becoming great speaker rather than avoiding the fear and nerves. I am not claiming that by changing your focus and setting a positive written goal will solve you speaking nerves. I am saying that it is the first step.

Practical benefits

The result for me of this process was a real interest in public speaking and a desire to master the skills of presenting. It transformed public speaking from a real fear into one of the most engaging and interesting aspects of my life.

Once you change your focus, there are many other practical steps you can take to achieve your speaking goals. I will write about these steps in future articles, but for now, I suggest that you cultivate an interest in the subject, by reading books and articles about speaking and presenting. I also recommend that you join Toastmasters International. This fantastic organisation has thousands of clubs around the world providing a non-judgemental, practical education in public speaking for its members.

If you were attracted to this article because it is titled ‘ The first step to overcoming you fear of public speaking’, then I suggest that in future you should look for articles that are titled ‘How to be a great, confident presenter’!.

Read more articles on Presentation and Public Speaking Skills at http://www.PresentationHeaven.com

Are you planning to revamp your child’s room? Are you looking out for things which will make your child’s room bright and trendy? Have you ever given a thought for children’s furniture, kids’ toy boxes? Not much, right?

Furniture and toys will be the best option to start with the renovation of your kid’s bedroom. Always look out for things which are going to help your child to learn faster, bring those toys which will encourage them, which will fire their imagination and every creative aspect of their life. The first thing you can to do is to plan out the things and then start working on it. Make sure how you are going to do it, what things are you going to place in their rooms, which colors you are going to put on their walls, and the color of the children’s furniture. Have you ever thought from where you are going purchase all these things and what will be the expense?

Try to make your child’s room special by using decorative things like cartoon print bed sheet, colorful flowers, etc. Many parents want to give the best to their children no matter if it is little expensive. A variety of kids furniture are available in the market like tea party tables, rocking toys, wooden toys, educational toys, art activity desk, bookshelf, toy box etc. These things not only make their room attractive but also help them to learn lot of things for example; tea table will be helpful in learning table manner, bookshelf will help them to keep their books in an organized way, after playing children put their toys all over the room so don’t you think toy box will be helpful to them to keep their toys back after playing. Toys are the best thing which will help your child to learn lot of things in their day to day life.

Now this is not all about making your child’s room look special but it’s also about what quality kids furniture and kids toy boxes are you using. Parents look out for those kids furniture which are not harmful to their children. Lots of toys are made of plastic which contains toxins in it and those are harmful for the health of the children. These toys and kids furniture should be of better quality and try to use wooden furniture in their rooms which will last for long time and will not prove harmful to their health.

You can find this furniture in well known shops of wooden kids furniture where you will get lot of varieties. Try not to buy inferior quality things due to lesser cost. If not possible, use a few things in the room but of good quality. There are number of stores dealing with children’s furniture in the internet market so just enter your search and purchase appropriate furniture for your child’s bedroom.

Bart Albert is the author of this article on Childrens furniture [http://www.oldfashionedtoyshop.co.uk/component/virtuemart/?page=shop.browse&category_id=8].

Find more information about Childrens toy boxes [http://www.oldfashionedtoyshop.co.uk/component/virtuemart/?page=shop.browse&category_id=12] here.

PHP or Hypertext Preprocessor Programming is a server-side Script based programming language. Server-side script means the script that the server possesses before the HTML file containing those scripts are transferred to the browser of the client. Scripts PHP Programming is software programming that is used for web hosting and web developing. However, all web platforms and web servers do not allow PHP programming to be executed in them. Win32 platform is one such web platform where PHP is not possible. Programmers having knowledge of PHP programming have a demand in IT Community.

PHP is popular amongst most web-scripting program present today.

