CPS Fall Newsletter 2012

2012 Fall Newsletter

In This Issue: A Word From…
Bryan Graven, Executive Director
A Word From the
It is clear that times are critical in the medical community. Practices are seeing increasing over-
Executive Director P.1 head costs and lower reimbursements. The stakes are higher than ever for medical practices look-
ing at forced consolidation to either join hospitals or larger practices to remain in business. De-
iPad Tips and Tricks P.2 spite these issues, there is still an overwhelming demand to evolve healthcare through the use of
technology.
Meaningful Use Stage II Our company was formed nine years ago by several independent practices looking to save money
P.3 on technology expenses and offer enterprise-level solutions that these practices independently
could not afford. Almost a decade later our primary focus is still the same, although we now sup-
Data Warehousing and
port over eighty different business and clinical applications versus the six when we first began.
Analytics P.4
How have we been able to build a scalable and efficient business model to support over 450 phy-
sicians and other medical companies? Our core advantage is that we have the economies of scale
CPS Help Desk Horrors that come with a shared infrastructure, technology platforms and resources that support all of the
P.5 products used by our end-user community. The more providers we have, the less expensive it is
Avoid the Back-Up to provide the services we offer (visit www.cpsmdit.com for a comprehensive list). We provide
Apocalypse P.6 small and large practices the quality solutions they require while offering significant cost savings.
A great example of using our economies of scale is creating an automated digital environment for
Windows is DEAD P.6 the medical community. Healthcare providers have too many systems they need to worry about;
CPS is connecting our supported medical community with any outside third-party that our physi-
Dress Up Your Photos! P.7 cians need to interact with to treat their patients. Our goal is to have all patient information in
one place, which is in the chart of our physicians’ EMR. We already have over thirty different
A Fall Gardening Tale P.8 interfaces with hospitals, labs, radiology, and patient portals that will continue to grow until we
are 100% connected to automate the transmission of data from all third-party vendors. This will
create an environment offering convenient access to clinical information and better patient care.
Cheap Thrillers P.9
By being a comprehensive medical technology company, we have both clinical and business tech-
nology experience to navigate through the complex demands of Meaningful Use, ICD-10, ACOs,
Horror Movie Match P.10
data warehousing/analytics and enhanced workflows using proven technology as described by
the example above.
What CPS does on the
Weekend P.11 With a significant cost saving, quality service and access to the technology you need, we are here
to help your practice. With the continued support of the
medical community, we will continue to grow and offer
CPS Employee News P.12 solutions that meet your needs now and for the future. If
you are a medical practice or healthcare company, please
Halloween Fun Facts P.13 call us to schedule an appointment to see how CPS can
benefit your organization. We would welcome the oppor-
Autumn Word Search P.13 tunity to speak with you.

CPS Recipe Corner P.14-15 Bryan
Look for us on

CT Physicians’ Services Page 2

iPad Tips and Tricks
Nate Sebastiao, Network Engineer
With the influx of iPads here are some features that could assist you:
Be sure you have Multitasking Gestures on. Settings -> General ->
Multitasking Gestures -> Turn this on to utilize the options below!!
Five-finger pinch: Here you just “grab” the screen at any point to get
back to the Home screen. It is quick, fast and simple.
Four-finger swipe up: Want to see the multitasking bar, showing you the
most recently used apps? This gesture replaces the double-tap of the
Home button. You can pick a different app here or simply swipe four
fingers back down to hide the multitasking bar.
Four-finger swipe left / right: Thanks to this gesture, I actually don’t use
the multitasking bar much, if at all, anymore. By swiping four fingers left
or right, the iPad quickly moves you through your running and most
recently used apps. I strategically open my most used apps one after an-
other, so I can quickly swipe between Mail, Safari, and the Medstrat app
for example.
In Pictures/Web browser:
Two finger widen: Here you put both fingers together on the screen and separate them. This will make the pic-
ture/web browser larger.
Two finger pinch: Here you put both fingers wide on the screen and pitch together. This will make the picture/
web browser smaller.
Some other useful hints:


Meaningful Use Stage 2
Cindy Denno, Applications Specialist

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has pub-
lished the final rules outlining the requirements for Stage 2
of the Meaningful Use incentive program. The rules, part of
a federal incentive program for Medicare and Medicaid phy-
sicians to adopt electronic health records, were co-written
and issued in the Federal Register by the Centers for Medi-
care & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the Na-
tional Coordinator for Health Information Technology
(ONC).
Inside Story Headline

The big push in the Stage 2 rules is to move beyond data
collection to improving care. The final rule contains 20
measures for physicians, of which 17 are core and 3 of 6 are
menu, and 19 measures for hospitals, of which 16 are core
and 3 of 6 are menu.

