Recipe of the month

Chicken and Shrimp Jambalaya

Makes 2 to 3 servings:

Ingredients:

1 (3 pound) frying chicken, cut into serving pieces
Salt and pepper
2 Tbsp shortening
2 Tbsp flour
1 pound smoked sausage, diced
2 onions, chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 cups tomatoes, peeled and diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups shelled and deveined shrimp
3 cups water
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce (or according to taste)
2 cups uncooked rice
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/3 cup scallions, finely chopped

Method:

• Season the chicken with salt and pepper and brown on all sides in shortening. Remove chicken and set aside
• Sprinkle the flour in the same skillet and cook, stirring constantly, until the flour turns light brown
• Add the sausage, chicken, onions, green bell pepper, tomatoes, garlic and shrimp and cook, stirring, about 10 minutes
• Add the water, 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, thyme, hot pepper sauce, 1/2 teaspoon pepper and the rice
• Bring to a boil and then cover and simmer about 30 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Stir in the parsley and scallions
• Cook for 5 minutes more

Serving suggestion: serve it hot with a cool drink

Beauty tip of the month

Herbal Bath Oils:

Herbal oils for the bath will leave your skin feeling silky smooth, and your senses refreshed.

Use 1 part herb to 8 parts oil. Use a good natural oil like olive oil. You don´t need to use extra virgin. Just buy the much less expensive olive oil.

Warm the oil in a saucepan over very low heat. Crush and powder the herb or herbs of your choice to help release their oils. Soak the herbs in the warm oil for a few hours, then strain, making sure to press all the oils from the herb material before discarding them. Add a couple of tablespoons of this oil to your next bath

Herbal Beauty Tips:

Dry Skin Lotion
Combine equal parts Rosewater and vegetable Glycerin (both available at your pharmacy) for a wonderfully refreshing old-fashioned lotion. Apply liberally as needed.

Dry Skin Toner
If you have dry skin, and want to make your own toner, try adding a couple of tablespoons fresh lemon juice to a cup of witch hazel extract. If its too strong for your skin, dilute with distilled water. Store in the refrigerator for up to a month.

Extra Dry Skin Moisturiser
Make the Dry Skin Moisturiser in the previous tip, and add 5 drops lavender essential oil, or 2 drops Rose essential oil to each 4 ounces of liquid.

Facial Toners
Make your own facial toners by steeping herbs that best suit your skin´s needs in apple cider vinegar, then dilute with an equal amount of rose- or orange flower-water.

Oily Skin Wash
For an oil-minimizing facial wash, make a strong infusion of lemon grass, using a couple handfuls of the herb to a quart of water. Bring it to a slow simmer, cover, and remove from heat. Allow to cool, then strain and add to an equal amount of liquid castile soap. Wash daily.

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Health tip of the month

Healthy and Beautiful Hair - Products

Sometimes it seems as if you need a science degree to understand some of the new ingredients and technology that crop up in haircare products. Here is a simple on the top 10 haircare ingredients...

• Provitamin B5 (panthenol) This B-group vitamin molecule penetrates deep into the hair shaft, leaving hair more elastic, shiny and less prone to breakage.
• UV filters The sun's ultraviolet rays give off damaging free radicals that attack the hair's natural internal structure, making it weak and dull. These filters act like an invisible shield, protecting each individual hair from the damaging effects of the rays.
• Proteins/amino acids Proteins and amino acids are known as the building blocks of the hair. They are found in haircare products to increase the hair's strength, boost moisture content and help prevent breakage.
• Herbal extracts The plant and herbal extracts found in haircare products all boast different properties and are included for various reasons. For example, wheatgerm has been shown to boost the hair's moisture level and repair damaged cuticles, while ginseng is a powerful antioxidant that helps protect against environmental damage.
• Quaternium conditioners Whereas damaged hair has a negative charge, these conditioners have a positive charge and are attracted to the damaged areas where they smooth down cuticles. This makes the hair feel softer and look shinier.
• Polymers Known as film formers, polymers coat the hair with a layer of cuticle-smoothing conditioner so that the hair appears shiny and glossy.
• Antioxidants Pollution, smoke and ultraviolet rays are all damaging free radicals that attack the hair's natural internal structure, leaving it weak and dull. Antioxidants mop up harmful free radicals before they can cause damage, helping to maintain the hair's good condition.
• Silicones Silicones - usually in the form of a silky conditioning fluid - leave a light layer of oil on the hair to smooth cuticles and enhance shine. They also help reduce tangles when combing wet hair.
• Moisturisers Because hair loses moisture every time you wash and dry it, it can end up feeling dry, dull and rough. Moisturisers encourage water to penetrate the hair shaft, leaving it soft, more elastic and less prone to breakage.
• Hard-water softeners Hard-water mineral deposits can leave hair dull. Softeners remove the minerals from the water so that they can no longer build up on the hair and also help shampoos lather up into a more luxurious foam!