The reason for the popularity is as follows:

The roots of PHP Programs are in C & C++ and finds similarity with C++ and C syntax. It is easy to manipulate and learn for all programmers. The back-end tool for PHP is My SQL. The interfacing property of My SQL, an online database, matches properly with PHP. Webmasters, who want to make their web sites automated, look for My SQL and PHP as the best option for making their website dynamic. Operating System like Windows and Unix supports PHP Programming Language. The output buffering of PHP language is very powerful and helps in increasing output flow. The rearrangements of buffer in internal PHP programming helps the header to be arranged before the contents of the web page.

PHP has a dynamic property and works combined with HTML to display elements dynamic in nature on the web page. PHP has the property to parse codes within its own delimiters. PHP did not parse anything outside of its delimiters and all those elements left are sent into the output.

Varying types of Relational Database Management Systems can combine with PHP programs and run on different popular web servers. The combination also works for different O.S. as well. PHP Program provides quality assurance and is a secured, fast, reliable and a cheap option for developing and hosting applications on the web.

PHP Programming is free and simple to use than their .net-programming counterpart. However, .net-programming allows use of crystals for report creation and a complex system can be easily executed by using .net.

Even SAPI or a command line interface is provided by PHP for desktop applications and shell improvement, parsing of log, daemons etc. it is increasingly being used on command lines which have been conventionally used in shell scripting, Perl, Awk or Python.

The principal focus of web designing using PHP programming has now shifted to server side scripting from the initial focus which was to create dynamic web pages. The PHP program can take out input from different streamed files containing different PHP instructions and can output them or display them in another stream of data.

PHP programming is the new revolution of the world!

Mansi Aggarwal Recommends that you visit www.discussweb.com [http://www.discussweb.com/] for more information on PHP programming [http://www.discussweb.com/] and .net Programming [http://www.discussweb.com/].

What? A “Pet trust”? Pets as our “children”? We are supposed to consider including our pet animals – dogs, cats, birds, etc – as “family members” and “loved ones” who should be covered in our testamentary trust or will and our estate planning? Aren’t these just mere “animals”?

Well, not quite so any more these days!

Americans own a huge number of pets, including about 68 million dogs and 73 million cats, according to a 2000 estimate by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. What is even particularly fundamental, however, from the sociological standpoint and the transformation of the American society, is this: That for a great many Americans, and a growing number of them, their home pets are now considered a bona fide “member of the family,” and not just “animals” any more.

An October 1999 survey by the USA Today newspaper, for example, found that more than 66% of American pet owners said they consider their pets “a member of the family.” In a more recent survey by the American Animal Hospital Association, a whopping 84% of American pet owners were reported to think of their animal companions as being their kids.

In deed, a more telling indices of the dramatic evolution of the pet from mere ‘animals’ towards the highly exulted status of a ‘family member’ in the American society, is the general attitude of the pet owners towards their pets and simply the way they treat, regard and relate with their pets. For example, according to surveys, some 79% of pet owners allow their pets to sleep in their beds with them, while 3% of them even count pets in the number of IRS withholdings they claim for tax purposes. The evidence is simply astounding: 50% of American pet owners talk “baby talk” to their pets; 37% of them carry a picture of their pets in their wallets; 27% of them include their pets in their testamentary trusts or wills; while 8% buy health insurance for their pets. There’s more. Nowadays, the “custody fights” over pets among divorcing couples who own pets, are among the most hotly contested issues in divorce proceedings; pet owners now throw lavish wedding and birthday parties for dogs, cats, and other pet animals, more adults today have pets than children, and so on and on.

Summed up simply, just about all those kinds of special rights, privileges and actions that have traditionally been reserved for and directed towards protecting and caring for human children, are, today, now used to protect and care for pets, as well. In other words, gradually but surely, there is now in the American society a new and increasingly significant kind of “family members” and “children.” It’s called the NON-human or pet animal family members and children!

