Yoga for Athletes 

• Improve performance 
• Reduce injury
• maximize training 

Doing back handsprings, back flips, and leaps every day involves a lot of muscle strength and to have healthy flexible muscles, stretching is the key. Whatever sport you play its always important to stretch. Stretching keeps your muscles strong flexible and healthy. Without stretching your muscles become short and tight and can lead to pulling muscles. The muscle also becomes weak and unable to extend.  Yoga for Athletes offers multiple stretches for different muscles. Since back handsprings are a daily thing for me its import that i stretch out my hamstring. This stretch isn't just for gymnasts it can apply for any athletes that need to stretch their back handspring. 

Seated Forward Fold 

Muscles: Hamstrings

1. Sit on your mat with both legs straight in front of you. 

2. Rotate the legs in toward each together, and flex your feet so that the toes point toward the ceiling.

3. Sitting up tall, reach both arms toward the ceiling.

4. Hinging at your hips, reach forward for your toes.

5. Wrap your hands around your feet. For a deeper stretch, you can realax your head down to your shins 

6. Hold the stretch for 10 to 20 seconds 

Pizza Pie

The most well-known Italian dish, beloved by children and adults alike, pizza has earned its spot as an American staple. Whether enjoyed with sausage, veggies, cheese, or without, pizza has something for everyone to enjoy. With help from The Il Fornaio Baking Book by Franco Galli I tried my hand at making the world-famous dish and had mixed results.

The well with oil. 

The dough before rising 

The first step of making pizza is to form the crust. I started by mounding the 2 cups of flour onto the counter top. By pushing the flour out, I formed a little bowl also called a “well”, where I poured the oil. Then I quickly mixed warm water and dry yeast together and waited till the mixture was creamy. Then I added the yeast mixture and salt to the oil in the flour well. Next, Galli recommends, “working from the center outward, with one hand gradually pull the sides of the well into the center until all the flour is incorporated,” (Galli 99). Now my family will easily tell you that I’m not the most graceful swan in the pond, so when I started mixing the flour into the mixture I broke the flour wall so the liquid began to flow freely all over the counter top. Reacting quickly, I tried to stop the flow with one hand while mixing in the flour with my other hand. Slowly the dough began to form, it was drier than the recipe indicated it would be so I added some more water and oil until it had a workable consistency. Once I kneaded dough together I let it rise for one and a half hours.  

               While my dough was rising I set about making the marinara sauce. To start off I chopped up a tomato so I could easily puree it along with the basil. Once they were pureed together I seasoned the mix with salt and pepper before adding one clove of crushed garlic. I then set aside the sauce until I was ready to prepare the pizzas.

The pizza sauce 

               After the dough had risen for one and a half hours, I punched it down with my fingers and then let it rise again for half an hour. Then I shaped the dough into four individual pizzas each about six inches in diameter. Each family member got one pizza to cover with their favorite toppings cheese, pepperoni, sausage or mushrooms. I baked the pizzas for about 15 minutes before serving them to my family who were basically frothing at the mouth.

Pizzas ready to in the oven.

               My pizzas in no way compared to any authentic Italian pizza.  I had problems with the consistency of the crust and how they baked. If I ever try this recipe again, I would be more careful when combining the flour and liquids so that I don’t have the same problem with spilling. I think that would also help the consistency because I wouldn’t have to add more water and oil. I would also bake the pizzas on some paper, so they don’t stick to the pan. It’s very interesting to know all the work that goes into making delicious slices of pizza.

Hot pizzas fresh from the oven. 

               Have you ever made pizza? What’s your favorite place to get pizza? Let me know in the comments below. 

Frosting Cupcake Techniques

Frosting the Cupcake

There are many different ways to frost a cupcake, and I know known. I have always loved the way people put art onto food, and it is time that I too become a food artist. On the side bar of page 211, in the book "The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book:Essential Recipes for Today's Home Baker", it gives you some tips on how to ice a cupcake with the frosting recipe in the page next to it (tried out the recipe earlier). 

What I first did was I filled up a pastry bag with the frosting and made sure to twist the top of the bag so none of the frosting would leak out as I was squeezing the bag. There are many different types of the pointers that direct the frosting

on the cupcake. On the first cupcake, I did a typical swirl and made little flowers/dots of frosting with the pointers.

I used two different sizes of the same shaped pointer, as shown on the left. On the right we can see the difference between both outcomes. Even though you can cover much more surface using the larger sized hole, I believe the smaller one gives you more control, as said in the book, for more control and smaller chance of a mistake,  use the smaller sized pointer (p 211). I also decided to have more fun with the frosting, and added some food coloring into the frosting and squeezed on a fresh cupcake. The first one turned out okay, but I love the second one I made (bottom
 left). The color mixed very well with the white frosting and made the color softer. I decided to make more designs on the other cupcakes with the white frosting and found the cupcakes more appealing, but I do need much more practice on frosting cupcakes, or making designs on them. 

 Have you ever thought about the skill that goes into the appearance of food? Do you think you will ever make some designs the next time you frost some cupcakes? 

