How to Make Your Home Healthier (by Dr. Oz)

I stumbled across this very insightful article and couldn't wait to share this with EcologicalMom readers. Check out these great tips from Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen on  how to keep home contamination to a minimum:

The Kitchen 
Garbage disposal: A veritable whirlwind of bacteria sprays up each time the disposal is on, leaving a germ-heavy mist hanging over the kitchen. Make sure the disposal opening is properly covered before flipping the switch.

Sponges and dishrags: These fertile breeding grounds contain more than 100,000 germs per square inch. Microwave wet sponges (not dry—they’ll catch on fire!) for two minutes when they’re particularly dirty. Ideally you’d do this every day to kill bacteria. You can also just use dishrags cleaned in a dilute bleach solution.

Cutting board: Wood cutting boards are in fact safer than plastic. In one study, bacteria on a wooden board dried off in three minutes. Bacteria remained on the plastic board overnight, and multiplied. Wood appears to have a natural, bacteria-killing property that glass and plastic do not.

Countertops: You can’t control all the bacteria in your house, so relax about that. Antibacterial countertops are useless. Clean off your counters with warm, soapy water after preparing food and dry thoroughly. If you’re cooking with potential bacteria (meat, fish or poultry), kill those germs with bleach or an eco-friendly alternative, like vinegar. Do the same in your freezer and refrigerator.

The Bathroom
Toilet: Toilets contain a bacteria line just below the water level, called a biofilm. This bacterial biofilm if very difficult to remove, even with household cleaners. Once airborne, these microdroplets land on everything within the flush zone: toys, cups, toothbrushes, etc. Gross, right?

Some of these pathogens live for a week on surfaces. Each toilet flush creates an unseen mist detectable at head height, which can travel 15 feet from the toilet bowl. This is known as the aerosol effect. Putting the toilet seat down before you flush the toilet will prevent some fecal particles from floating and landing on every bathroom surface. Keep your toothbrush covered or in the medicine cabinet!

Cleaning solutions: All surfaces should be cleaned regularly. This includes the door handle, toilet, sink, faucets, floor and shower/bathtub. Clean inside the toilet at least twice a week with a disinfectant. To avoid transferring germs, clean the sink and toilet with separate cloths.

Showerheads. Occasionally remove your showerheads and soak them overnight in a commercial cleanser or vinegar. This removes the mold and mineral residue that clog the head and contaminate shower water.

The Bedroom
Mattress: We all sweat during the night, up to a half pint of moisture. This goes into the mattress, which is an ideal environment for dust mites.

Add this to the skin we shed as we sleep (up to nine pounds per person per year), giving mites something to eat. These little buggers can irritate your skin and cause swelling. The scary statistics: The average bed is home to about 10,000 dust mites, which can cause hay fever, asthma and other things.

Every six months, turn the mattress over. Vacuum it monthly and replace it every ten years. Use a latex cover or a 1-micron filter sheet cover.
Pillow: Each night you inhale the waste of dust mites that live in the pillow. Use a 1-micron filter pillow cover or a latex cover.

Sources: Dr. Oz & Dr. Roizen, and Yahoo.com

10 Reasons to Convince You to Drink Water

Do you drink enough water? If not, check out the reasons below.... they should be good enough to convince you this time! 
Researchers estimate that half of the world’s population is chronically dehydrated. And in America, that level is even higher at 75 percent of the population.

More than two-thirds of your body weight is water. Without adequate water your body’s biochemical and electrical (yes electrical, read on!) processes begin to break down. The list of reasons your body needs water is as plentiful as the functions in your body, so due to space limitations, here are 10 good reasons to drink more water:

1. Your blood is over 80 percent water and needs water to make healthy new blood cells.
2. Your bones are over 50 percent water and, you guessed it, need water to make healthy new bone cells.
3. Drinking more water actually helps lessen pain in your body by getting your lymphatic system moving. The lymphatic system is a network of nodes, tubes, vessels, and fluid that move waste out of your tissues. It requires water to function properly.
4. Water helps to eliminate wastes and toxins from your body through the lymphatic system, kidneys, and intestines.
5. Water lubricates your joints and helps reduce joint pain and protect against wear and tear.
6. Water regulates your metabolism so if you’re overweight chances are you may need more water.
7. Water balances body temperature.
8. Water helps to ensure adequate electrical functioning so your brain and nervous system function properly. Your brain and nervous system send out electrical signals to function properly. Researchers estimate that your brain gives off about the same amount of electricity as a 60 watt light bulb. So, there’s some truth to the image of a light bulb going on when someone has a good idea.
9. Water alleviates dehydration (and I’ve already mentioned that most people are chronically dehydrated).
10. Every cell and organ in your body requires adequate water to function properly.