The timing for the start of Stage 2 continues to be 2014 as in the proposed rule. Also retained is the focus on health in-
formation exchange and access to health data. The Stage 1 measure for a test of exchange of key clinical information is
eliminated for a more robust core objective for transitions of care in Stage 2. And instead of providing patients with an
“electronic copy of their health information,” Stage 2 requires “electronic or online access” to their health data.

The final rule adds “outpatient lab reporting” as a menu option for hospitals and “recording clinical notes” as a menu
objective for both physicians and hospitals. The final rule also reduces some thresholds for some measures and modifies
some criteria for exclusions based on difficulty. For example, CMS had proposed that providers send a summary of care
record for more than 65 percent of transitions of care and referrals. The final rule decreases that threshold to 50 per-
cent.

CMS also finalized two new core objectives from the proposal for physicians to use secure electronic messaging to com-
municate relevant health information with patients, and for hospitals to automatically track medications from order to
administration using assistive technologies with an electronic medication administration record.

To learn more:
Read the final rule - http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2012-21050_PI.pdf
Read the ONC Fact Sheet http://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/ONC_FS_EHR_Stage_2_Final_082312.pdf
Read Stage 1 vs. Stage 2 Comparison Table for Eligible Professionals - http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-
Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/Downloads/Stage1vsStage2CompTablesforEP.pdf

Get Your Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Kit Now!!!!!
http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies.htm

-Chris Phillips, Project Manager


Data Warehousing and Analytics for Physician Practices
Christopher Phillips, Project Manager

To lower healthcare costs and improve clinical outcomes, decision makers need to possess accurate, timely and comprehensive
information about their practice and patient populations. To do this, today’s practices will need to use data captured from clini-
cal systems and make the investment of starting an Analytics Program with an optimized data warehouse solution.

Analytics allow physicians insight into cost drivers with the ability to measure and even improve clinical outcomes. With ana-
lytics, business managers can identify and empirically examine exorbitant spending. Clinical staff can stratify patients by demo-
graphics, diagnoses and co-morbid conditions into homogenous cohorts to study care patterns and variances in outcomes. These
results can be used prospectively for the evaluation of care options which leads to less medical error and more favorable clinical
and financial outcomes. For these analytics to be statistically measured in a valid manner requires a reliable data warehouse that
captures many sources of information to promote the most accurate and complete fact-based reporting available.

Today, CPS captures data from Practice Management Systems, Electronic Health Records and from many third-party applica-
tions. In the near future, we plan to integrate Health Information Exchange feeds and patient survey data as well. Normative
benchmark data and even retail consumerism transactions may be available; all these sources combine to reveal comprehensive
trends in populations and traits of individual patients creating a powerful data set to conduct analysis.

Practices may capitalize upon these sources of information through data warehousing. At CPS, we integrate these disparate data
sources into a robust framework, which offers the granularity required to service multiple reporting purposes with the efficiency
to promote timely reporting. Our framework model is flexible enough to allow for future integration of new data sources and
possess an infrastructure that is scalable. Analysts can then access the data warehouse using readily available third party report-
ing applications that allow for ad hoc queries and the capability to script canned reports to run on predetermined schedules.

Data warehousing and analytics do not come without challenges; challenges that practices can mitigate through documented
best practices. Acquiring multiple feeds across heterogeneous systems requires significant collaboration, working through legal
considerations of data ownership, security of access, and proactively developing mechanisms to ensure high quality. Let’s not
forget about the maintenance required for databases, user interfaces and corrective action for data quality issues. All of these
items must be managed as part of a comprehensive Analytics Program. End users must adhere to strict principles of analytics to
ensure accurate data is being entered into the system, which translates into less errors when reporting. Clinical conditions and
other metrics need to be operationally defined and routinely updated as industry guidelines evolve. The use of statistical method-
ologies also ensures reporting is valid
and reliable.

