Non-Toxic New Year's Resolution

Many of us make New Year's resolutions revolving around health - generally of the lose weight, exercise more and eat better kind. But few stop to think about other things that affect our health. Sure there is quitting smoking and wearing seat belts and other very valid resolutions. But what about reducing your exposure to toxins? And not just if you live near a pesticide sprayed field or a superfund site.

No, I'm talking about the toxins we are exposed to in our every day lives. Toxins like Bisphenol A (BPA) that's found in plastics, canned foods and on store receipts that cause hormone disruption. And, what about Triclosan, a potent anti-bacterial, that's found in many things from hand soaps to toothpaste and tennis shoes that can contribute to super resistant bacteria and cause a whole host of health issues not just for humans but for fish and aquatic life downstream?

I propose that this year you look at not just the amount of food and what kind you are eating when trying to be healthy, but also what you are putting on your skin and breathing in that also impacts your long term health. And, because the whole topic of toxins in consumer products can be extremely overwhelming, I recommend people focus on the following low-hanging fruit of toxins.

For this year's New Year's Resolution try this instead of or in addition to your other pledges:

1. Get rid of the anti-bacterial soaps. Nobody needs them - studies show that good hand washing is just as effective at cleaning as anti-bacterials. Avoid the ingredient: Triclosan

2. Ditch the non-stick. Start with your frying pans and work your way through your bakeware. Choose quality stainless steel, glass or cast iron instead.

3. Avoid artificial fragrances. You'll be surprised at how many products in your home contain artificial fragrances which house the chemicals phthalates, which are powerful endocrine disruptors. Avoid the ingredients: artificial fragrance or parfum.

4. Stay away from canned food. Most canned items are lined with BPA, which has been shown to cause healthy breast cells to act like cancerous ones. Make your own soup and store it in glass jars, buy dried beans and look for BPA free cans. And, while you're at it, stay away from soda cans.

5. Buy organic food. Stay away from pesticides by choosing organic foods over conventionally sprayed ones. Your body and the environment will thank you.

Are you willing to pledge to lower your toxic exposure? Which ones are you avoiding?

30 minute mozzarella

Last weekend, my husband and I hit up The Cellar Homebrew near our place for some cheese making supplies. Since we got a cast iron pizza pan for Christmas to replace our old non-stick Teflon pizza pan, we wanted to try out making pizzas. And what better way to top our homemade pizza dough and pizza sauce I canned from last summer's tomato bonanza than by adding fresh made mozzarella?

I dusted off my old Home Cheese Making book that I've had for years (and never made anything from) and decided to actually use it. Over the years, I've been too lazy to scout out the odds and ends required to make mozzarella, opting for easy homemade cheeses instead.

Since we were busy with other things over New Year's weekend, we went with the 30 minute recipe, rather than the more traditional one. The 30 minute recipe is super easy and goes a little something like this:

1. Mix citric acid into gallon of whole milk (make sure it's not ultra pasteurized or it doesn't work)
2. Heat until warm
3. Add rennet
4. Stir and heat until 100 degrees or so - the curds will magically appear
5. Remove curds with slotted spoon
6. Microwave on high for 1 minute, drain whey and knead with spoon
7. Microwave for 35 seconds, drain whey and knead with spoon
8. Repeat #7 and knead in some cheese salt
9. Eat or store

I was flabbergasted at how easy this was and how quickly it came together. My husband was dubious about the whole process and predicted it would take me an hour and a half at least to have some form of cheese ready to go. Nay sayer, I tell you!

With the cheese all ready to go, we sliced it up and put it on the pizza. It was very good, but not exactly what I expected.

My final thoughts
It certainly wasn't like the fresh mozzarella balls we buy from our favorite market. It wasn't as creamy and looked more like a combo of fresh and the Organic Valley regular mozzarella we buy. I was hoping we would be making caprese salad like crazy, but I wouldn't use it for that. The texture is all wrong.

Would I make it again? Maybe. I think I'd rather try making the longer, more involved mozzarella recipe from the book and see how they compare.

Photographic evidence
Here are some pictures of the process for your viewing pleasure:

Right after adding in the rennet, the curds separate from the whey.