And that brings us to this major question: how has the American law evolved in response to this developing new sociological reality in the American society? In terms of providing our new-found pet animal “infant children” the essential legal rights, care and protections as would be fitting for our human “infant children”? Suffice it simply to say, that a new specialized area of law has developed in the American jurisprudence pertaining to this issue. One significant aspect of it is what is known as the “pet trust” law. In point of fact, the American pet owners have for centuries expressed concerns and interest in establishing an estate plan for their animals in the same manner as people plan for their spouses and children, but that general impulse had for so long been resisted by the State legislatures and the Courts based on one legal rationale or the other. However, beginning in the 1990s, under the guidelines established by the National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws, State legislatures (at least 40 of them as of 2006) and the courts have adopted laws which address precisely those concerns and now permit the creation of trusts specifically for the custody and care of designated pets and their offspring in times of the incapacity or death of their owner.

Basically, with a legally valid ‘pet trust,’ you (the pet owner) can make specific provisions as to the care of your pets in the event of your disability or death, and provide for a reliable caretaker and funding arrangement for the pet all of which will be legally enforceable by the courts. Thus, with the “pet trust,” a relatively recent estate planning tool applicable for pet animals, you can assure that in the event of any such emergency, your pets will not likely wind up in the shelter or pound somewhere awaiting euthanasia, but will be taken into a safe home and will be properly cared for by a responsible, caring caretaker.

Affordable self-help dog, cat, pet estate planning [http://www.EstatePlanAndTrustforPets.com/index.html] pet’s future pet trust and will [http://www.EstatePlanAndTrustForPets.Com/id73.html]

The incredible art of fly fishing was initially developed as an angling method to catch salmon and trout. Whilst its predominantly enjoyed by the older generation of anglers,this time tested technique is fast catching the attention and interests of a whole new generation of enthusiasts. In recent years, interest in fly fishing has surged as baby boomers have discovered the sport. No matter what your skill level is, fly fishing can be highly rewarding.

The two major misconceptions about this technique is that it’s difficult to do and expensive. If you are a beginner fly fisherman, get started by: Getting involved with other sportsmen from your community or try a fishing club. Treat yourself, your spouse or your entire family to the pleasures of the sport. Explore new water,discover resources and start your fishing journey. If your looking for a place to fish,you can research all major rivers and many lesser-known ones on the internet,obtaining helpful fishing and information about each. With thousands of miles of fishing tributaries and lakes the opportunities are many. You can go fishing in the morning before work for a hour or two if you live close enough to good fishing water. I used to live in Cody WY and many anglers fished at sunrise and sunset for an hour or two trying to get one of the monster rainbow trout from the local lake.

Fly Fishing Equipment

Compared to the gear of other sports, fly fishing gear has changed very little over the years. When going on a fishing trip you want to be sure you have all the proper fishing gear such as flies,lures and accessories. There is nothing worse than getting to your destination and finding out you forgot something.

For the most part,the gear used today is not so different from how it was yesterday. It’s just important to pick the appropriate fishing equipment, for the type of fishing you will be doing. A fly rods length factors into the fishing rods action. Shorter rods generally have less action than longer rods because they generate less torque when casting and reeling. Use medium-sized eight or nine-foot fishing rods in most fly fishing conditions. Beginners find medium-action fly rods easy to handle. Stiff fast-action fly rods bend at the end of the rod and do not have a lot of give.Graphite fishing rods are more expensive than fiberglass rods but lightweight graphite fly rods typically allow more accurate casting.

Fly Fishing Knots

The fly line and leader are important parts of fly fishing physics. Learning to tie the proper knots to attach your leaders and flies is critical. Some of the most common flies used in fly fishing include dry, nymph, and streamers. A detailed discussion of most of these knots is available in any good book on fishing. Your fishing education will progress rapidly if you take advantage of the free information you can get at the library. In a good book you will find fly fishing knots that will cover just about every situation you will encounter where a specific knot is needed.