Implementing a robust data warehouse
solution and employing analytics in a
physicians practice setting may pose
challenges yet the outcomes do come
with rewards. Decision makers become
armed with the information required to
improve clinical outcomes and drive
strategic business objectives. Through
use of analytics, physicians now have
optimal information in order to make
the best decisions in an ever changing
Healthcare environment.


“Terror at the Support Center”
Richard Charron, Customer Support Analyst
Do not fear talking to the CPS help desk! As our
customers use more diversified technologies, they
can take comfort in knowing they are not alone in
their endeavors. Because we support over eighty
(80) applications with a very diverse client base, the
CPS Support Center would like to offer as much
assistance as efficiently as possible. To do so, the
Support Center will ask essential questions to
troubleshoot and route the ticket. Our goal is to offer
our clients one phone number/e-mail address/fax
contact for information technology support; to be
successful at doing so, it is of the utmost importance
that an effective exchange of information is com-
pleted upon that initial contact. The more data we capture through that critical first communication, the
more accelerated the process will be to resolve the issue.
To our horror, we have been contacted from frustrated parties offering little detail, even the identity of the
caller. Although we understand the last thing anyone calling in crisis wants to hear a slew of questions,
they are imperative to the troubleshooting process. The following YouTube clip has actually happened to
support desks everywhere, including at CPS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W5XXnEXuWM.
To effectively tend to the caller’s matter, the Support Center needs:
1. The customer’s full name, geographic location (including suite number, if applicable), and organization
2. A phone number that will actually be answered by someone; if calling before or after work hours (or
during lunch for those offices that do so entirely), please do not give a number that goes to an answering
service
3. When possible, have the person experiencing the condition call or be available directly to assist us
4. Know what application (Allscripts, Microsoft Office, e–mail, etc.) or activity is being problematic, how
long the condition has existed, and whether anyone else is experiencing the same situation
5. If any error messages are encountered, please make a note of the exact verbiage — these are very helpful
troubleshooting specific conditions. If screenshots are available depicting the situation, they can be e-
mailed to us or given to the technician when he or she arrives

Please do not be offended if the Support Center asks “routine” questions or for a few rudimentary trouble-
shooting actions. Questions concentrating on commonly overlooked issues (e.g., “is the power strip on?”)
can save customers and field technicians precious hours and restore functionality very quickly. Many is-
sues can be resolved by the agent answering the call or another CPS staff member in our office via remote
assistance.
CPS knows everyone is very busy – Providers, MAs, Managers, PSRs, Surgical Schedulers. The Customer
Support Team’s goal is to keep everyone working quickly and efficiently, but it cannot be accomplished
without your help.


Avoiding the Backup Apocalypse
Chris Van Scoy, Server Engineer

Have you checked on your backups lately? This is a great
question that home users often neglect. Many users today have
the ability to back up their home systems in a variety of ways
but often do not. If users back up their systems they often
don’t check to verify the backups are working properly. If you
are reading this now and thinking “wow, I haven’t backed up
my system in a while” or “I haven’t ever checked to see if my
backups are good,” you should be afraid. Much like the guy
who is unprepared for the zombie apocalypse you are now
unprepared for a home computer disaster.
Some things you can do to ensure your data is protected are use a backup service such as Carbonite or Mozy. These
services allow you to back your files up to the cloud for a monthly fee. This is a great solution because not only does it
back up your data it also gives you offsite protection and the ability to access your data remotely. The second way to
protect your data is to use a backup program to mirror data to an external hard drive. This will give you structured
backups on a drive other than your PC or Mac (using Time Machine) that you can use to restore your system if it
should fail. Some products you could use are Acronis (third-party) and Windows backup (built-in). The final way to
back up your system is just copy your files to an external drive. This doesn’t give you the same capabilities as using
software but it will at least save your data should your hard drive crash (and they all do at some point).
Like any good preparation for a zombie apocalypse, plans must be tested and drilled; so should your backup strategies.
No matter what service you use you should at least once every couple of months test and see if you can restore a file to
a folder on your local computer. You also should check your backup jobs to make sure they are running correctly on a
weekly basis. All of these steps will help protect your machine and prepare you for catastrophe.

