Author: Tammy Litke

With holiday entertaining upon us, NSF International has developed the following tips to help make sure that food poisoning doesn’t join your party as an unwelcome guest:

At the store…

· Shop inside to outside. Most grocery stores have their nonperishable products in the center of the store and their perishable products around the outside perimeter.

There are days I’m so thankful that I no longer work a 9 to 5 job, with just two fifteen minute coffee breaks. I get to have coffee break whenever I want to by blogging….and believe me, it’s a whole lot more than just two!

I have a ‘Coffee Bar’ set up in my dining room with coffee machines, a proliferation of hot and cold beverage flavors, sugars, creamers and syrups. And the other day I added to them a couple of Torani Syrups for some more fun to stir into my caffeine choices.

A number of months ago I shared with you about the Filtrete Odor Reduction Filter. It was something I was really wanting to try out myself because we are currently trying to sell our home and I know that the less unwanted odors we have lingering around the better.

I have a super sensitive nose, if people really had super powers, mine would be ‘super sniffer’! I prefer the good odors (obviously!), but actually having a keen sense of smell has saved us on more than one occasion, from very burnt food to a potential dryer fire hazard.

With Giving Tuesday (Nov. 27) fast approaching, people are concentrating on what they can do to give back to their favorite cause this holiday season. Well, they don’t have to look far. Through goodsearch, more than 15 million people are turning their everyday actions into ways to “simply do good.” Here’s how:

Goodsearch.com: Each time someone searches the internet with goodsearch.com (powered by Yahoo!), about a penny is raised for the charity or school of their choice! You use it exactly as you would any other search engine.

Have you had a chance to see WRECK-IT RALPH in the theaters yet? My family and I saw it, and my daughter just loved it. She’s a HUGE video game lover (that’s what she’s planning on going to college for, video game design), and so she was completely enthralled with it. She actually said that Wreck-It Ralph usurped her favorite Disney animated movie, which up to now has been Mulan.

D23 is the world’s only official Disney fan club – and a Gold ($74.99) or Silver ($34.99) membership is a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious gift idea for any Disney Fanatic!

Taking its name from 1923, the year Walt Disney founded his world-famous company, D23 brings its members a host of exclusive benefits.

Some highlights of the memberships include:

I am sharing on behalf of the International Carwash Association (ICA) to offer you these great tips for getting your car ready for winter. ICA, through its Wash With WaterSavers consumer awareness campaign, is committed to promoting the importance of using eco-friendly carwashes that use less fresh water and return clean water back into the environment.

To help you get better prepared, they’ve created these 5 Tips to Getting Your Car Ready For Winter:

This recipe comes from a Woman’s World magazine. It’s phenomenally easy and these rich chocolaty confections have a surprise inside. For holiday gatherings you could of course do red/green/white sprinkles, or tint the vanilla flavored candy quick a different color. Add a seasonal flavor of Hershey’s Kiss in the middle for extra fun!

I’m not exactly sure why, but everyone loves anything that’s “mini”! Great desserts like cupcakes, cake pops, bite sized cookies, petit fours. Maybe it’s because you feel like you can try more that way, or you convince yourself it has less calories 😉 Or maybe it’s just because they are so cute! But whatever the reason, petite treats are generally a hit!

Petite Treats is a great recipe book to get you on your way to making smaller versions of enjoyable desserts. Your inner sweet tooth is going to go crazy over it.

Happy almost Thanksgiving! Before we know it, the holidays will be upon us. And, with that means the hustle and bustle of shopping, parties, school events and trying to check things off our holiday to-do lists. One thing you want to be sure of this season is that you don’t forget the batteries for those electronic holiday gifts With Energizer_® MAX_® batteries with Power Seal Technology you can have the confidence in knowing you will have power when you need it most throughout the holidays and beyond. These new batteries hold their power for up to 10 years on shelf! Power Seal Technology takes reliable performance to a new level.