Learning to Cast

Unlike other casting methods, fly fishing can be thought of as a method of casting line rather than a lure. Besides the obvious difference in the actual method of casting, normal fishing and fly fishing also vary in the equipment used. If you would like personalized instruction, there are hundreds of fly fishing schools scattered about the world. So,if you have never been fly fishing before, a great way to learn is to take few lessons from a local instructor. Taking lessons from a professional instructor to learn the basics and perfect your technique will speed up the learning curve. This means you’ll have a lot more fun fishing. If you can’t cast you can’t catch a fish. There are many Fishing Shops and guides whom teach basic fly fishing classes both off the water and on.

Continue to Learn

Get as much information you can from books, magazines, and videos on fishing,fly casting, tying flies and tying knots. Join a fishing club to further your fishing education and enjoy the company of interesting people that enjoy fishing. With the right fishing equipment and information on hand you will have a lifetime of fun fishing.

I’ve been fly fishing my whole life, over 30 years. It seems like I’m always learning something new. I try to share what I know with people because that’s how I learned. I make this information available for FREE at http://flyfishingeducation.info/

The way you choose to furnish your home will reflect greatly on your personal style. Therefore it is important to think very hard about what you want before you buy furniture for your home. There is different kind of furniture for every room in the house. Whatever type of furniture that you decide to buy, it should accentuate the style and general theme of your house. Here are a few things that you might want to consider to help you buy stylish furniture for your bedroom, dining room as well as your kids’ room.

Elegance should be part of your dining room decor. The dining-room furniture that you get should be able to bring out the elegance in your dining room. The dining room set should not only be visually pleasing, it should also be comfortable enough.

Your bedroom furniture should provide a peaceful ambiance to the room since this is where you will be relaxing most of the time. You want to get the furniture that will fit perfectly into your bedroom and still leave some room for other things. Make sure that you get furniture that is of quality, stylish and comfortable.

When buying children furniture, the most important thing to think about is how attractive it is. The surface of the furniture also matters. Kids can be a little rough sometime, and you do not want them destroying their furniture when they are playing. For that reason, you should get furniture with hard and durable surfaces. It is important to buy the furniture that is discounted as this will help you save some money.

Buy colorful, playful and stylish Children Furniture to keep in their bedrooms. When there view exquisite and elegant Dining room furniture and Bedroom Furniture Sets.

You’ve probably read the previous piece on North Indian breads. This article focuses on North Indian cooking, which includes cooking style, spices used, terminology and some common foods.

North Indian cooking is nearly always quite spicy and uses a large number of spices in any given dish. The terms used for various dishes are normally descriptive of the food itself like Jeera Aloo for instance, which literally translates to ‘Cumin seed Potatoes’. Like most cultures there are also some misleading names like ‘Butter Chicken’, which is actually marinated chicken cooked in a tandoor and served in smooth, tomato gravy and doesn’t contain any butter. There are also terms which aren’t related to the food in question, like Pulao, which is rice cooked with spices and vegetables. The term sabzi (sub-zee) is used quite liberally when describing nearly any dry, vegetable preparation. The same applies to the term dal, which is used for most types of lentils. The term tari (tuh-ree) denotes gravy and is suffixed to the name of a dish when it has gravy.

In these days of fusion food, it is difficult to pin down a set of spices that a given region can claim. However, traditionally, north Indian cooking uses the following spices and herbs:

• Cumin seed (Jeera)
• Ajowan or (Ajwain)
• Red Chili Powder I – Flavor over color (Lal Mirch)
• Red Chili Powder II – Color over flavor (Degi Mirch or Kashmiri Mirch)
• Turmeric Powder (Haldi)
• Dried Mango Powder (Aamchur)
• Coriander Seeds (Sabat Dhania)
• Coriander Powder (Dhania)
• Fresh Coriander Leaves (Hara Dhania)
• Green Cardamom (Choti Elaichi)
• Black Cardamom (Badi Elaichi)
• Cinnamon (Dalchini)
• Garam Masala – A set mixture of spices – roasted cumin, cinnamon, cloves, caraway seeds, nutmeg (and/or mace) and green cardamom seed or black cardamom pods. The composition of Garam Masala changes from region to region.
• Dried Fenugreek Leaves (Kasuri Methi)
• Black Mustard Seeds (Rai)

This list is by no means complete – there are many more spices used in every day North Indian cooking – the purpose of this article however is to provide a feel for North Indian cooking.