The cheese curds after removing them with a slotted spoon.

Paco, casting a spell, "You must give me all the cheese..."

Melty cheese, right out of the microwave.

The finished product. Note the cheese browned in a rather oddly brown way.

Have you tried making mozzarella? Did you do the 30 minute kind or did you go the traditional route?

This post is part of this week's Homestead Barn Hop and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.

Blog book tour - 2012!

Hey everybody! Tomorrow kicks off my blog book tour. What's that, you ask? Well, it's like a regular book tour, but rather than travel all over the country (with a high travel carbon footprint), I'm virtually doing a book tour on people's blogs. For the most part, this tour will be three weeks long and will visit several dozen blogs.

This week I'll be visiting the following blogs. As the posts are up I'll be letting you know the direct links. I'm hoping this will give you more information about my new book, The Non-Toxic Avenger, as well as let the readers of the other blogs learn about it as well.

Tour Date	Blog	Type of Post
1/2/12	http://www.thecrunchychicken.com	Book Tour Launch!
1/3/12	http://eco-novice.com/	Healthy Child, Healthy World Nomination and Q&A
1/3/12	http://farmersdaughterct.com/	Book review
1/3/12	http://www.momscleanairforce.org/	Guest post on clean air
1/5/12	http://www.mnn.com/	Book excerpt
1/6/12	http://www.RetroHousewifeGoesGreen.com	Interview
1/6/12	http://www.strocel.com/	Podcast with Amber (20 minute interview)

The Urban Farm Handbook review

Do you live in the city or an otherwise urban area, yet yearn for life in the country? Well, quit dreaming and start living! The Urban Farm Handbook is a necessity to prove that you can be (mostly) self-sufficient and not have to move out to the sticks to achieve your goals.

It also will appeal to those of us (my family included) who want the ideals of country living, but still have the benefits of city living - energy efficiency, improved transportation, access to the arts, excellent dining, etc.

The Urban Farm Handbook, by Annette Cottrell (of sustainableeats.com) and Joshua McNichols (who, apparently, lives nearby me), will want to make you grind your own grain, raise mealworms in your house to feed your flock of backyard chickens, make your own chevre from your dairy goats (where legal, of course), dispatch your own bunnies and beyond.

I get a lot of books to review, but I cannot say enough good things about this book. You'll just have to trust me on this one. If you are interested in the local food movement, even if you do live out in the sticks (you lucky bastards), you will really enjoy this book.

Normally, I'd do a giveaway of the books I've read, but this one's a keeper. Sorry, you're going to have to buy it yourself :)

Best of 2011

While I'm off on vacation, I thought I'd bring back the posts that caused the most "excitement" in the last year.

And the top 5 posts are....

1. Urban Homesteaders - Cease and Desist: I can't believe it's been almost a year since the whole "urban homesteaders" trademark activity hit the fan when the Dervaes family started pursuing people and organizations who had the audacity to use their brilliant concoction of words never before used by man.

2. The Skinny vs. Curvy Ideal: This clearly must have been a result of people Googling the wrong thing, but nonetheless, it got over 2,000 pageviews.

3. Top 5 Easy Homemade Cheeses: What can I say? Everybody loves easy. And most people love cheese. A winning combo.

4. Urban Homesteaders Blog Like a Pirate Day: On the heels of the whole silliness involved with trademarking common terms, bloggers come out in force to thrown down against those arrogant enough to trademark them.

5. BPA-free Canned Tomatoes: Hitting the news this year was research after research showing the unsavory health consequences of consuming BPA through food, drink and touch. The popularity of this post shows that people are serious about finding alternatives to BPA laced cans. BPA, most recently, was shown to make healthy breast cells act like cancerous ones, render the chemo drug Tamoxifen useless and push women's hearts into deadly arrhythmias. Better living through chemistry? No thanks.

Going pioneer in 2012!

I know you are just now hearing about my new book, The Non-Toxic Avenger, and will be hearing a heck of a lot more over the next few months when my blog book tour begins, but I did want to share with you my next book project which I'm actively beavering away on right now.

