A favorite... CO Bigelow

If you worked with me at Bath and Body works, you know that CO Bigelow is one of my FAVORITE stores ON EARTH! They have the best personal care products. I still use their facial soaps AND their lip balms.

So, why do I love them so much? It's simple. Their products are not full of chemicals per-se but they have a great combination of natural extracts and what not that add a great feel to their products. There is something about their stuff that makes me feel like my Aunt Julia would have used their products as well.

Bigelow Chemists know their... eh... stuff. They've been working on making great personal-care products since 1838. Their New York location has been a hotspot for New Yorkers since g-d knows when.

My two favorite products? Mentha Lip Shine and their Micro Dermabrasion made from rice and bamboo. It's AMAZING!

Anyway, I thought I'd give you a head's up on a great deal so YOU can see why I love them so much. Take $15.00 off any purchase over $100! Use coupon code: fifteen and enjoy what they have to offer.


Stay tuned... my next post will be dedicated to CHOCOLATE!

Forgetfulness

Hello all. It seems in my crazy busy life, I forgot to inform you all of one small, but important, detail in my life. I am CANCER FREE. No cancer in me. Still have my headaches but I have no cancer.

In other news, I've been REALLY forgetful lately. This may not seem like news but just a few minutes ago I walked across my office with one shoe on because I forgot to put the other one on. Welcome to my life.

Tonight, I am going to make Craig a wonderful dish called "Baked Salami" and I'm going to share the recipe with you. If you're on a diet... you probably don't want to eat this.

There is a funny story about this recipe. Before my friend, Kim, got married she called me and said "can I have your recipe for baked salami? We want to serve it at our wedding during the appetizer hour." I was not only flattered but I was floored because I never wrote out the recipe. It's always been done by memory.

Ingredients
2lbs Salami
1cup Brown Sugar
1/4cup apricot preserves (jelly, jam... whatever you want to call it)
1 bottle of ginger ale or soda water (not a 2 liter, just a small bottle will do)
1/2cup dijon mustard or honey mustard

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Begin with an unwrapped salami and make a large cut in the salami from top to bottom. DO NOT cut all the way through the salami.

In a bowl, mix together the brown sugar, apricot preserves, and mustard. You should get some kind of grainy mixture.

Slowly pour the ginger ale or soda water in ONE CUP at a time. Slowly stir in the liquid until the sugar is mostly melted. Make sure that the mixture isn't soupy or two liquidy. If it is, add more jam.


Place the salami in an aluminum pan with the cut facing upward. Slowly pour the mixture over the salami making sure to fill the area that was cut.

Place in the oven for one and a half hours. After the time is up, flip it over and rejuice (just pour the mixture over the other side) and stick back in the oven for another one and a half hours.


It's really easy to make and goes VERY well with mustard dip.

Enjoy!

New Year, New...?

Last summer, as I sat on the beach in South Haven, Michigan, praying and reflecting along side T, I thought to myself "this is going to be the year I change things. I am going to have a new, positive outlook on everything!" I'm an idiot.

Returning home was a great decision, I met my fiance, I have a great job, a great life, and an amazing dog. What has a year taught me? Almost nothing except I will always be cranky and stressed, school will always suck, no matter how hard I try - I am not always going to be nice to people, and I have an extremely short fuse.

Where did my positivity go? Out the window. Where did my love for humanity go? It died when I last visited the Misrad HaPnim.

In truth, life is pretty awesome and it's also pretty short. Sometimes we take calculated risks. Sometimes we take a leap of faith and hope something works out. I am a believer in taking leaps of faith. Faith in what? I have no idea.

The new Jewish year is upon us. I hope it's a good one.

Newest Obsession: Peas

Since I was a little kid, I watched my sister carefully move food she didn't like from the dish to the other side of the plate- often times onto a napkin. One such item is the pea. I've never met anyone who disliked peas more than my oldest sister. Being weird about food tends to run in my family.

• My dad and two of my sisters are neurotic about not letting different types of food touch each other on the plate. I prefer mushing the food together.
  
• When my younger cousin was a kid, she would NEVER put cream cheese on a bagel - only ketchup.
  
• Two of my other cousins preferred their bagels to have both cream cheese and ketchup. Ketchup went on their eggs too.
  
• My dad used to love shrimp. I remember coming to his house one day and asking him what it is about shrimp that he loved so much. His answer "I actually don't really like shrimp but I eat 'em anyway." Needless to say, this concept made NO sense to me. I don't eat foods I don't like... unless it is made by someone I love- then I will eat it anyway. My dad would eat shrimp as a snack.
  
• My uncle won't eat chicken unless it is disguised.
  
• My uncle and his kids won't touch fish. This is why my grandmother makes gefilte fish with chicken. Even then, only one of my cousins will eat it.
  

I inherited my love for food (and lack of weirdness in it) from my mom's side of the family. I also inherited my grandfather's love for anything fried. I really mean anything. Case in point: my newest obsession.