Sources: Care2 Green Living and Yahoo!Green

No-Sewn Clown Costume Made with a Pillowcase

If you haven't found a Halloween costume for your kids yet, here is a great and easy one for you: a no-sewn clown made with a pillowcase!

Need:

1.           Colorful Pillowcase

2.           4 Big Colored Pom Poms

3.           Elastic cording or 1/4 inch elastic

4.           Craft glue

5.           Scissors

6.           1 large safety pin / 4 medium safety pins

Dollar Store accessories

What To Do:

7.           Iron pillowcase to remove creases andwrinkles first.

8.           Fold pillowcase in half, lengthwise, andthen cut a small opening, on folded side, for the neck .  Unfold and thencut a slit down the back, only, about 5 inches long from the neck opening.

9.           Across from the neck opening, at each sideseam, cut away a 1/4 inch slice for the arm holes.

10.        Dab a bit of white glue onto the cut edgesto prevent fraying, if desired.

11.        Cut a piece of elastic that will fitaround your child's thighs, adding about 6 additional inches. 

12.        Cut a small slit on the inside of thedouble thick bottom border, making sure not to cut into the front layer offabric.

13.        Attach the large safety pin to one end ofthe elastic and then insert this into the opening of the border.  Makingsure to keep the other end free, weave the safety pin through the entireborder, gathering as you go.  Tie off end, leaving a short tail and pushinto border.

Attach Pom poms to the center front of thecostume or attach with hot glue if desired.  You can either make a big bowfrom a piece of fabric, folding over ends and tying in middle (attach to frontof costume) or we found our clown nose, gloves and bow tie at the dollar store.

Source: ziggityzoom.com

Monique's Little Acorns

Monique from La Table de Nana posted this super little fall recipe a while back. I knew I was having my Garden Club for coffee this week and thought this would be perfect on the table. Don't they look great in my pumpkin bowl? And they're delicious, too. (Find the acorn mold HERE. Or HERE.)

A bench note: my first batch turned out too light. I raised the oven temp to 370 and increased the time to 12  minutes. Don't take them out until they get golden brown on top; then the bottom will be the perfect color. Luckily, there's lots of batter so you can experiment with oven temps and time a bit.

They were a hit at the coffee!

Acorn Pound Cake
From King Arthur Flour via Monique

Ingredients:
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter
3-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
1/4 teaspoon almond extract 
5 eggs

Method:
Preheat oven to 350. (I heated to 370)
In a mixer, beat the first two ingredients until there are no lumps left.
Add the salt, sugar, flour and baking powder. Mixture will be quite thick. Add the extracts and the eggs, one at a time. The mixture will now be light and fluffy.
The key for perfect acorns, according to Monique:
A combination of cooking spray and flour. The cooking spray coats all the nooks and crannies and the flour adds a thin layer of non-stick protection that results in a smooth as silk finish on the outside of your baked goods. In this case, less is definitely more. Filling the wells too full will result in acorns that puff and flow over the sides of the well. Surprisingly, just 2 to 3 teaspoons of batter is plenty. A teaspoon scoop proved to be just the right size and made scooping a breeze.
Bake the acorns for 8 to 10 minutes ( I baked longer) or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the nuts comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for about 2 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

The Preliminary

OK, we got an opportunity for a revival. This will be an entirely new concept for our dance blogosphere. A blog dedicated to the recap of all the other dance blogs. We have to start small, and weekly (weakly?.) Then we probably will go into Web Style format with pages to include, video, photo albums and photo slideshows. This coupled with general information on everything involved in our blogosphere. There will be no secrets and everyone will have the opportunity to tune in at their convenience. As per usual, we seek feedback from everyone.

"When you take dancing lessons, you learn steps and you learn
steps and you learn steps. It can go on for a long time.
And then one day, you just learn to dance, and it is so different."

In order of Seniority for our blogs:

Town Dancer - - http://townelite.blogspot.com/
The blog with most hits and therefore the most valuable for distributing dance information to the reader/dancers. Very much into competition, exhibition and big party stuff. June Kadomoto covers HBDA, and Calvin Ota covers quite a bit of ground including the Mainland and has even competed at Blackpool. Tune in on his latest Town Dancer blog. The hits are on a rocket to the moon.