My next book (tentatively titled, Little House in the Big City: Pioneer Living without the Prairie due out early Fall 2012 from New Society Publishers) is a combination of pioneer living and fun and merriment gleaned from the Laura Ingalls Wilder series of books.

My 8-year-old daughter, Emma, and I are going through the books and reenacting as much as reasonably possible. In other words, we aren't smoking a deer in a stump in the backyard. But we are doing whatever we can. For example, we spent the day yesterday making our own butter with carrots from the backyard to give it a bright yellow color. It turned out better than I thought. This Christmas Eve, we are making an Ingalls-style dinner with various things like dried apple pie, "Injun" bread and beans. So, if it's in the book and doesn't involve something not legal in my area, we're doing it. And, Emma is penciling the illustrations.

This book project doesn't exactly bode well for my bathing habits, but we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I'm running around trying to find salt pork, pig bladders and tails and making straw hats, rag dolls and other really random, fun, pioneery projects! So, stay tuned!

Are you a fan of the book series, TV series, or just pioneer living?

Freezing for the holidays?

For those of you participating in this year's Freeze Yer Buns Challenge, you run the problem of having visitors over who might not, say, appreciate the lowered temperatures. When you're acclimated to 70+ degrees it's really hard to drop the 5 or 10 or 15 degrees in one fell swoop.

Generally, when we have visitors over, we are also doing a lot of cooking and, by virtue of having lots of mammals over the house (i.e. human visitors), it tends to heat up naturally. Sometimes, however, the oven and human body heat just isn't enough and we'll turn the heat up for their benefit. If we're all sitting around, blankets can be used, but aren't exactly helpful at a dinner party. And, since we don't have one of those neat, heated Japanese dinner table thingies (aka a "kotatsu"), I don't expect our guests will have a pleasant time eating if their teeth are chattering. So, we turn up the heat.

My mom and brother have learned to dress warmly when they come over and my brother always remembers to bring over his slippers, which I find very entertaining. Not because I'm trying to torture him or anything, but just because he's always so prepared for everything (the OCD helps).

In any case, what do you do for the holidays when you have visitors? Make them tough it out or turn up the heat?

Big Dipper Waxworks candles winner!

The lucky winner of the following candles:

2 Beeswax Ornament candles (each has a burn time of over 40 hours)
1 Beehive candle in Holiday Spice (burn time of over 35 hours)

from Big Dipper Waxworks is...

Amy McPherson Sirk of the blog, Mamas Garden Ramblings: Life and Times on the Not-So Urban Farm, proving that jumping around like a crazed 4th grader influences the random integer generator in positive ways.

Congratulations! Email your contact information to crunchychickenblog@gmail.com and I will have Big Dipper send the candles out to you directly!

Last minute handmade holiday gift run-down

Still squirreling around looking for last minute Christmas gifts? Well, here are some posts from the past with quick gifts you can make that will surely please!

Chocolate Covered Candied Orange Peels - I didn't make any this year and I'm sure there will be lots of complaints.

Caramel Covered Homemade Marshmallows - Doing the caramel is a bit tricky so if you want to skip it, the marshmallows just by themselves are divine.

Salted Chipotle Chocolate Chunk Cookies - I still can't get over how awesome these cookies are. If you like spicy, then double the chipotle!

Douglas Fir Infused Gin - Get your holiday drink on with a little help from your Christmas tree.

Peppermint Bark - This is awfully dangerous to have around the house, but way easy to make.

Book review by the Non-Toxic Nest

I don't know how I missed this, but between Thanksgiving and the Dad drama, I didn't spot this review of my book, The Non-Toxic Avenger, until just yesterday.

The Non-Toxic Nest bills itself as "investigating everyday toxins & going green in New Zealand" so it seems very fitting that the author of the blog read my book and did a review. She gives a very honest review of what she liked and didn't like about my book.

If you have time, check it out! Also, don't forget to enter the Big Dipper beeswax candle giveaway if you haven't seen it yet.

Thanks to other bloggers who are reading my book and hosting reviews! And, for everyone, if you read my book and have an Amazon account, can you please leave a short review? Thanks!

