Skin Treatment, A Roach is a Roach, Gaby is Back.

I understand there is a move towards more natural beauty products for women to use on their faces. Only trouble is natural ingredients don’t have much of a shelf life apparently. A statistic which fascinated me, women “eat” about 7 lbs of lipstick in their lifetimes. Who knew? There are several videos on Good Morning America’s website talking about things like natural exfoliation with a mixture containing ingredients like honey and sugar. Don’t think I’ll bother, thanks.

I was complaining on Facebook today because our realtor for the rented house we are going to be staying at in North Carolina came out with the old saw “they are just Palmetto bugs” when I complained about cockroaches. They say this to visitors because its supposed to make them feel so much better about the bugs crawling around, sorry lady, even if they were “just” palmetto bugs, they are cockroaches anyway. I do not like them. We managed to keep them out of our home, successfully, for 12 years by spraying regularly outside and inside and having lived there that long, I know what I am looking at when I see them, I am not just yer average tourist. Googling I find in fact that Palmetto bugs, which are still roaches, are bigger, better armoured and can fly. So maybe they should learn what they are telling people. The top picture is of American roaches, the bottom is of a Palmetto 1.5 inches long. Yuk.

I see on yesterday’s news that Gabrielle Giffords made it back to the house in time for the decision on the debt crisis. Who would have thought, roughly 7 months ago, she would ever be back in Congress again. It is a wonderful story of recovery.

I love the sound of this recipe with cheese. I would need to find some really good tomatoes though.

Spicy Tomato Jam

By Dana Treat
WebMD Recipe from Foodily.com

I decided to make this jam because it came from a trusted cookbook and is something I have thought of making on many different occasions. I imagine it would be good with goat cheese on top of crostini. I’m sure it would make a good omelette filling. But I also think it would be really good with meat – pork most likely. So I filled my kitchen with the intoxicating smell of cherry tomatoes cooking down with sugar and spices and then spooned it up into a jar. It was a huge hit with the whole family.

Ingredients

1 pound ripe cherry tomatoes, about 3 cups
4 tbsp. sugar
4 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
2 tbsp. grated fresh ginger
1/2 lemon, sliced into thin half moons
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
2 tbsp. unfiltered cider vinegar
Salt and cayenne pepper

Instructions

Combine the tomatoes, sugars, ginger, lemon, spices, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the vinegar in a medium-size, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add a pinch of salt and a pinch of cayenne and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until the tomatoes cook down to a jam and the sugars are bubbly and caramelized, 15-20 minutes. Set aside to cool. Add the remaining 1/2 tablespoon vinegar to taste.

Total Servings: 32

Nutritional Information Per Serving

Calories: 16
Carbohydrates: 4.0g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Fat: 0.1g
Saturated Fat: 0g
Fiber: 0.0g
Sodium: 1mg
Protein: 0.2g

Have a great day