Walk the bike to the top of a slope, mount it, and glide down, allowing the bike to slow naturally in the flat area at the bottom. Dismount and repeat as necessary until you get used to balancing and controlling the bike.  Keep your weight focused in your feet. Stay pressed against the seat, keep your elbows bent, and your body relaxed.  When you are confident you can coast to the bottom, try riding down with your feet on the pedals. Once you have become comfortable keeping your feet on the pedals, try again, this time gently squeezing the brakes while descending. You'll learn to slow the bike without swerving out of control or pitching over the handlebars. Once you can coast, pedal, and brake in a straight line, try going down the hill again. Move the handlebars until you change the direction of the bike without losing control. Feel how the slope changes the way the bike acts and adjust your balance to match it. Use the techniques learned while gliding to pedal and steer without stopping at the bottom of the hill. Transition to the flatter surface while practicing sharper turns, then brake to a stop. From the flat bottom of the hill, start pedaling. The slope requires additional work. Lean forward into the pedaling or even stand up to gain extra power. Bike up and down the slope several times until you feel comfortable. Once you feel confident, bike halfway up the slope, come to a stop, and start pedaling upwards again.

Summary: Practice gliding down gentle slopes. Brake while gliding down hills. Try steering. Pedal through the bottom of the slope. Pedal up the slope.


Remember, brown sugar hardens due to a lack of moisture. The simplest way to get it to soften is by adding water. Sprinkle a few drops of water over hardened brown sugar. Then, seal the sugar into a plastic bag. Set aside for a few days and it should soften considerably as the water makes its way through the sugar. You can also use a cloth to add moisture to brown sugar. Place your hardened brown sugar in an open container. Then, get a cloth or paper towel wet. Wring out until moist and set it over the container. Leave the sugar like this overnight. If this method is successful, your sugar should be soft by morning. You can also use tinfoil and paper towel to soften brown sugar. To start, put the hardened sugar in a sealable container.  Place a piece of tinfoil over the top of the hardened brown sugar. Then, get some paper towels damp and place them over the tinfoil.  Seal the container. Let it sit long enough that the paper towel dries. This can happen overnight but may also take a few days. Once the towel is dry, the sugar should be softened.

Summary: Add water for a few days. Use a moistened cloth. Soften overnight with tinfoil and dampened paper towel.


Sift the flour first, to get rid of any clumps, then stir in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. You can do this using a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. For a more flavorful apple muffin, add 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and ½ teaspoon of ground nutmeg. Cut the butter into small cubes first, then add it into the bowl. Pour in the sugar, and beat it together with the butter. You can do this using a hand-held beater, a stand mixer, or even a food processor. For a tasty twist, use ½ cup (115 grams) of white sugar and ½ cup (100 grams) of brown sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, into the butter mixture; whisk the mixture well after each egg you add. Once you can't see any more streaks of egg yolk, add the vanilla extract. If you added ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg, you might want to reduce the vanilla extract to just 1 teaspoon, otherwise the flavors might overpower the flavor of the apples. If you have not done so already, peel, core, and chop the apples, then gently fold them into the butter mixture with a rubber spatula. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl from time to time to ensure that everything mixes in evenly. If you want the apples to distribute more evenly throughout the batter, use 1 cup (120 grams) of shredded apples, and ½ cup (60 grams) of chopped apples. Using your rubber spatula, fold in half of the flour mixture until it is completely blended in. Fold in the rest of the flour mixture, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl often. A great way to do this would be with an ice cream scoop—this way, each cup gets an equal amount of batter. While not completely necessary for this recipe, a strudel topping and really take your apple muffins to the next level. Here is how you do it:  Mix ⅓ cup (65 grams) of brown sugar with 1 tablespoon (7.5 grams) of all-purpose flour and ⅛ teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon (15 grams) of butter until you get a mixture that resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the mixture over the muffins. They are ready when a toothpick poked into the middle comes out clean. After that, you can serve them warm with some butter or cream, or allow them to finish cooling on a wire cooling rack.

Summary: Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C) and lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin. Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl. Whisk in the eggs, one by one, then stir in the vanilla extract. Gently fold in the apples. Gently fold in the flour mixture a little bit at a time. Fill the muffin cups ⅔ to ¾ of the way with batter. Consider making a strudel topping for the muffins. Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes. Let the muffins cool for 10 to 15 minutes before taking them out of the tin.


You should use about four cups of water, and salt it to both regulate the temperature, ensuring an even cook, and to add taste to the rice that’s cooked in it. Though you can purchase garam masala powder at the store, to get the best flavor out of your biryani, you should use the actual individual components that go into the powder. Use one cinnamon stick, three or four cardamom pods, and four or five cloves. Add that with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in the water. It’s important to pack every component of the dish with flavor. You don’t want flavorful vegetables mixed in with bland white rice. Pour it into a colander or strainer to make sure you’re not adding too much water to the pot, which might cause it to boil over later. Because you’ve soaked your rice for at least half an hour, it’s going to cook much faster than it normally would. If you soak it for an hour, it could cook through completely in 3-4 minutes, so keep an eye on it. You’re going to finish cooking it with the vegetables, so remove it from the boiling water early. Test how cooked through it is by spooning some out and chewing it. It should still be toothy when you decide to stop boiling it.  Drain the rice in a colander or large strainer. Set it aside.
Summary: Bring water to a boil in a pot. Add some oil and whole garam masala to the water. Drain the soaked rice. Add the rice to the pot of boiling water. Drain the rice when it’s about ¾ cooked through.