Other blog reviews of my book:
Skruben - The Non-Toxic Avenger
Nature Moms - The Non-Toxic Avenger Book Review
Backyard Farms - Books for Blustery Days
Skruben - My Less-Toxic Life List

Big Dipper Waxworks Holiday Candle giveaway!

If you are like me, you worry about the nasty toxins found in conventional candles. Most candles are made with paraffin, which is a petroleum product, and even if the manufacturer claims it's made from beeswax, you need to look for 100% beeswax candles. The rest is just paraffin filler. Not to mention that many candles made overseas are chock full of lead in their wicks. It's a lung polluting disaster in the making.

Last year, I did a giveaway from local beeswax candle maker, Big Dipper Waxworks, and they sent me some samples of their products. Since I love their beeswax candles so much, I asked if they were interested in doing another reader giveaway for the holidays and they were!

Here's some more information about beeswax, Big Dipper candles and the scandalous lack of regulations and ingredients disclosure (my emphasis):

Beeswax is 100% natural and a renewable resource that actually cleans the air by emitting purifying negative ions.

Most candles are made with paraffin, a petroleum by-product, which is not natural and is unhealthy to burn. To prepare it for candle making, it is chemically bleached and hardened, then artificially scented. Burning paraffin emits harmful, black soot and pollutes the air.

Currently, there are no regulations in the U.S. on disclosing ingredients on candle labels. You may find candles labeled "beeswax" that are made with paraffin, or other candle waxes, and contain as little as 1% beeswax. Big Dipper Waxworks is very proud to say that they use 100% beeswax in all of their candles, with the exception of a select few that are a blend of 50% beeswax and 50% soy wax, and are noted as such.

The Giveaway
So, here I offer to one lucky winner, a holiday gift set of fabulous candles, worth over $45. Absolutely no fragrance or synthetic scents are used.

Included in this giveaway are:

2 Beeswax Ornament candles (each has a burn time of over 40 hours)
1 Beehive candle in Holiday Spice (burn time of over 35 hours)

How to Enter
If you are interested in entering this random drawing, add your name to the comments of this post. You get bonus points for liking the Crunchy Chicken on Facebook. Just let me know if you're a fan of the page in your comments.

You have until midnight PST, Friday, December 16th, to enter. And, now for the legal mumbo jumbo: This giveaway is open to U.S. residents, 18+ only. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Winner will be selected Saturday, December 17th and will have 2 days to respond.

For More Information
If you are interested in learning more information about candles and their potential toxicity, check out my book, The Non-Toxic Avenger: What you don't know can hurt you.

Warning: I was in no way compensated for this post by the company outside of samples received.

Town Hall Seattle Book Launch and Event

It seems like every real high point in my life is tempered with some dreadful low. Since my book was released in mid-November, I should be riding a wave of tremendous highs with book signings, radio interviews and other speaking engagements. Instead, I've been riding a wave of tremendous turmoil since my father passed away suddenly on November 30th. I think this is some karmic way for me to stay humble. Or something.

In any event, in spite of the ups and downs, I'm pulling on the upswing and am extremely excited to announce that my Town Hall Seattle book event/launch and signing is still going full speed ahead. On December 12th, I'll be doing a 40 minute or so talk about my book followed by a Q & A and book signing as part of the Future of Health Series at Town Hall. The event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm and will be taped by our local NPR station (KUOW) for their Speaker's Forum show.

The University Bookstore (from the University of Washington) will be there selling my book as will WA Toxics Coalition. They will be tabling the event, offering additional information about toxins in the environment and in the products you use. They were instrumental in providing feedback for getting my body burden testing done as well as providing the resources for doing the XRF testing of consumer products that I discuss in my book.

I have a few more organizations that may be supporting the event as well. They are not yet confirmed so I don't want to mention them, but I will in the next week. I also have a list of very exciting radio interviews and TV interviews and book signings on the horizon that I will announce as they are confirmed.

But, make no mistake, my Dad is always on my mind and I dedicate all of this to him. He would have been very proud.

If you live in the Seattle area, I hope to see you there! Did I mention there will be beer and wine?