Different spices are used in different situations, in different ways. The flavor and characteristics of spices change if you’re dry roasting them, frying them, adding them before simmering to cook or after cooking.

Our first foray into traditional North Indian cooking could start with a simple vegetable preparation, which we could either call Aloo ki Sabzi (‘Vegetable Preparation of Potatoes’) or Jeera Aloo (Cumin seed Flavored Potatoes).

Cumin Seed Potatoes / Jeera Aloo

Ingredients

- 3 Large Baking Potatoes

-One onion, chopped fine

-1 tsp Cumin seed

-1 tsp Turmeric Powder

-1 tsp Chili Powder

-1 tsp Coriander Powder

-1 tsp Dried Mango Powder

-Salt to taste

-Chopped fresh coriander for garnishing

-Oil for frying

Method

First peel your potatoes, dice and then boil in lightly salted water. Then drain and let cool. Heat oil in your pan and add the cumin seed. After 2 – 3 seconds of crackling, add the onions and fry, stirring lightly for about a minute on low heat. Now add all the spices, except the dried mango powder and mix well. Throw in the potatoes, which should be nice and firm now and toss well, so the onion-spice mixture coats the potatoes all over. Simmer for about 5 – 7 minutes. Finally, add the dried mango powder and toss the potatoes on high heat, till there’s a thick, spicy sludge adhering to the potatoes. Garnish with the fresh, chopped coriander prior to serving.

These can be served with Rotis, filled in toasted sandwiches or just eaten as is for a snack.

As you can see, this everyday dish uses 5 different spices and one herb. There are some traditional dishes that use up to 30 different spices! These are now (in most part) a thing of the past and cooked only on very special occasions.

As an example, let’s say we’d like to try our hand at cooking a simple north Indian dish without a recipe, simply going by the style. Obviously we’ll need some north Indian spices, the most common of which are Jeera (cumin seed), Haldi (turmeric powder), Namak (salt) and Mirch (chili powder). The first step, in nearly every dish is to fry onions as it is a staple in north Indian cooking. When pink/transparent, we add some spices and fry some more. This gives us a thick sauce to which we can add a little water if we wish. This sauce will coat the vegetables or meat we’ll add later. Here’s a simple example.

Onion and Tomato Sabzi / Pyaaz Tamatar ki Sabzi

Ingredients

-3 Large tomatoes, chopped roughly

-Two Onions, chopped roughly

-2 large cloves of garlic, finely sliced

-1 tsp Cumin seed

-1 tsp Turmeric Powder

-1 tsp Dried Mango Powder

-1 tsp Chili Powder

-Salt to taste

-Oil for frying

Method

The process is really quite simple – we heat a little oil, add the onions, fry a little, add the garlic and continue frying till the onions are pink or translucent. Then we add the rest of the spices except the dried mango powder, mix well and finally toss in the tomatoes. The dried mango powder goes in at the end.

One major feature of Indian cooking is that vegetables are rarely left crisp or crunchy. They’re nearly always cooked till they’re very soft. This isn’t very good for the nutrition content of the veggies and I’d recommend cooking them till they’re just done and still have a bit of bite left.

The pan will be kept on a simmer for 5 – 10 minutes, till the tomatoes are cooked through. Finally we stir in the dried mango powder and it’s ready to eat! This dish is usually eaten with Rotis.

As you can see, the pattern is similar – fry onions (if using), spices, toss in vegetables, nuke them (or not) and serve. Now that we have an idea of the basics involved, let’s get on to the secrets!

The Cooking Methods (by Naheed)

Secret 1: Bhuno well.

