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With the season of baking in full swing, we need to be reminded of a few proper food handling techniques that can make a healthier holiday season and less trips to the urgent-care for tummy troubles.  There are also a number of seasonal favorites that require either special ingredients or a specific handling method that I’ve found ways to make healthier.

I recently saw a news report discussing the importance of not eating cookie dough.   As you may know cookie dough contains raw egg which has been linked to salmonella outbreaks in the past.  However, the flour itself has recently been found to have traces of E. Coli.  This is especially important with prepared, refrigerated cookie dough which can often be mistaken as safe because of quality control during production. Consumers should also be aware of pre-made dough, since these products go through the same basic process as at home, only on a much larger scale.   It’s also important to clean the surfaces the cookie has come in contact with to prevent cross-contamination.

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Since I’m on the topic of egg safety, let’s not forget a seasonal favorite, Eggnog.  While I find it a guilty pleasure for the calories, I’d love to make this myself but didn’t know how to do so safely. The idea is to cook the eggs well, at least to 160 degrees and chill well overnight afterwards. I found a delicious recipe that avoids any contamination issues, and one that is kid friendly.  Let me know how your works out in the comment box below.  Enjoy!

Check out the video here.

I don’t know how he did it because the bottle was so BIG, but my son dumped ultra bleach all over the laundry room floor. I happen to have a nice sized laundry room (yay) but it happened to be a day with dirty laundry all over the floor (boo.) The dark clothes took it the worst. The bleach ate clean through (lame pun intended to cheer me up) a heavy denim skirt- making it streaking sickly yellow in color and weakening the fabric to shreds. A nice blue terry robe is now spotted and I expect the spots to weaken to holes in a few washings, too. I threw a bunch of stuff away, thanking G-d Above that no precious child got hurt. I was in the same area of the house but I was not in the laundry room itself when this all went down. Guardian angels must abound in my house, but this little incident really shook me up as a mom.

I “wiki”-ed bleach and this is what I came up with, in addition to the feeling of: “Whoh – I paid money to bring this into the house??!!” I made a mental note not to buy bleach anymore.

Since bleaches are strong oxidizing agents, they can be quite hazardous, especially when reacted with other common household chemicals. Chlorine is a respiratory irritant that attacks mucous membranes and burnsppm can be detected as an odour, and 1000 ppm is likely to be fatal after a few deep breaths. Exposure to chlorine has been limited to 0.5 ppm (8-hour time-weighted average – 40 hour week) by OSHA^[2] to the skin.

Sodium hypochlorite and ammonia react to form a number of products, depending on the temperature, concentration, and how they are mixed. ^[3]. The main reaction is chlorination of ammonia, first giving chloramine (NH₂Cl), then NHCl₂ and finally nitrogen trichloride (NCl₃). These materials are very irritating to eyes and lungs and are toxic above certain concentrations.

The warning labels should be printed bigger, I guess. I imagine there are some good uses for bleach. Like killing anthrax spores, according to the EPA. Which it was used for in October 2001.

But I also searched for bleach alternatives and I’d just as soon use them, especially with the good of my children in mind.