Dealing with death

I'd like to pretend as if I could just continue posting as if nothing is going on in my life right now, but I can't. The last week has been a horrible one and I can't not talk about it.

Last Tuesday I found out that my Dad had a heart attack while driving home. He hit the car in front of him and the other driver called 911 when he saw my Dad. The EMTs had to break the window to get him out before they could administer CPR.

To make a very long story short, he is in a coma. It took too long for them to get to him and start CPR and he has lost all of his upper brain function. Last night they took out the ventilator and he is breathing on his own. There is no hope that he will wake up. It is only a matter of time before he passes.

Right now, he'd normally be reading this post. He and I didn't always agree on the things I write about and when he saw something he disagreed with he always let me know. It was good to get a different perspective from someone on the other side of the aisle, just to keep that in mind when I approach an issue.

We had a lot in common too, the pictures in this post are of his beloved banana plants and the orchids he doted on in his San Diego backyard. He also took loving care of a family of hummingbirds that lived among his tropical oasis.

You can see more of his plants, hummingbirds and backyard in this video I did on Backyard Tropical Fruit Trees from two years ago. He coached me on many of the details I shared regarding the banana plants. It was also the last time I saw him.

We've had a complicated relationship over the years, one that got substantially better since I had kids. He was always great about making sure he didn't forget about their birthdays and Christmas and made sure he got them exactly what they wanted, which meant a lot to me. I didn't tell him often enough and I hope he knew that.

He will be severely missed. I love you Dad.

Non-Toxic Avenger: book review on Skruben

Anne, the mastermind behind Seattle Sundries soaps, has a book review up on her blog of my book, The Non-Toxic Avenger: What you don't know can hurt you. We did a little book to soap barter a week or so ago and, while she's been enjoying my book, I've been enjoying a little Sasquatchin' in the shower. Don't tell my husband.

In any case, go check out the book review. It's got a great perspective coming from your "average" consumer (i.e. not a nutball like me), and you can also find out how my book "will simultaneously educate, motivate and scare the wrinkle-resistant pants off of you".

Spatchcocking the turkey

Okay, so we aren't truly spatchcocking our turkey for Thanksgiving this year. I just can't help myself and must use this term. And, while we are "removing the backbone and sternum of the bird and flattening it out before cooking", we are really just, more or less, parting it out for brining, searing and braising. Just not so much on the flattening bit.

The last few years we haven't gotten around to ordering a local heritage turkey but have still managed to get an organic, heritage free-range turkey through our local co-op. The bird is not local, but it's close enough. And, I'm more interested in supporting a farm that raises heritage turkeys - that is, birds that can still procreate on their own - and then grow them with sustainability in mind.

What method of turkey cooking are you doing this year? That is, if you do turkey? Are you opting for a heritage breed?

Image courtesy of Martha Stewart Living.

Chopping down the hood

Last Tuesday, I was working from home. Or, rather, trying to work from home. Our neighbor down the street was having a giant tree removed from their front yard, which caused a considerable amount of noise from all the sawing and ground shattering that was going on.

From the looks of it, it appeared to be an old growth tree that was extremely tall. I can understand why they were having it removed. It occupied a great deal of their front yard as well as blocking the light to their house as well as the neighbor's. Additionally, I'm sure the size of the tree added to the dangers of limb damage since we live in a pretty windy area of Seattle.

I was sad to see it go - it was a beautiful pine tree and the landscape looks totally different now. I could gauge the weather based on how much swaying was going on with that tree. And, now I can see far too much of that aqua colored home than before. I prefer to be looking at that huge tree.

The tree service that cut it down left quite a bit of it in our neighbor's driveway, most of the pieces being cross sections of the trunk. Yesterday, Emma and I wandered over to take a closer look and count the tree rings. I was completely surprised to see that there were only 56 rings on this tree. I figured it to be much older, but it makes sense that it was planted when the homes around here were built. Our house was built in 1956 and I believe the homes on the street behind us weren't built much earlier.

Anyway, I hope our neighbors get plenty of benefit from the warmth in wood this giant tree now provides them. We've got several oversized trees on this street that I'm sure will meet a similar fate in years to come.

