. Make your favorite cupcake recipe and bake as many as you'd like to decorate. Try vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, or coffee flavored cupcakes. Just make sure that you let your cupcakes cool completely on a wire rack before frosting or decorating them. For a sophisticated cupcake, try swirling together vanilla and chocolate cupcake batter. This will make a marbled effect. Place 1/2 cup of shredded coconut in a sealable sandwich bag. Add a few drops of blue food coloring to the coconut. Seal the bag and shake it. Look at the coconut and decide if you'd like it to be a brighter blue. If so, add another drop or two of food color and shake the bag. If you've made your blue coconut too bright for your liking, just add some more white shredded coconut to the bag and shake it again. Take an offset spatula and use it to scoop some blue frosting onto the tops of your cupcakes. Use the flat part of the spatula to spread the frosting evenly over the entire top of each cupcake. If you don't have an offset spatula, you could use a plain butter knife, a rubber spatula or a small spoon. Open your bag of blue coconut and dump it into a small bowl. Hold each cupcake near the bottom and turn them upside down. Dip the tops of the cupcakes into the blue coconut and twist them around so that the frosting is completely coated in blue coconut. Be gentle when rolling the cupcakes in coconut. If you're too forceful, you might rub the frosting off into the bowl. Dab a pea-sized amount of frosting on the backs of the white chocolate buttons. Stick two white chocolate buttons on each cupcake for the eyes. Take your tube of black icing and squeeze little circles on the buttons to make the pupils. You should also use the tube to squeeze a mouth onto each cupcake. Placing a little icing on the back of the chocolate buttons will help them stick to the coconut. Carefully use a sharp knife to cut a line where the mouth is. Place one small chocolate chip cookie directly into this cut so that only half of it sticks out of the mouth. If you'd only like to use half of a cookie, break the cookie in half and insert it just a little way into the cupcake.

Summary: Make the cupcakes Make blue coconut. Frost the cupcakes. Roll each cupcake in blue coconut. Decorate the eyes and mouth. Place a cookie on the Cookie Monster cupcakes. Finished.


If you want to have a strong relationship with a guy friend, never make unkind comments about the person he's dating, even if you really don't like them.   Your friend chose his dating partner for a reason. You should never make him feel like he has to choose between his friendship and the person he dates. If you can't make friends with your pal's partner, at least try to be civil. Invite the couple to hang out at group events, where you won't have to interact as closely with anyone you dislike. Guys don't always open up about what they're thinking about, so don't push him to talk about serious subjects if he doesn't want to. If a serious conversation does come up, let it run its course, then move on to something else. You can make a joke, change the subject, or just start doing something to break the ice. For example, if your friend mentions missing his grandfather who passed away, give him a chance to speak his mind, and share your own thoughts on the subject if you have any. Then, when you feel the moment has passed, turn the conversation back towards something that happened earlier, or the plans you have for the rest of the day. This is a friendship, and he doesn't owe it to you to change. Criticizing a guy friend about the things you don't like will break down your friendship.   For instance, if he always wears wrinkled clothes or you think he spends too much money on frivolous things, you should probably keep it to yourself. If you're very close friends with someone, it can sometimes be acceptable to let them know when you think they are making a mistake or handling a situation the wrong way, but this should be done very sparingly. If you decide you don't like someone else's character traits, you may decide you don't want to be their friend at all. In a strong friendship, you have to be willing to move past little arguments. State your opinion when you need to, then put the incident behind you without holding a grudge.  If your friend does something thoughtless or says something that hurts your feelings, remember that everyone makes mistakes. Your friend may have been having a bad day, or he might have just been feeling frustrated. Try to move past it instead of holding on to hurt feelings. If you notice a pattern of another person making you feel bad or taking advantage of you, it's okay to end the friendship. Deep friendships don't develop overnight. Don't expect your new buddy to tell you his deepest thoughts because you hung out a few times. Just hang out and let things develop naturally. Don't expect your new friend to spend all of his time with you or stop hanging out with his other friends just because you're in the picture. Similarly, you shouldn't neglect your old friends just because you have a new friend.

Summary: Don't talk bad about his dating partner if he has one. Follow his lead for how serious the conversation should be. Don't point out faults in his personality. Move past disagreements quickly. Give the friendship time to grow.


Pour the oil into a large skillet and heat on the stove over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, make sure that your beef and vegetables are already prepared.  The beef should be cut into 1-in (2.5-cm) cubes. You can usually find pre-cut beef stew meat in the butcher's department at the grocery store, but if not, you can trim and cut a chuck roast or bottom round cut. The garlic clove should be minced. If using pre-minced garlic, use 1/2 tsp (2.5 ml). If using garlic powder, use 1/8 tsp (0.625 ml). The onion and celery should be roughly chopped. You can use 3 large baking potatoes or 6 to 9 baby potatoes. Use 4 standard carrots or 2 cups (500 ml) baby carrots. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add the beef to the mixture and toss to coat.  Make sure that the flour, salt, and pepper are thoroughly combined before adding the beef. Stir the beef well so that all sides of each piece are covered. You should have little to no flour left once done. Coating the beef in flour allows the beef to brown better and also makes the finished stew thicker. Transfer the coated beef to the hot oil in your skillet. Cook for several minutes, uncovered, stirring frequently until all sides are browned. Browning the beef is only optional, so you can skip this step if you are short on time. Most cooks prefer to brown the beef, though, because doing so creates a more complex taste. Moreover, browning the beef prevents grease from causing the meat to clump together in your crock pot. Transfer the beef to the crock pot. Layer the potatoes, carrots, onion, celery, and garlic on top. Add the bay leaf, paprika, and Worcestershire sauce, then pour the beef broth over everything. The exact order of ingredients does not matter much, but for best results, the beef, potatoes, and carrots should make up the bottom three layers since these ingredients require the most heat to cook through. Note that the heating element of the crock pot is located on the bottom of the device. You could also cook the stew on High for 4 to 6 hours. Keep the crock pot covered as the stew cooks. A slow cooker needs to build up heat in order to cook properly, and the heat will be unable to build up if the lid is kept off or removed during the cooking process. Remove the bay leaf when done and ladle the warm stew into serving bowls. Keep the slow cooker on a Low or Warm setting until everyone has been served.
Summary: Heat the oil in a large skillet. Coat the beef with flour, salt, and pepper. Brown the beef. Place all the beef stew ingredients in the slow cooker. Cook on Low for 10 to 12 hours. Serve hot.