This is an extremely important process and involves frying spices to extract most of their flavor. Remember not to overheat the oil (unless it is mustard oil, which has to be heated till it emits some smoke & does not froth when something is put in it). If dry powdered masala is being used, the oil should not be hot as the dry spices will burn. Some amount of water must be added if you feel the spices may burn. When making the masala, use onion paste along with ginger & garlic to which you will add other spices as required.

For meat however, the method is quite different. This is the last process for cooking meat in quite a few cases, or the process just before adding water to make the gravy. It is believed the real flavor of meat develops only if you devote upward of 10 minutes to this process. Meat releases some of its own fat which mixes with the spices and then the oil cooks the meat and helps the meat absorb the mixed flavors of the spices. How long to do so, is a question that has no fixed answer. As a guideline, stop when either the meat becomes too tender or the gravy becomes completely dry, or your guests start to get very restless. You will also notice that the meat & gravy tend to stick to the vessel if you do not stir them constantly. If they do, scrape it off; and if the gravy gets too dry, add yoghurt or water.

Secret 2: Bagharna

This is a simple process and is called Chaukna in Hindi. Here dry spices are added to hot oil and this concoction is added to a dish (e.g. Dal). Although a simple process, do not burn the spices. In fact it is advised that once you have added the spices, remove the vessel from the fire.

Secret 3: Dum Cooking

This is the art of slow cooking. It enables individual flavors to intermingle properly. This is also the method used for the last few minutes when cooking rice or biryani. In the old days, when food was cooked on coal or wood, the only way was to raise the distance between the flame & the vessel, or put the vessel in the dying embers, seal the lid of the dish with flour & put a few embers of coal on top of the lid. In dum cooking, it is essential the fire be at its lowest and the food will therefore take a while before it’s done. Rest assured that your patience will be amply rewarded. Thankfully modern cooking presents us with newer methods and one of the easiest is to put the whole vessel in an oven. If you do not have one, put a griddle (tawa) on the flame & then put the vessel on it. Also note that dum cooking meat will make the ingredients (meat, vegetables) exude the moisture or water within. A word of caution here: Try not to use a pressure cooker or the meat will not turn out right.

Secret 4: Frying

Simple you’d say. Well, yes it is. However, there are two types of frying. One is frying to cook and the other one to brown. For deep frying it is essential that there be sufficient oil to cover the item. For browning, the oil can be less but must be at a low temperature.

Secret 5: Using earthenware

Not only is earthenware cheap in India but it was also the first form of disposable crockery. Most desserts in India were traditionally served either on banana leaves or in earthenware crockery. Some of the better known five star restaurants in India still use earthenware. If you’ve noticed, tea at Indian railway stations is still served in earthenware glasses. Not only is it environmentally friendly, a special earthy flavor permeates the tea, which no cooking method can simulate.

Secret 6: Kewda Water

Kewda is the derivative of a desert plant with very fragrant leaves. The essential oil of this is heavily diluted in water which is used as a perfuming agent for food. Typically used in Firni and Zarda among other desserts and has no parallel.

The Ingredients

Secret 1: Dahi or Yoghurt

This is a wonder ingredient. Yoghurt lends a light buttery flavor to the creation as well as a light creamy consistency. For example, it is the base for some dishes like Rizala where the original flavor of yoghurt is completely transformed. Yoghurt when cooked transforms in taste to lightly sour and gives the gravy a creamy texture. All in all, it is an essential item. In a few dishes, it may be substituted by tomato puree but then the final result will be slightly different. Did you know vegetables cooked in yoghurt retain their shape? In fact in Dumpukth Fish, it is the yoghurt that preserves the shape of the fish. Also, at times if you have mistakenly added extra salt, add a splash of whisked yoghurt and cook for a while.

Secret 2: Onions

This is an essential ingredient in a lot of dishes and is commonly used for salads. A handy tip on handling onions is to remove the outer dry skin, cut in half and wash thoroughly to prevent your eyes from watering. Onions lend a sweetish flavor to cooking and are a common masala base. However when fried then mixed, the taste is totally different. So when the recipe says “fry onions”, you’d better fry them.