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Family tip of the month

Basic Principles of Food Combining

These are the general guidelines for food combining, a popular but unproven theory.
1. Fruits should be eaten by themselves, allow 30 min. before eating anything else.
2. Proteins and starches should not be eaten together as one meal.
3. Combine protein and vegetables or combine starch and vegetables.
4. Do not eat more than one protein food per meal.
5. Melons are best eaten as a separate meal from other fruits.

Choosing Lean Poultry
For chicken, white meat contains less fat than dark meat. Try to buy boneless, skinless, chicken breasts. These contain relatively little fat. Turkey can be substituted for chicken. Boneless turkey breast is cheaper than chicken breast, and it is a little lower in fat (although chicken breast is low in fat also).

Egg Nutrition Basics
Eggs are perfect sources of protein. The only downside is that they are high in cholesterol at 213 mg per egg. Actually, it is the egg yolk that you need to be concerned with in regards to cholesterol, so limit whole eggs to 3 to 4 per week. You may eat as many egg whites as you please. The yolk of the egg is not all bad. It contains a number of different vitamins that are very healthy. So, yes, it is okay to eat the yolk, just limit the number you eat per week.

Humour of the month

Windows Error Messages -=-=-=-=-=-=

The following are new Windows messages that are under consideration for the planned Windows 2003:

1) Smash forehead on keyboard to continue.
2) Enter any 11-digit prime number to continue.
3) Press any key to continue or any other key to quit.
4) Press any key except... no, No, NO, NOT THAT ONE!
5) Press Ctrl-Alt-Del now for IQ test.
6) Close your eyes and press escape three times.
7) Bad command or file name! Go stand in the corner.
8) This will end your Windows session. Do you want to play another game?
9) Windows message: "Error saving file! Format drive now? (Y/Y)"
10) This is a message from God Gates: "Rebooting the world. Please log off."
11) To "shut down" your system, type "WIN."
12) BREAKFAST.SYS halted... Cereal port not responding.
13) COFFEE.SYS missing... Insert cup in cup holder and press any key.
14) CONGRESS.SYS corrupted... Re-boot Washington D.C? (Y/N)
15) File not found. Should I fake it? (Y/N)
16) Bad or missing mouse. Spank the cat? (Y/N)
17) Runtime Error 6D at 417A:32CF: Incompetent User.
18) Error reading FAT record: Try the SKINNY one? (Y/N)
19) WinErr 16547: LPT1 not found. Use backup. (PENCIL & PAPER.SYS)
20) User Error: Replace user.
21) Windows VirusScan 1.0 - "Windows found: Remove it? (Y/N)"
22) Welcome to Microsoft's World - Your Mortgage is Past Due...
23) If you are an artist, you should know that Bill Gates owns you and all your future creations. Doesn't it feel nice to have security?
24) Required Government Warning: After we got caught in cahoots with the hardware manufacturers for trying to needlessly fill your hard drives, the following message is now required as you save your files in Word. "Word has detected that you don't wish to save your text file as a lumpy and space wasting .doc format filled with potential viruses. Would you like to save your old outdated ascii file as a Word file anyway?"
25) Your hard drive has been scanned and all stolen software titles have been deleted. The police are on the way.

Horoscopes - Starscope and Chinese Zodiac

Please CLICK on your star for details:

Starscope

Chinese Zodiac

Colours

GREEN

Contemporary symbolism - The evolution of the symbolism of green in Western culture:

In Celtic myths the Green man was the God of fertility.

Later in the millennium, Early Christians banned green because it had been used in pagan ceremonies.

Nevertheless, as evidenced by this 15th Century wedding portrait, the colour green was the best choice for the bride's gown because of its earliest symbolism.

Of note is the continued symbolism attached to the colour in the latter part of this century. For example, anyone who chooses a green M & M is sending a somewhat similar message. Green has been reinterpreted by late 20th century American culture to signify a state of heightened sexuality in this specific situation.

Other bride colours:

White would be an inappropriate colour for a wedding in China. It is the colour of mourning. If a bride chooses a white wedding gown, her parents would probably not allow her to get married.

In India, even in Christian weddings, while most brides wear white, it is usually relieved by at least a touch of some other colour. If a married woman wears unrelieved white in India, she is inviting widowhood and unhappiness.

Other cultural references for green:

Green was a sacred colour to the Egyptians representing the hope and joy of Spring.
Green is a sacred colour to Muslims.
Japanese Emperor Hirohito's birthday is celebrated as "Green Day" because he loved to garden.

Green trivia:

It is said that green is the most restful colour for the human eye.
Green has great healing power. It can soothe pain.
People who work in green environments have fewer stomach aches.
Green is beneficial around teething infants.
Suicides dropped 34% when London's Blackfriar Bridge was painted green.

Universal symbolism:
Nature, freshness

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