Windows XP is Dead
Bill Hall, Customer Support Specialist
Back in 2001 Microsoft released Windows XP. Normally software vendors
will support their products for 10 years. Typically that’s 5 years of main-
stream support and 5 years of extended support. In the case of Windows
XP Microsoft actually provided 6½ years of mainstream support and will
provide extended support until April of 2014. Microsoft ended sales of Win-
dows XP in June 2008 and Windows 7 was released 3 years ago this month.

Windows XP certainly had a good run and it is still on over 50% of the
world’s PCs. But with Windows 8 on the horizon, and Windows 7 having
achieved full market acceptance. XP is riding into the sunset just like a cow-
boy at the end of an old Western.
At CPS we have one more roadblock to get through before we can deploy
Windows 7: Internet Explorer 8 (default web browser in Windows 7). In
order for our clients to use IE 8 we need to wait for the next Allscripts upgrade which will also upgrade the IDX Framework from
version 4 (incompatible with IE 8) to version 5 (supported). We are working with Allscripts and hope to have it on the schedule
very soon.


Dress Up Those Photos without Paying for
PhotoShop
Lee Seidman, Manager, Technical Services and Customer Support
Computer users are usually familiar with the commercially-available prod-
ucts (after all, those companies have the funds to ensure advertising guaran-
tees recognition). Some offerings even have become so popular that the
brand has penetrated the American lexicon (e.g., Kleenex is a brand of tissue,
not the tissue itself; Photoshop is an Adobe product commonly referenced
with a neologistic predicate, like “someone photoshopped that picture!”
instead of stating “someone digitally retouched that picture!”). However,
there are a variety of open source (also known as “freeware”) options that
Inside Story Headline
present similar capabilities without compromising one’s budget (Photoshop
retails for approximately $699, but has started offering subscriptions for as
little as $19.99 per month to appeal to smaller wallets). With respect to
digital photo retouching, a few top-notch software packages are Paint.net,
GIMP (or GIMPShop for those who want the Photoshop interface), and for those who prefer cloud-based applications
(meaning there is nothing to actually install locally), there is Pixlr Editor.
Paint.net is a good starting place for those who have started dabbling in photo editing and retouching, but want to go beyond
the canned Microsoft Paint’s capabilities without getting overly complex. It can be downloaded from www.getpaint.net and
offers a considerable online community for support and tutorials. One of the best features of the application is that it is very
easy to undo an action that produced undesired consequences without starting over again. Presently, Paint.net is available only
for the Windows platform, so any Mac OS X users will need to look elsewhere.
For the Photoshop diehards (or those who are looking for more powerful graphic editing capabilities), the GNU Image Ma-
nipulation Program (GIMP for short) is the closest thing to Photoshop a consumer can get. It is not biased towards the Mi-
crosoft platform and works with Mac OS X and various types of Linux distributions as well. Some of the professional-level
enhancements offered with GIMP include fixing perspective distortion, adding the ability to add colors to black and white
photos as a channel mix (for example, choosing to just add blue eyes to a black and white face), object warping, and extensive
layer and clone features. There is an expansive online manual and a multitude of tutorials available, but one may be better
served just playing around within the application. GIMP can be downloaded from www.gimp.org; GIMPshop is available via
www.gimpshop.com.
Pixlr Editor (pixlr.com/editor) offers features not available in the installable products, such as being able to open images di-
rectly from web pages (you just have to provide the URL to the image), social networking sites like Facebook, online photo
libraries (think Flickr), or one’s own computer. The site uses Adobe Flash to function and can have issues with very large im-
age files, but considering it not only is completely free and re-
quires no installation, it offers another tool requiring only an
Internet connection (broadband highly recommended) whose
advantages outweigh any detriments.
Free tools historically compare rather unfavorably to the com-
mercial offerings (Adobe Photoshop, Corel’s Paintshop Pro,
etc.), but with the strong talent of developers committed to open
source projects, that is no longer the case. The freeware solu-
tions have really become a primary focus, especially for those
hobbyists who are looking to explore and expand their talents
without committing anything more than time to learn and play.