Secret 3: Cumin

There are two types of cumin seeds. The common white cumin seeds which are cheap are used mainly in vegetarian dishes. They are more often than not fried to get their flavor out. Sometimes as in a raita, they are dry roasted on a tawa and then ground. However, the more expensive black cumin seeds or Shah Jeera as they are commonly known as, are quite different in taste and flavor. The two are rarely substituted. Most restaurants substitute them in rice preparations, but then, what you get is something totally different.

Final Recipe

Now that we have quite a good idea of what’s involved in North Indian cooking, perhaps a slightly complex recipe is in order – Nihari. This is definitely not one of the dishes that one finds on the menu of five star restaurants. This is one of the dishes eaten with a lot of passion by all. In fact to have Nihari one must have the zest to wake up before dawn because it is a very hot meal and in most places where it is served, the service is over by 9am. It is a delectable broth of meat, cooked over a slow fire, mostly overnight and eaten in the early hours of the morning with a tandoori roti and an assortment of fresh herbs accompanied by loads of lemon. The meat is fulfilling and the broth is had as a refreshing and a rather hot soup. The other reason why one has it as a breakfast meal and that too only in winter is because it makes you feel very thirsty and rather warm. Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.

Nihari

Ingredients

• 1 kg Nihari meat (or any other meat that’s available)
• 250 grams Onions, sliced
• 3/4 cup Ghee
• 2 tbsp ginger paste
• 2 tbsp garlic paste
• 2 tbsp dry roasted chickpea flour
• 1/2 – 1 tsp red chili powder
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• 1/4tsp Turmeric powder
• Salt to taste

Spice mixture

Grind together the following:1/4 tsp. dried ginger, 1/4 tsp. mace, 1/2 tsp. fennel, 1/2 tsp. white cumin seeds, 2 large cardamom, 4 small cardamoms, 4 cloves, 6 black pepper seeds

Preparation

Preparation time 30 minutes | Cooking time 2-3 hours

• Add 2/3rd of the onions in moderately hot oil and when the onion goes soft add ginger & garlic paste along with ground coriander and turmeric powder and let it fry for about 3-4 minutes or until the oil comes on top again.
• Add the meat and cook over slow fire. The meat will let out its own water.
• When it is semi cooked, add the chick pea flour to 2 cups of water and leave the broth to cook over very slow fire for at least 45 minutes.
• The slower you cook the more flavors you will draw out.
• Keep the pot covered but no pressure cookers please.
• When the meat is as tender as it can get, add the spice mixture along with the leftover onions.

On a parting note, while cooking methods remain largely consistent and typical, knowing the spices will help tremendously. So while you’re cooking go on and add that sprinkle of black mustard seeds to hot oil and watch them crackle or throw in some curry leaves and savor the change in flavors!

Sid Khullar has written nearly 400 articles on food, cooking and other related subjects on Chef at Large. He welcomes recipe and photo contributions and is always looking to meet people passionate about the culinary arts.

So you purchased a vacation home or condo and now you are trying to decide if you should allow pets. Ask yourself these questions:

• Will I get more bookings if I allow pets at my vacation home?
• Will renters not want to rent my vacation home because I allow pets at my home?
• Do pets really damage vacation rentals?
• If I say No Pets Allowed, can I really enforce that rule?
• What type of pets should I allow if I decide to allow them?
• How many pets should I allow?
• Am I trying to rent my vacation home to guests with pet allergies?
• If I decide to allow pets what should I do to minimize any associated risks?
• After all is considered should I allow pets?

Here is my advice and suggestions based on 8 years of experience and owning 7 vacation rentals.

Will I get more bookings if I allow pets at my vacation home?

