What does a cooking American do when she runs out of ideas for desserts? You got it, she quickly makes some cupcakes. These little cakes that can be eaten by hand are so popular that they’ve even started to be used instead of traditional wedding cakes. That’s a good idea, to have a tower made of cupcakes, because cutting the cake for serving the 200 guests is quite a tedious job.

Then we have those holidays, when families gather together around the dinner table. This is how Easter cupcakes, Christmas cupcakes or Thanksgiving cupcakes were born. There are a lot of shops across the USA where you can buy festive cupcakes, but the best cupcakes of all are the ones that you bake yourself at home, in your kitchen, thinking of your dear guests who are going to enjoy them. If you bake them with love, they taste better, at least this is what a dear friend of mine once said.

You’ve probably heard by now that Apple launched their new tablet computer, the iPad, which was so expected by many Apple fans. but which didn’t quite live to their expectations. It lacks some features people love, multitasking and the video camera being only two of the wishes that weren’t fulfilled. However, immediately after the launch, ipad accessories were also announced, in order to make the device more user-friendly. Well, protective cases just like the ipod nano cases and scratch-protection sleeves or sticky screens were to be expected, but among these accessories there are some devices that are meant to complete the iPad, one example being the iPad Keyboard Dock, which is a docking station with a keyboard attached to it. This is obviously designed for people who want to do some real typing on their tablet computer. The virtual keyboard is not made for speed, that’s for sure. The camera connection kit is another thing you’ll have to carry around with you in case you think of using your ipad for downloading photos from your camera.

The list could go on, but I’m running out of time now, so I’m asking you what do you think: will the iPad be a success or a flop?

I’ve got an old garage door which I happen to like very much. Unfortunately, by the time I bought it, technology was far from being what it is today, therefore it sucks when it comes to the R-value. The garage gets very cold and because it communicates with the rest of the house, I need to use an additional heater in order to compensate for thermal exchanges. I heard from one of my friends that I can buy a garage door insulation kit and save a lot of money. I’m afraid he’s totally wrong about that and that I’d buy that useless kit, then spend a whole afternoon to install it, only to come to the conclusion that I need a new door or another kind of insulation, more efficient.

Has any of you used such insulation kits? If so, are you happy with them so far? I really want to keep my old door which is so beautiful, but our comfort (and the electricity bills) come first.

Designer handbags are anything but cheap. There’s no wonder that a whole side industry of replica purses is thriving. Women like those designer bags, but how to buy such things when one of them could actually feed your four kids for a month or two? Among designer purses, some of them are relatively inexpensive, Coach bags or Botkier falling into this category. Still, for some girls, even a few hundreds of dollars will still be way too much to spend on a purse, so the demand for counterfeits is there, even for cheaper bags. Many times, knockoffs look really good, making it very hard to tell that they aren’t original. However, most replicas need to be cheap, so the quality is far from being the best. Sloppy stitches, defective zippers or low quality hardware are only a few signs that warn you when you’re about to buy a fake, thinking it’s the real thing.

This video offers a good guide of making the difference between an original Coach handbag and a fake one. If you know more tips, please feel free to add to the comments. Thank you.

I finally took the courage to buy the Wagner steam cleaner I’ve been reading about since last year. I hesitated a lot because I wasn’t sure the 1500W power would be enough to clean the grout between the kitchen floor tiles. Now I’m happy I bought it, because it does a wonderful job. The grout comes out clean and disinfected. Well, I know it’s not the original color, and it probably won’t be again like new, but it looks much better than it used to when I cleaned it with a regular mop.

So, I’m happy and I can’t wait to host my Super Bowl party!

When my friend told me that one can cook a low fat omelet, she really made me laugh, because everybody knows that eggs contain fat. After she explained to me what she had in mind, I got the message: she was using only the whites to make the omelet. Well, this is not exactly my favorite type of food, because egg whites don’t have too much of a taste. Yolks are the best part of the egg, so I’d rather not cook omelets, if I have to make them white. Of course one can add spices, but I believe that if you need to stay on a low-fat diet, you’d better stick to vegetables and fruits and leave aside eggs, meat and such things that taste good only when they are fat.

What do you think?