A Fall Garden Tale
Cindy Denno, Applications Specialist
It’s that time of year when gardening is winding down until next spring. In
my garden the lettuce, cucumbers and squash are no more. The tomatoes
too are coming to an end, and over in the flower garden, the blooms of
Coreopsis and Bee Balm have been replaced by Sedum and Chrysanthe-
mums. Even as this is a bit disheartening, fall remains my favorite season.
Just the thought of autumn conjures images of mums, pumpkins, apples,
cider and bales of hay.
Over the years I have had little problem growing Mums in my flower gardens. No special fussing has ever been required.
I’ve simply planted as seedlings, fertilized, watered and beautiful Mums have
sprouted. In our last home we had several apple trees (which I dearly miss)
from which I garnered my own small supply of fresh apples! Pumpkins how-
ever are another story. I have always gone by the logic “if it doesn’t grow, don’t
fret or stress, simply move on to something that will”. Unfortunately I cannot
seem to apply my own logic to growing pumpkins! For years I had images of
having my own small pumpkin patch. There is an aesthetically pleasing quality
in gazing on plump pumpkins nestled in their patch. Vision in mind, I went out
and planted pumpkins – it was going to be awesome! Well, the vines grew like
crazy meandering way outside the confines of their garden and were abundant
with flowers. Even so that first patch produced only two small pumpkins. Not
exactly the result I anticipated but I was not deterred and decreed the next year
would be better! I read up on pumpkins, planting tips, growing techniques,
fertilizers – you name it I read it! Then the next year came and in my small
patch…..one lone pumpkin grew……which my son inadvertently ran over with
the lawn mower! This season, though sorely tempted, my ego was a bit bruised
so I took a break from my attempts at pumpkin nirvana! I opted instead to try a couple other vegetables I had not previ-
ously tackled – happily the results were good!
Moral to this story is that every gardener will inevitably experience their own
share of setbacks and disappointments but don’t let one, or even several, failed
attempts destroy your love of gardening! I may never grow that perfect patch
of pumpkins but then again…..there’s always next year!

“Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,--
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”
-Macbeth IV 14-15


Cheap Thrill-ers!
Gabraelle Washburn, Procurement Specialist
Wanting to dress up for Halloween, but experiencing a tighter budget this
year? FEAR not! Being frivolous with creativity does not have to mean break-
ing the bank.
Using the internet is a quick and easy way to get the creative juices flow-
ing. Simply type “Halloween Costume” into any search engine, and costumes
from adult to children to pet will cover the screen like a SEVERED ARTERY
covers the floor with BLOOD. The majority of these websites sell premade
costumes, and are a great way to see the finish product which will aide in the
decision making process. Other sites, such as Pinterest.com, can also be a fun
and helpful tool in getting ideas of what to be, and how to do.
Once the character for the costume has been picked, now comes the real
stress. To buy a premade costume or to make one? Insert blood curdling
SCREAM here! Unless, it is a last minute purchase, buying a good, premade
costume can get a bit pricy. Not to mention the risk of running into someone
else with the same exact costume. Oh, the HORROR that would be! Livin-
gonadime.com posted an article listing twenty tips for making Halloween cos-
tumes for the kids using items from around the house. The moral of the story
is recycle old clothes, accessories, car parts, and cardboard boxes, and with a
little glue and stitching here, and a little paint and marker there, POOF, Little Red Riding Hood is now the reflection in the
CRACKED mirror at nearly no cost.
Going for something with slightly more GORE than Little Red Riding Hood? How about a
DEAD bride? Still easy and inexpensive. Take a trip to the local Salvation Army store to find a
used gown and veil. Stores like Michael’s Arts & Crafts and Joann Fabrics are great places to pur-
chase flowers and red spray paint, and these stores always have sales and coupons available year
around. Want to take it a step further? Spirit Halloween stores open in almost every town this
time of year, or check them out online and sign up for sale notifications via e-mail. Use these elec-
tronic discounts to purchase the grossest SCAR and fake BLOOD the store has to offer.
This DEAD bride is surely a contest winner, and she did not have to ROB A GRAVE. MUHA-
HAHAHAHAHA! Have a happy, safe, and bloody Halloween!

