My Wishes to Ibiboians

October 31st, 2008

Hi friends, how are you all doing? These days I am not getting much interest in writing on any topic on Ibibo blogs. The reason are many and I do not like to discuss or specify the reason. But feel very low to write in ibibo.

I wish all of you guys a very HAPPY DIWALI and if I have wished you earlier then one more time accept my wishes dear friends. I had recently bought a Cannon Powershot and on Diwali night, I have no other thing to do, so, shot the pictures on the night with my new Digital camera. This camera is awesome and lot of features and yet to read the manual in detail. I will write the review on this camera very soon.

This is the beauty of Festival of lights….

Very Colorful…..

I did not buy much crackers, flowerpots,rockets and pencils,etc. The reason is that the Diwali ammunition very expensive then ever in my city. So, I thought of having peaceful night by shooting the pictures.

The above fireworks are for the Indian team and playing sensible cricket against the World Champions Australia. Sachin had scored exciting 68 runs in the third test which is played in Kotla, Delhi. I was very sure that this time Sachin will score a big knock but suddenly got out because of lapse in concentration. Highlight of the test is the knock of Gautham Gambhir, a double hundred before his home crowd and he had played superbly under pressure. I admire V.V.S Laxman for the shots where the usage of wrist is more involves. He helped Gambhir in building his innings but took too long to reach double hundred. But the innings was one of the best and Laxman remained unbeaten at the time India declared the first innings. I hope India quickly remove the Australian batsmen and win back the Border Gavaskar Trophy. That’s all for now and will come back with more stuff soon.

All the pictures are my copyrighted pictures.

Signing of with lots of love,

Madhu Vamsi.

Posted in My Life, Photo Blog | 38 Comments

Low Calories cakes for Diabetes Part 2

October 29th, 2008

Hi friends, I hope all are having good Diwali evening with their family and friends. So, it is festival time,so,thought of writing about a cake which has low calories and good for health.

VANILLA FROSTING:

2 egg whites, at room temperature
Cream of tartar (1/2-teaspoon)
Honey (1/4-cup)
vanilla extract (2 teaspoons)
1-cup instant nonfat dry milk powder

1. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating, adding the honey and vanilla.

2. Gradually add the nonfat dry milk powder, beating constantly, until the frosting is a good spreading consistency. It’s not so hard to make a chocolate cake.

Carrot Cake:

This cake is favorite recipe of mine. If you don’t like pecans, you can leave them out.

Ingredients:

4 eggs

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

2 cups white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 cups grated carrots

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup butter, softened

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

4 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped pecans

Steps:

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan.

In a big bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

To Make Frosting:

In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

So, that is all I have with me now. I will come up with more stuff like this.

With lots of love,

Madhu Vamsi.

Posted in Food, Drinks & Eating out | 4 Comments

Interesting Website

October 22nd, 2008

Hi friends, good morning, I have recently found an interesting website where one can play thousands of contests and win exciting prizes, sometimes even the cash prizes as well.

I am register member of this site from very long time and the link of this website is: Please Click me

The below picture is the screen shot of this website:

In contest2win website a user can play games like crossword puzzles, twisters, quiz type, Hangman, etc. You can also create your own game in this website and after creating your game you can embed that game in your blogs, websites, etc. So, lot of fun and gifts are waiting for you my dear friends.

I had won some dozen gifts from this site. Recently won the �EA Sports Cricket 2004� original game cd and picture is shown below.

I will suggest you all to join this site and win exciting prizes and I have created a crossword puzzle. If interested please play the game. Signing off with love and come back with more stuff soon.

With lots of love,

Madhu Vamsi….

Posted in Computers and Technology | 17 Comments

How to use the Ibibo new blogs platform

October 8th, 2008

Hi friends, It is been two and half years with Ibibo and I had good and bad experiences with ibibo. But no regrets, without any pain there is no gain and I thank ibibo for bringing some changes and listening to its users. The new look Ibibo blog platform is confusing many friends of mine, so, I thought of putting a review which gives them all the help related to ibibo blogs.

The new blog tab consists of Blogs Home, My Blog, My Dashboard, Create, Hall of Fame, Manage, settings. The image of tab is given in the below Picture 1:

Picture 1:

a) Blogs Home: If this option is clicked it will lead to featured blogs sections and recently posted blogs. As shown as below picture 2.

Picture 2:

b) My Blog: This option will take you to your blog posts page. As shown as below picture 3.

Picture 3:

c) My Dashboard: In this page you will find all details of your posts. To access Manage and settings option you have to come for your Dashboard. Please see the below picture to get an idea.

Picture 4:

d) Create: This option will take you to create new blog post. As shown in the below picture.

Picture 5:

e) Hall of Fame: This will take you to the Hall of fame page.

f) Manage: This option is very important to change the look and manage the below features like Posts, Pages, Links, Categories, Tags, Comments, Users, Themes and Widgets

The tab looks like the below picture 6:

1) Posts: In this section you can organize your earlier posts and present posts as well. It is very easy to delete the post from here and can also edit comments and posts as well.

2) Pages: This section will show all the pages you have created a post under this section. I am not clear why this feature is there. So, to know more about this feature please contact Ibibo admin.

3) Links: This feature is to edit the external links or your blog links. I did not much use it, please feel free to explore this feature and if you guys know anything new please let me know.