Platinum Corridor - - http://dancingpower.blogspot.com/
In West Oahu, having our headquarters in Nanakuli, and the biggest HBDA Chapter in Kapolei certainly helps. Then we have Tim Cubero Jr, the best information contributor in the West. Terrific write ups and photos too.

His articles and photos are so good they are replicated on the Kapolei Web Site. One more information contributor like him and Platinum Horseshoe will give Town Dancer a little competition.

"Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)" by Rod Stewart

Moanalua Corridor - - http://honoluluball.blogspot.com/
We lost quite a bit of ground in the last few months but as soon as we get a steady information contributor from HBDA or Dance Hawaii, the hits will rise accordingly.

Dance Guide - - http://honoluludance.blogspot.com/
This blog is in process and any suggestions will be welcomed. We may be able to develop a different concept.

Oahu And Beyond - - http://oahufarther.blogspot.com/
This blog merely extends what it was doing and takes over the schedule part from the old Club Dancer blog. Perhaps we can get more news from the neighbor islands and we can also concentrate more on the Pacific Rim. Now that we seem to be making contact with the Philippines we will have to state that we may publish the email in the corresponding blog.

Too Late/I Feel the Earth Move  by Boris

Dance Connection and That's Dancing, two very nice blogs by Frank Sierra and he gets plenty of dance information that we don't get. However we are not sure how much information he would like included here.

There are two others with counters, but we are not sure if they wish to be included either. We could include them in the blog statistics too if they allow it. And those will be published

Dance Fever Oahu the best Dance Web Site in the Pacific: Covers the scheduling of most dance organizations on this island and even beyond. But information for this site depends on Ki. We will be glad to accommodate as many online dance sites as possible.

"Make Me Smile" by Chicago

Mary Beth's Newsletter:
An informative newsletter that goes out regularly for social dancers. She covers many places we don't. If you’d like to be on her email list, please email at: mbvh@hotmail.com and include your full name and city, you reside in.

Line Dancers Groups are also welcomed. There are many good social dancers developing from line dancing, these people can dance. The entire enchilada is solidifying very nicely, so we can dance for our own pleasure not someone else's. However, we will appreciate our entertainers and applaud at the proper time. And we understand that they are a much different group than us "common" dancers.

This blog site will probably end up going every two or three weeks. Eventually, before the year end, it will be as a monthly and perhaps the "December or the January Dance Guide." Hey, we are working on it!

Halloween:
Q. What type of dog does every vampire have?
A. Bloodhound!

Pub's Side Note: As per usual, suggestions are welcomed.

RECALL ALERT: Spinach with Listeria

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Inc., is voluntarily recalling fresh bagged Washed Spinach 12oz, with the Enjoy by date of OCT 16 sold under the f&e™ label.

The recall notification is being issued out of an abundance of caution based on a random sample test, conducted on behalf of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). One bag of this product with the Oct 16 Enjoy by date was confirmed to be positive for Listeria monocytogenes. No illnesses have been associated with this product.


Source: fda.gov

RECALL ALERT: Organic Eggs with Salmonella

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) and the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) are investigating illnesses in at least six people in Minnesota that are connected with a recall of organic shell eggs due to contamination withSalmonella Enteritidis. The contaminated eggs were traced back by the MDA to Larry Schultz Organic Farm of Owatonna, where environmental testing confirmed the presence of Salmonella Enteritidis.  Larry Schultz Organic Farm is cooperating with the MDA investigation and has issued a voluntary recall of the products.
Eggs from Larry Schultz Organic Farm are packaged under the following brand names: Lunds & Byerly’s Organic, Kowalski’s Organic, and Larry Schultz Organic Farm. Eggs are packed in bulk and varying sizes of cartons (6-egg cartons, dozen egg cartons, 18-egg cartons). Full product descriptions and a list of grocery stores where these products were sold can be found at www.mda.state.mn.us. Cartons bearing Plant Number 0630 or a “Sell by” date are not included in this recall.

To prevent illness, it is important for consumers to cook eggs thoroughly before eating in order to destroy any Salmonella or other bacteria. Consumers who believe they may have purchased these shell eggs should not eat them but should return them to the store where they were purchased for a full refund.


Source: fda.gov