Scary Fact
Gabraelle Washburn

Diagnosis: Technophobia

Symptoms: Fear or dislike of advanced technology or complex devices, especially
computers
First Known Case/Use: 1965 (According to www.merriam-webster.com)

Cure: Unknown (insert sinister laugh here…muh-hahahaha)


The CPS Team’s Favorite Horror Movies!
House on Haunted Hill (1999) - Mari

The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)
- Bob

Jaws (1975) - Gabraelle

The Mist (2007) - Nate

Dawn of the Dead (1978) - Chris P.

Shawn of the Dead (2006) - Chris V.
Any Lifetime movie based on a true
story where it always ends badly for
the husband.—Lee

The Exorcist (1973)

Sinister (2012) - Kam

When iPads Attack (2012) - Moiz

The Shining (1980) - Joel

Black Sheep (2006) - CPS Ghost
The Sixth Sense (1999) - Cindy

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Mike
Puppetmaster (1985) - Bryan

Interview with a Vampire (1994)
The movie theater prices scare me - Dick
away.—Bill

Manhunter (1986) - Wayne
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1973) -
Alyssa


What CPS Does on the Weekend
Mari Bogli, Executive and Technology Assistant

Connecticut Physicians’ Services and members
from Connecticut Multispecialty Group and Hart-
ford Specialists participated in the 12th Annual
Riverfront Dragon Boat and Asian Festival on Sat-
urday August 18, 2012. The festival featured Asian
music, dance, cultural activities, food, beverages
and the Dragon Boat races at Hartford’s
Mortensen Riverfront Plaza.

Sixty-nine teams brought more than 1,800 paddlers to race on the Con-
necticut River. A dragon boat team consists of 20 paddlers, a drummer
who sets cadence for the team, and a steersperson. The CPS team
proudly took fourth place in the Community Team Category after win-
ning one of our races and doing quite well in the other two heats.
Dragon boating is a 2,000 year-old Chinese tradition that is growing in
popularity throughout America and other parts of the world. The Riverfront Dragon Races were sanctioned by the East-
ern Regional Dragon Boat Association, giving teams with the highest points in their divisions the opportunity to repre-
sent the USA’s Eastern Region at the regional championships.

Way to go Techno Dragons!


CPS Employee News!

Congratulations
to Nathan and Catherine Sebastiao!

Married on June 9, 2012
CPS welcomes Chris Phillips as our new
Project Manager. Chris has over 15 years experi-
ence in the healthcare industry with a diverse
background in healthcare. His previous experi-
ences include IS Business Consulting, Project
Management, Account Management and Sales En-
gineering. He has extensive experience on the
healthcare informatics side with reporting and
building healthcare data warehouses. Over the last
5 years, Chris served as a Healthcare Informatics
expert at Cigna, where he implemented & oversaw
the Cigna corporate reporting program HEDIS
(Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set).
Additional talents include Six Sigma, quality man-
agement, process improvement and operations.
Chris is also a U.S. Army Veteran, who served in
Operation Desert Storm. During his personal time,
he frequently participates in shooting competitions
and enjoys the company of his fiancé Nancy.

CT Physicians’ Services
Page 13

Halloween Fun Facts Nathan Sebastiao, Network Engineer
1. Because the movie Halloween (1978) was on such a tight budget, they had to use
the cheapest mask they could find for the character Michael Meyers, which
turned out to be a William Shatner Star Trek mask.
2. The first Jack O’Lanterns were made from turnips
3. Halloween is the second highest grossing commercial holiday after Christmas.
4. The word “witch” comes from the Old English word wicce, meaning “wise
woman”.
5. Samhainophobia is the fear of Halloween
6. The owl is a popular Halloween image. In Medieval Europe owls were thought
to be witches, and to hear an owls call meant someone was about to die.
7. If a person wears his clothes inside out and walks backwards on Halloween,
they will see a witch at midnight.
8. Dressing up as ghouls and other spooks originated from ancient Celtic tradition
where townspeople would disguise themselves as demons and spirits to escape
the view of the REAL spirits wandering the streets during Samhain.
9. Halloween is thought to have originated around 4,000 BCE, which means it has
been around for over 6,000 years.
10. Halloween celebrations in Hong Kong are known as Yue Lan or the “Festival
of the Hungry Ghosts”, during which fires are lit and food or gifts are offered
to placate ghosts seeking revenge.