It has been our experience that allowing pets has increased our rentals. If you refuse pets, you will lose rentals to anyone who wants to vacation with their pet. It becomes a question of balancing the number of rentals lost due to refusing pets, by the number of rentals lost due to renters with allergies. They may be unwilling to stay if you occasionally have pets in your rental home. However, keep in mind we do have rules with respect to type of pet, number of pets, and activity of pets. We also have renters who bring pets and get them to sign a Pet Policy.

Will renters not want to rent my home because I allow pets at my vacation home?

Some renters will already have it in their minds that vacation rentals who allows pets are dirty, smelly and run down. You will not be able to change their minds, so do not even bother trying. Such renters would likely be problem renters anyway. Some renters with allergies will also avoid your home, but in our experience there are fewer of these than there are pet owners.

Do pets really damage vacation rentals?

While some pets do, the vast majority do not damage vacation rentals. You would never even know a pet had ever been there. Most pet owners who travel with their pets, have clean well kept homes. They expect their pets to behave in their own home and while on vacation. These kinds of renters will always ask if they can bring their pet to your home. These are not the renters and pets you need to worry about. Pets you need to be wary of are ones that are not used to traveling or even being indoors.

Unfortunately, there are some renters who seldom admit they are bringing a pet because they anticipate damage or at least a mess. Protecting yourself with a good pet policy is more effective than simply banning pets. Banning them will not ensure that renters would not bring them along anyway and try to sneak them in.

If I say no pets allowed can I really enforce that rule?

We do not come right out and say that pets are allowed at our vacation homes, but rather we ask renters to inquire about pets. We found this to work very well. Renters will then ask us about pets and we can find out what type of pet they intend to bring etc. We then are able to inform them of our pet policy and we ask them to sign the pet policy. I use the pet policy found on www.GoRentPro.com. This pet policy has everything I needed and could also be modified to suit my individual needs.

You can also ask for an additional security deposit for any renters who bring pets. It has been our experience that renters who told us about their pets were not the problem, but renters who try to sneak in their pets are the problem.

If you know in advance that certain renters will have pets at your vacation home, you can let your property management know. They can check for any problems while the renters are there, and also check more closely for evidence of damage after the renters check out. Inform your property management of any pets that will be staying at your vacation home. Insist that your management staff immediately report any unauthorized pets at your home.

What type of pets should I allow?

Most renters travel with a small dog or cat. Very few travel with a large dog because a large dog takes up so much room in a vehicle and usually that room is used for people and luggage. Renters that travel with dogs and cats will usually have them in pet carriers. Most renters do not want an unruly pet accompanying them on vacation.

How many pets should I allow?

How many pets you allow at your vacation rentals will depend on the size of your rental. If your home is a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom vacation home and the guest want to bring 4 dogs I think that is a bit much. Really, it will be up to you to determine if you will permit any exceptions but do so only if you are very comfortable.

After all is considered should I allow pets?

In most cases it is more profitable to allow pets than to refuse them. Most people who tell you they are bringing a pet are never a problem. It is often when they try to hide a pet, that you have problems.  It is generally better to allow pets and to insist on full disclosure. Have the renters sign the pet policy to encourage them to be responsible and to have a security deposit to ensure accountability.

When it’s all said and done,  I travel with my own pet. If you travel with your pet, you know how difficult it can be at times to find accommodation suitable to both your family and your pet. As a pet owner and rental home owner who sympathizes with this dilemma, I allow pets in my vacation home.

Roberta Beriault has been a renter and a vacation rental homeowner for over 20 years. Her vacation rental websites seek to make the transition from SEARCHING to BOOKING to ARRIVING, as smooth as possible for Vacationers. Her Go Rent Pro accounting program, allows Homeowners to go from INQUIRY to BOOKING to INVOICE in less then 5 minutes.

Try a Free Listing for 1 year on FloridaHomes4rent.com and receive a 6 month free trial to Go Rent Pro http://www.floridahomes4rent.com/list-your-rental.aspx

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