One of the easiest (and fastest) ways to make a tasty treat is by whipping up a batch of Rice Krispie treats. With only a handful of necessary ingredients, the process is, quite honestly, beyond simple. You’ll need marshmallows (or marshmallow fluff), butter, a large sauce pan and – of course – a box of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies cereal. There are also a variety of different ways to “dress up” your Rice Krispie Treats for the holidays or for other special occasions. If you’d like to learn more about making these yummy treats, check out Mahalo’s How To Make Rice Krispie Treats page!

If you have a little more time, you might want to make popcorn balls. Add some mini marshmallows to the recipe, and you’ll be able to call them “Popcorn Snowballs”!

The event will be held at The Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV from January 1-5, 2010 where hundred’s of teams will compete for a grand prize of $50,000. If you missed out on qualifying this year, the qualifying tournaments for the 2011 World Series will begin in March 2010, so its not too early to start practicing your beer pong skills. Mahalo can help you get ready with its in-depth guide to How to Play Beer Pong. If you are heading to Vegas for the big event, you’ll want to check out the information Mahalo has on great Las Vegas Buffets that will stretch your dining dollars, so you don’t wind up surviving about Burger King, McDonald’s, and Wendy’s for the 4 days you’re in Sin City.

If you have a lot of decorations and not much time, you may want to pare down your decorations. Make a list of those you really want to have up and start with your highest priority. You’ll probably want to start with the Christmas tree and work from there. Take a look at the Mahalo guide on how to buy a Christmas tree to help you pick out a tree.

Once the tree is home, you’ll want to look at the Mahalo guide on how to decorate a Christmas tree for tips you may not have thought of and to make the process go more smoothly. You may decide you don’t have time at this point, but a great holiday idea is to make your own Christmas ornaments. For great ideas and instructions, check out How to Make Christmas Ornaments

Although, not a decoration, one thing that can make your house have the aroma and spirit of Christmas is baking homemade Christmas cookies. There is a wide variety of cookies you can make for Christmas and nothing quite says Christmas like the smell of baked goods. Mahalo has a great How to Decorate Christmas Cookies to add a little flair to your cookies.

For great mashed potatoes, most people start with a Russet, although some prefer Yukon Gold potatoes. Heat your milk, and mash the potatoes before whisking in the hot milk and butter. For smoothest results, use a ricer rather than electric beaters or a potato masher.

Mashed potatoes can be kept warm over a double boiler, or in a crockpot, or made ahead in a casserole that’s reheated before serving, if you don’t want to mash them immediately before serving.

Here are some celebrity mashed potato videos you may find interesting. While its not unusual to find Martha Stewart in the kitchen, who would expected to see Snoop Dogg or http://www.mahalo.com/snoop-dogg mashing spuds?

Whatever the origin, it is certainly the most-hyped shopping day of the year. If you plan to venture out seeking great deals, you’ll want to read this guide on how to get the best Black Friday deals. Many stores open their doors in the very early morning (5 AM or earlier) and stay open late, some staying open until midnight the next day. Black Friday Ads are highly sought after items in the weeks and even months before, as people want to know what the great deals of the day are. Retailers want to keep these top secret for competitive reasons, although some leak early.

Stores often offer “doorbuster” deals and loss leaders that have limited availability, leading mobs of shoppers to rush into stores. This has led to increased Black Friday violence, even deaths. Many stores have added more security officers and other precaution to deal with the problem. Personally, I avoid shopping on Black Friday at all costs and look for Black Friday deals online or wait for Cyber Monday. What are your plans for Black Friday?

I’m not sure if it is the characters, the story lines or the setting of being during Christmas that sticks with people the most but these are the most unforgettable movies. Whether they be about finding the reason for living or devilish monsters terrorizing a small town they all stick out in everyone’s memories. I thought I’d pass along some of those that I’m sure everyone has seen if not once at least a million times. And I say to you all, enjoy these holidays and cherish these moments with your loved ones.

Top 25 Christmas Movies

I remember back in the day I was just giddy when CSS introduced real design options for Web designers. It truly was a visual dark ages before that when all we had was HTML to layout a page. CSS did harbor its own host of frustrations because of the lack of compatibility across browsers. Yet, it didn’t deter the bright eyed pioneers from diving in and developing the first real graphical style for the Web.