4) Categories: In this section you can add categories for your blogs and delete the present categories. For suppose if you write about sports then add a category Cricket and Sports and when you post a new post just add this category to your post, so, that users who come to your page can easily access your pages which is related to cricket without much searching.

5) Tags: In this section also you can add tags and delete the present tags. Tags are just like keywords, for suppose you create a tag mobile to your blog post then when any other user searches for mobile in Google or nay other search engine, they will find your blog post there, so, smart tagging will increase your blogs traffic.

6) Comments: In this section you can approve or mark as spam or delete comments, if you have enable to moderation approval, you can edit that information as well. You can search even comments.

7) Users: In this section you can change your privileges or give privileges to other users to edit your post or comments, Add user from community to your account etc.

8 ) Themes: In this section you can change your theme colors of your blog.

9) Widgets: This section is very important for all of you understand very clearly friends. In this section you can add or remove widgets such as Pages, Calendar, Archives, Links, Search, Text (this option is for putting up ads of Google and Ad winks or anything you like), Tag Cloud, etc.

Other than adding and removing, you will have the option where to place these widgets whether in sidebar 1 or sidebar 2. Many of my friends have asked where will be these sidebars, please see the below picture to get some idea about sidebars and adding the widgets. Save changes button as well.

Picture of Sidebars:

You can add any widget to either sidebar1 or sidebar2, so, if you want to add a particular widget in sidebar 2 then select that option as shown in the above picture and add the widget and press the save changes button.

For every widget there will an edit button as shown in picture above. You have to press that edit link to edit the content of the widget or name the widgets, etc.

For example if you want to add an ad winks code to your blog then follow the below steps:

1) Press the add text widget

2) Press the edit link and a new window appears as shown in the below picture.

3) Add the ad winks code here and content area as shown in picture below and in the title area give a name of your choices like join or offers or ads, etc.

4) After finishing you have to press the change button and then press the save changes button in right hand bottom side.

Like adding you can remove the widgets as well. So, friends, explore and see the new look of Ibibo blogs.

g) Settings: This option you will find just side of Manage option. To see this option you have to go into your Dashboard or else you will not find this option. To get an idea please look the picture 1 in the top. In this section you will find options like General, Writing, Reading, Discussion, Privacy and Permalinks. Please go into each category and explore friends, it is very easy to understand.

I dedicate this post to all my friends who are facing problems to use this new system, if still confused you can take a tour of this new blog platform, please click me.

Signing off with lots of love and if any doubts please give a blurb to me for help. Next time I will write about the Ibibo messenger advance features.

With lots of love,

Madhu Vamsi

Posted in Computers and Technology, Other Categories | 48 Comments

Low Calories cakes for Diabetes

October 5th, 2008

Hi friends, I have read recently cakes with low sugar and calories are made. So, I found the below two cakes very interesting:

MARBLE CHEESECAKE:

The combination of rich taste and creamy texture makes cheesecake one of the most beloved of all.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup (85 g/3 oz) low fat honey graham crackers (6 whole crackers)

1/2 cup toasted wheat germ

1 tablespoon plus I cup sugar

2 tablespoon extra-light olive oil

560 ml (19 oz) (about 2 cups) silken tofu, well drained

450 g (1 lb) fat-free cream cheese

3 tablespoons flour

1 large egg plus 2 large egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup chocolate syrup

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 180 � c (350 � f)

Combine the graham crackers, wheat germ, and 1 tablespoon of the sugar in a food processor and process into fine crumbs. Add the oil and process until moistened. Press the mixture into the bottom and partway up the sides of a 23-cm (9-in.) springform pan. Bake until set, about 10 minutes.

Add the tofu, cream cheese, flour, egg and egg whites, vanilla, and the remaining 1 cup sugar to the food processor and process until smooth.

Measure 1 cup of the tofu mixture into a small bowl and stir in the chocolate syrup. Pour the remaining filling into the crust. Pour the chocolate mixture in a ring on top of the filling and swirl in with a knife. Bake for 45 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake undisturbed for 45 minutes. Cool to room temperature before chilling overnight.

Tip: Instead of sugar, use an equal amount of sugar substitute such as Splenda Granular to reduce calories even more.

Fruit and Cream filled Sponge Cakes:

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons all-fruit preserves.

1 cup strawberries, blue-berries, raspberries, or other fruit, washed, trimmed and sliced as necessary.

1/4 cup blended low-fat yogurt (same flavor as fruit).

1/4 cup reduced-fat or fat-free sour cream.

8 sponge cake cups

Steps:

Place the preserves in a small dish and microwave for 1 minute to soften. Stir together with the fruit in a medium bowl, coating evenly.

Stir together the yogurt and sour cream in a small bowl, Spoon 2 to 3 tablespoons into each cake cup and top with 2 to 4 tablespoons of the fruit.

Some of the above cake recipe might make your Christmas and New Year cheerful. So what are you waiting? Go ahead try to make the homemade cake.

So, what are you waiting for friends, I have already tried these cakes courtesy my mom. She and me both together made the above two cakes. My father is happy that he can again eat these delicious yummy cakes. So, go try out and enjoy friends…

With lots of love,

Madhu Vamsi…

Posted in Food, Drinks & Eating out, Other Categories | 12 Comments