AUTUMN WORD SEARCH
Jhomar Fernandez, Intern

Autumn Leaves
Branches Forest
Breeze Maple
Chili Maze
Cinnamon Oak
Corn Orange
Crunching Red
Fall Raking
Path
September
Smoke
Woods
Yellow
Fire
Apple


Witches Fingers The Ghost of CPS
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 2/3 cup flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup whole raw almonds
Directions:
Combine sugar, egg, butter, almond extract and vanilla in bowl. Mix in
flour and salt. Cover and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes or until firm.

Tips: to shape cookies, only use a small portion of the dough at a time,
keep rest chilled. Score the top of the cookie with a knife to look like knuckles. Press an imprint into the top of the
cookie and press in an almond to form the finger nail.

Place on a cookie sheet lightly coated with no-stick cooking spray and bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until the
cookies are a very light golden brown. Let cool completely and serve to your most picky zombies.

Vampire Kiss Martini Cindy Denno Lost Soul Sippers Cindy Denno
Ingredients:
Pulp Free Orange Juice
Black Vodka
Sharpen Pitted Cheries
Cream Cheese or Frosting
your Directions
fangs! Fill a glass halfway with orange juice. Pour black vodka over the back of a
spoon so it gently runs down the inside rim of the glass instead of plunging
into the juice and mixing right away.
For the eyes use pitted cherries stuffed with cream cheese or frosting (red
cherries make extra creepy ghouls!)
Cut up one cherry and use the pieces
Ingredients: as pupils (or you can use sprinkles for
1 part raspberry liqueur, such as Chambord varied colors). Pierce the completed
1 part vodka, such as Absolut eyes with a toothpick and place on
1 part Champagne, such as Korbel the rim of the glass.
wax teeth, candy corn, licorice, and/or
blood orange slice, for garnish

Directions:
I’m watching you!
1. Layer raspberry liqueur, vodka, and
Champagne in a fluted or martini glass.
BOO!!!
2. Garnish with wax teeth, candy corn, lico-
rice, and/or blood orange slice.


Candy Corn Cupcakes Mari Bogli
For all you candy corn haters out there this recipe embraces the look of
candy but uses a regular white/yellow cake recipe!

Ingredients:
1 package white/yellow cake mix
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
red food coloring
yellow food coloring
2 cups prepared white frosting
candy corn, sprinkles

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake cups with paper liners.
2. Make cake mix following directions on box and split batter in half
3. Color half yellow with yellow food coloring
4. Color half orange combining yellow and red food coloring
5. Bake according to directions on box
6. After cool top with frosting, sprinkles and candy corn!

Candy Corn Chocolate Bark Mari Bogli
Ingredients: CPS
2 cups dark/semi/or milk chocolate chips WARNING! Recipe Corner
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup candy corn VERY SWEET
vegetable shortening AND
HIGHLY ADDICTIVE!
Directions:
1. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil
2. In separate containers, melt the chocolate in the microwave on high, in 5
second bursts with 1 tsp of vegetable shortening each for 1 minute, whip to
remove lumps.
3. Stir 1/2 cup candy corn into dark melted chocolate and pour into pan,
use a spatula to spread evenly, does not have to cover entire pan
4. Spoon small amounts of the white chocolate over the dark chocolate
layer, use a toothpick or knife to swirl the 2 chocolates together
5. Sprinkle the remaining candy corn on the mixture and chill in the fridge
for 30 minutes to harden, break and enjoy!

Editors: Bryan Graven, Lee Seidman, Alyssa Lynch
Newsletter Design and Layout: Mari Bogli www.mariskarp.com

CPS Fall Newsletter 2012

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