Now in the age of Web 2.0, the look of stylish websites has changed quite a bit. Gone are the heavy, dark sites of the past. They’ve been replaced with slick, glossy ones that are spacious and inviting. Designers today opt for bigger, easy to read fonts and less icon clutter.

But, I’d have to say the biggest change is in the wide variety of technology that is available at your very fingertips now. You don’t even have to know how to write the code yourself. There’s a gadget or widget for almost anything you can imagine especially if you are into social media. One of the trendiest areas of Web 2.0 is of course staying connected with the world through social networking sites like Twitter.

For those interested in learning more about designing sites for Web 2.o, check out the How to do Web 2.0 Design page.

In all seriousness, this is one of the most versatile of the many, many, many different gourds that are used for cooking. And despite the fear that most people have in using fresh pumpkin to cook with, it is surprisingly easy to prepare. And depending on your final use of the pumpkin it really doesn’t take much time. Check out How to Make Pumpkin Puree to get some great tips on doing this. Personally, I am a fan of the roasting method because it gives the pumpkin a sweeter and stronger flavor. One thing to remember to do if you get a wild hair and decide to make a truckload of puree, when you store it make sure to measure and label your bags before freezing. I like make 2 cup bags for easy storage and later use. Once you’ve mastered the massacre of a pumpkin, making your favorite pumpkin treats is easy.

If your using it for the traditional pumpkin pie of Thanksgiving fair you need to know that these pies will turn out to be a bright orange color instead of the muted rust color of the canned pumpkin. It’s the real sign that you have made them from scratch. It is also important to remember that the flavor of your fresh pumpkin verse the canned will be different. Fresh pumpkin puree tends to be sweeter and may require less sugar than its canned cousin. And because of the natural flavor of the pumpkin you may want to use slightly less of the complementary spices, i.e: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, all spice. You don’t want to over power the delicate and sweet flavor of the pumpkin.

As you can see I am a big fan of using fresh foods for everything and I think that pumpkin is right there at the top of my list. If prepared properly it can last a full year in the freezer and then you can have wonderful pumpkin creations year round. You can use pumpkin in almost anything and it is great food to experiment with and make your own creations. Have fun with it and don’t let this wonderful source of food merely be a decoration during Halloween.

Truthfully it is refreshing to see that with the state of the economy today that it is still possible to get a good deal on our shopping in the days leading up to Christmas. One thing I have noticed is that navigating Black Friday can be a huge challenge, especially if the things you want are at several different stores. So how do you handle this challenge? Well, after years of dealing with this challenge I think that I have figured out a plan that, if executed properly, can make shopping a lot easier.

• Make a list: This is made a lot easier since most of the retailers send out their catalogs as early as Halloween. If you don’t get the catalogs from them there are many websites that compile all of the major sales together to make it easier on the customer. Some of my favorites that I use almost every year are: TheBlackFriday.com, and BlackFriday.info
• Get a Team: Ultimately you are going to find a few friends or family members that are hitting the craziest of Black Friday for deals so, divide and conquer. Take all of your lists and split them between each other. For instance if you have 3  friends and each of you have things on your lists from 4 different stores each of you take a store, your friends lists for that store and their cash and shop away. You all will be able to get the things you want and the majority of the door buster deals, if you get up that early, and you won’t have to travel to 4 different stores.
• Don’t go crazy: You have to be realistic. Even if you have a top notch shopping team you may not be able to get all of the outrageous door buster deals, so don’t base you lists solely on those deals. Many of the sales stretch out into the weekend and even the following week so do be so anxious to get it all done in one day, pace yourself.
• Don’t forget after Christmas Sales: Yeah, I know you should rest and enjoy the time with your family but if you are addicted to deals you can get a few gifts for the following year in that week following Christmas. No they may not last till the next Christmas but you could get things for birthdays and anniversaries out of the way.

Finally the best advice I can give regarding the crazy shopping season is to do your shopping early. If you start buying in July or even earlier you can be done before Thanksgiving or even Halloween. Another thing to remember to is you can probably save yourself a lot of stress by doing your shopping online. Yes, you may not get the deals that are reserved for the insane but you will save yourself plenty of stress and keep yourself from trying to run that sweet old lady, who took the last pink Nintendo DSi, over with your shopping cart. She will thank you in the end.