Behavior Intervention Plan general goals

I've spent a little too much time this last week talking with the school, the principal and the special educators and the teachers. This week we met to nail down a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) to help deal with some of the behavioral issues my son has been having at school, most directly related to his anxiety, OCD and avoidance of difficult tasks/situations.

Anyway, I wrote up ten goals that I wanted to make sure were addressed in the BIP. Primarily, I wanted my son to have a positive behavior support plan that provides him an environment where he can achieve.

When I met with the general ed teachers and special ed teachers yesterday, one of them stated how much she really liked what I scoped out and printed it out for use for all her students' BIP planning. I know few of my regular readers have any need for this, but I thought I'd share it for those of you out on the Interwebs who need similar guidance.

The goals of the Behavior Intervention Plan are that it:

1. is proactive rather than reactive
2. addresses and outlines the root causes of the student's behavior, focusing on the interpersonal and environmental triggers (attention seeking, avoidance, anxiety provoking, difficult tasks)
3. minimizes the above triggers
4. identifies adaptive skills for each type of trigger - how to coach student on how to behave differently with concrete examples; breaking problem tasks down into smaller, more manageable "chunks"
5. teaches adaptive skills so when student does encounter a trigger he knows what to do
6. reinforces the adaptive skills throughout the day before he encounters a trigger
7. looks at the effectiveness of consequences imposed - do they meet the goals laid out above? does it review the event and how he could have behaved differently?
8. instills trust in adults at school and provides a safe environment for him and others
9. provides a system for earning points as motivator for appropriate behavior / making good choices and one that also rewards for changing "unexpected" behavior to "expected" behavior
10. provides a streamlined method of communication of points earned to parents for extrinsic reward

I'll be back to regular posting here once things settle down on the homefront.

Plucked and pecked

Poor Chloe. The other day I noticed that Sara, the big blonde pushy Orpington, was pecking at her bald spots (from molting), making her bleed. The little vampire seemed to be enjoying the taste of blood. I spent hours reading up on what to do if the behavior continued, since I know that chickens will potentially just peck each other to death if left unattended.

Fortunately, Chloe is smarter than Sara and was spending most of her time up in the coop, away from Sara, who spends most of her time in the run during the day. I made sure everyone had plenty of food and water in both areas and that kept them apart long enough.

I checked on Chloe the next day and didn't see the bloody spots and noticed her new feathers were coming in nicely and were providing protection. I looked her over to make sure no new bloody spots had appeared. When I looked yesterday her new feathers were sprouting like mad - she looks like she's covered in long quills. Long and poky enough to keep Sara's beak out. Damn vampire chicken.

Have any of you experienced this problem with chicken cannibalism? What did you do?

Book review by Tiffany of Nature Moms

Tiffany just posted a review of my book, The Non-Toxic Avenger. It gives a straightforward look at what it's all about, including some criticisms as well. But it will give you a good idea of what to expect.

It's always nerve wracking reading reviews and this is one of the first coming in. I look forward to the rest, both good and bad!

Here's a snippet:

"What makes all of it infinitely more interesting is that you are not reading a dry list of factoids. The information is shared much the same way a friend would tell you about what she discovered when she researched this and that and what it meant to their lives and health. I especially loved that she got household items tested with an XRF gun. A necklace she frequently wore tested way over the federal limit for lead, as did a charm on a bracelet her daughter wore. A PC laptop charger tested high for bromine levels but a Mac charger tested with no detectable levels. A small sampling of items tested raised a lot or red flags and made her wonder about other things in her home. It just goes to show that all those government regulations can end up meaning diddly squat in the end."

Click on the graphic to check out the rest of the review!

Non-Toxic Avenger book winner

I'm very excited to announce the winner of my book, The Non-Toxic Avenger: What you don't know can hurt you, which will be available in stores at end of November 2011 from New Society Publishers. I've already given a way a few copies to friends and family so I can't wait to hear from the lucky winner who is...

Kristijoy!

Congratulations! Email your contact information to crunchychickenblog@gmail.com and I will mail the signed copy of the book out to you directly!