Making the Frosting

Vanilla Frosting

Frosting is a key element to cupcakes and other baked good like cupcakes. I am most comfortable using store bought frosting, one reason because its much easier than whipping some up. But on my journey through the baking world, I have realized how important frosting really is, so I decided to use a recipe and make some homemade frosting. The recipe, on the side bar of page 210 in the book "The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book, the Essential Recipe Collection for Today's Home Baker", requires:

• 1 cup of milk
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

I whisked the milk into the flour in a small bowl until it turned smooth, so that it'll thicken. While I was doing this, I missed a key step. "Heat and stir until it boils and thickens" (210). Because of this, my frosting did not turn out as intended, but I continued on. I beat the butter and added in the milk mixture and continued to beat it in. This is when my mistake is clearly represented. I was not able to reach my goal and my outcome showed it. Because the milk was not mixing in with the butter mixture, I drained it and added 6 tbsp of flour and sugar, and managed to get it to stick together. 


In the end, I learned that patience and attention is a key factor in baking, because of the severe consequences it could lead to if you miss a single step. 

Have you ever missed a step while cooking and ended up with a bad outcome? What approach did you take to solve it, or did you start over? 

origami animal - carrier pigeon

making a carrier pigeon is very easy in just 10 steps you can call this pigeon your own (use any color or type of paper that you'd like).

1) fold diagonally and unfold

2) fold it again diagonally

3) fold its on its side like so.

4) now fold one of the folds like so.

5) fold the paper down like this.

6) then fold one of the wings up and do
the same for the other side

7) it should look like this.

8) now fold the left side like so

9) now it should look like this

10) now tear a line on the right side like
this. and fold it 

and that is how you make a carrier pigeon.

Zulal Ayture-Scheele. Beautiful origami. Sterling, 1990

Beauty 101: Lips

Products from top to bottom:
Mint Julips exfoliating lip scrub Lush Cosmetics
Ashton Liquid Lipstick Anastasia Beverly Hills
Pomegranate Lip Balm Burt's Bees

For my last blog post, I am choosing to show how to apply a liquid lipstick. Liquid lipsticks are my favorite products because they are matte. In Bobbi Brown's book, Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual she describes matte products as "Matte products are dense and last the longest. They contain less moisture than other products, so they adhere to the lips and don't fade as quickly." (Brown, 82). My favorite brand for liquid lipsticks is Anastasia Beverly Hills. I fin that their lipsticks are the most long lasting without completely drying out my lips. My favorite shade is Ashton a Brown color that is recommended for medium lips in Brown's book. She says not to use colors that are too light as they can look ashy and unnatural (Brown, 80). The other colors recommended for my lip shade are rose, pink, orange and warm red. These colors are what mainly makes up my collection of lip products.
Liquid lipsticks can be quite drying so I start out by using a lip exfoliater followed by a lip balm to keep my lips moisturized. My next step is to line my lips with a lip pencil. I used the Kylie Cosmetics lip liner in Dolce K. The point of a lip liner is to prevent the product from bleeding outside the lip. This is not necessary for liquid lipsticks but it helps serve as a guide where to follow with my applicator. The next step is to use the liquid lipstick. I outline the lips using the guide from my lip liner on the bottom lip then fill in. I press my lips together to fill in the the inside of my top lip and get rid of the excess product on the bottom lip. This is the part where I make the most mistakes is following my cupids bow. Very carefully, use the doe foot applicator to line my lips and fill in any blank spots. Once I have all of my lipstick on, I go in with a small concealer brush and clean up any messy lines around my lips. That concludes my lip routine.

The Final Look

Thank you for reading! What is your favorite lip color?


Brown, Bobbi, et al. Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual: for Everyone from Beginner to Pro.
Springboard Press, 2011.

Preparing for Your Game

When you are getting ready for a game there are several key factors that go into how well you play. One of these factors is having a healthy based diet. This does not mean getting rid of all your favorite foods but just balancing it out. For example instead of drinking a soda enjoy water or a juice instead of that taste just as good. There are specific things that give you fuel before a game and don't. One of the most popular thing among athletes to eat before a game is a pasta. Pasta is very popular because it has lots of carbohydrates which transfer to energy and it is also easy to make and very customizable. A bad example of food you should eat before a game is a burger because since there is so much meat it will only weigh you down since it is not light like pasta. Another factor is the way you warm up before the game. Around 45 to 30 minutes before a game you should start stretching. You can stretch whatever you would like but preferably something to do with your legs since your playing soccer. Some vital stretches are seat stretches and forward lunges. You do a seat stretch by sitting down on a flat surface with your legs extended straight out in front of you and put together. Hold each ankle and bring your chin close to your knees then hold for five seconds. Repeat this process five times. This will help you loosen your back and avoid a calf or hamstring strain. To do a forward lunge you must bend one leg into a 90-degree angle then stretch your other leg to the back as far as you can with your foot on the floor.  Lean forward then hold for five seconds. Repeat this process five times then switch your legs around. This helps avoid groin strains and gives your quad a good workout.