I came into work one day and one of my co-workers was eating these little green balls that smelled REALLY REALLY good. I asked him what it was and he said "fried peas- want one?" I said no. I wound up eating them anyway and now I can't stop. It's somewhat of a delicacy here although its origins are unknown to me.

I do have to say that if you eat a lot of them, your stomach will hurt and you will toot for the rest of the day. They are incredibly filling and very delicious.

I highly recommend them. I eat them once a day and I'm pretty sure they aren't good for my diet. No worries though, I'm about to move into an apartment situated on the fourth floor with no elevator. If anything, my butt will look fantastic by the wedding!

My adventures in cooking led me to make focaccia last night. Did it turn out the way I wanted to? No. Was it tasty? A bit. Dinner consisted of pasta with a cream sauce baked with cheese on top. It's kind of my usual "we're students and I'm too tired to cook" recipe.

Needless to say, this doesn't fit my diet so well.

Still, I'm hoping that when we move into our new apartment I will have the energy and excitement to cook again. We're moving soon... October 1st!! Both of us are very excited.

Next stop... Ikea.

Losing Weight - Kosher-style?

In my quest to be healthier (stop laughing), I decided to do some research (while at work) on the internet to see what I could do to help myself lose weight and be more fit. I don't have a lot of spare money laying around so the gym and personal trainers are out of the question - but I do live near a park and I do have a dog (albeit an asthmatic one) - so that's a step in the right direction but what about food?

I love food.

I'll write it again.

I. LOVE. FOOD.

I've never really been criticized for being heavy because, well, I'm not heavy. My weight fluctuates between a size 4 and a size 8 (which seems pretty normal to me since the average size for US women is 14) but my downfall is the potato. I love potatoes. While I know french fries are bad for you - they are really super yummy.

Since returning to Israel, I am subject to eating foods that are in season. Otherwise they are insanely expensive to buy. I eat plenty of greens and a lot of good carbs but. nothing. It doesn't budge.

While doing my research, I came across numerous sites that promise to help you plan out your meals. I have several problems with this. First and foremost, when I get home from work- I have NO idea what I want to eat for dinner. Breakfast and lunch are usually pretty easy for me although I need to let go of the popcorn snacks I've grown used to eating.

Another problem is the whole kosher thing. I keep kosher. It's harder NOT to keep kosher in Israel than it is TO keep kosher. Most of the meals mix milk and meat - which any Jew will no is BAD. So, what does a kosher food loving girl do? Research for healthy kosher recipes.

Where do these recipes exist? They kinda don't. Aside from salads, most Jewish food is laden with fat and calories. Nechama Cohen does a great job of pointing you in the right direction if you're a Jewish diabetic. Alas, I am not. Truthfully, I don't eat a lot of sugar (unless it came from last night's pie... which was really yummy and not high in fat). While there are healthy kosher cookbooks out there - most of the foods don't sound that appealing. Also, most of them appeal to the low-sugar crowd and involve splenda... which I don't exactly care for since the Israeli version SUCKS.

Deborah Bernstein's Secrets to Fat Free Kosher Cooking seems to be more of a lecture book than a cook book. So far, very few books seem appetizing and relavent. What ever happened to every-day kosher cooking? Why does everything have to revolve around holidays??

My quest continues. Perhaps I'll pick up an Israeli cookbook and see how that goes...

The Dreaded "C" Word

Tomorrow I am having a CT scan. Yay. I am having this scan because it's clearly not normal to have headaches every day for two weeks straight. After much prodding, my doctor suggested a CT scan. Our conversation today went something like this:

Hillary: Are they doing a scan of my sinuses as well as my brain or just my brain?
Doctor: Just your brain. A CT scan of your sinuses wouldn't show much.
H: Why are you scanning my brain? What do you think they might find?
D: Well, we are essentially looking for a brain tumor...
H: (interrupting) Um, WHAT?
D: I'm not going to lie to you and tell you we're not looking for a tumor - I hope we don't find one but two weeks worth of headaches isn't normal. It could be a migraine but since your migraine medication doesn't work on your headaches - it likely isn't a migraine.
H: So what happens after the CT scan?
D: I want you to see a neurologist.
H: Does he treat cancer?
D: No but he can go over the results with you. One step at a time.

So, what's running through my head right now? CANCERCANCERCANCERCANCERCANCERCANCERCANCERCANCERCANCER.

Yeah, cancer.

Am I scared? Yes.

Am I on the brink of tears? Yes.

Do I hope to g-d it isn't cancer? HELL YES.

Do I hope they find out what's causing my headaches? Yes. I am so sick of being tested for this, that, and the other thing. I just want to know the cause so it can be treated.

For now, I will sit at work and try not to burst into tears when someone talks to me.

I'm praying. Along with praying to win the lotto - I am praying that I will be OK. At 28, the last thing I ever thought about was a brain tumor.

On the upside, the guilt trips I could give people are endless. :-)