Ms. Nickel would like to remind you that there are still three more weeks to enter this the Wish List Anniversary sweepstakes. We hope you’ll try your luck this holiday weekend!  

There are still five weeks of fabulous prizes to be given away in the Wish List 10th Anniversary Sweepstakes, including trips, diamonds, and an extra-special finale in week 10. 

Still up for grabs:

Week 8 (Nov. 23-29): High-Def Heaven Wish List — A 55-inch HDTV, a Blu-ray home theater, and a Wii

Week 9 (Nov. 30-Dec. 6): Glamorous Life Wish List — A stunning set of 1½-carat diamond stud earrings

Week 10 (Dec. 7-12): This one is under wraps until Dec. 7!

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How do you decide which cookbook is one of the best kids cookbooks? The market for kids cookbooks are reaching over thousands of books to choose from.

Look for These Factors When Choosing a Kids Cookbook

• What age is your kid chef?

• Can your kid chef read?

• Is this for fun or to learn about healthy eating?

• Is the cookbook for cooking with kids or cooking for kids?

Keep these questions in mind while you are shopping for a kids cookbook.

Here are some of the best kids cookbooks we’ve found. Please take a moment and submit your favorite kids cookbook below.

Best Kids Cookbooks for Younger Chefs (under 12)

For younger chefs they love to look through cookbooks with lots of pictures and pick out something that interests them or attracts their eye.

Best Teenage Cookbooks

For teens it is great for them to have cookbooks that they can look through and create real meals as well as snacks or desserts.

For Parents Cooking for Kids

What is your favorite cookbook?

Please leave a comment below.

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My husband thinks he’s Jerry Seinfeld. I asked him if he had any ideas about how to save money this Thanksgiving, and he said “How about we steal a turkey from our neighbors?”. That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind but it definitely made me laugh. In the past, I’ve always hosted Thanksgiving and each year it’s gotten more over the top. This year, I’m going to trim it back a little and see if we still have fun. Here are some of my ideas for saving money while pulling off a proper Thanksgiving Dinner.

Decorations and Décor – Rather than running to the store for flower arrangements, place cards and that extra place setting of china, see if you can “make do” with things you have around the house. I’ve seen combined china settings in all of the magazines this year so don’t worry about being matchy-matchy. If you have kids, have them make the place cards with construction paper or stationery. Their young handwriting will look charming on the table. For the centerpiece, use a large vase with some fall-colored branches or group some candles, gourds and mini pumpkins along a pretty runner.

Drinks – If you’re serving a bunch of wine guzzlers (my family’s ideas of a wine pour is absolutely to the top of the glass – oh well, we’re Irish), you’ll need to economize on what you choose to pour. This month’s Woman’s Day magazine suggested an Austrailian Chardonnay called Black Opal (2008) and the Columbia Crest Sauvignon Blanc (2008) for around $8.00 a bottle. For reds, they recommend the Red Diamond Shiraz and the Jargon Pinot Noir (2007) as very drinkable reds at about $10. If you want to serve something clean and crisp at the dinner table, I like Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Blanc (2004) which you can pick up at Bevmo for around $15 and pour with confidence.

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For me, feeling that something is clean is closely related to its smell. Take the leading name-brand laundry detergent, for example. I LOVE the smell that it gives to the clothes. Unfortunately, my son and I are severely allergic to the perfumes that give it its fragrant scent. In cleaning the home, I also love the smell of bleach and lemon-scented furniture polish, but are they the best products to use in our fragile environment?

There are other cleaners on the market that claim to be “green”. Whole Foods has some that are fabulous, though paying $8.00 for a bottle of cleaner seems excessive. Chlorox is also trying to be more “green” with its line called Green Works, which I actually use (when I can get it on a club card discount). But for this holiday’s housecleaning, let’s rub some nickels and talk about the tried and true natural cleaners that we know are safe to breathe and will be safe going down the drain.

According to Whole Foods Magazine “simple ingredients like soap, water, baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, borax and a coarse scrubbing sponge can take care of most household cleaning needs“. So how, specifically, should we use these household items?

Glass Cleaner – Use ½ white vinegar and ½ water.

Oven Cleaner – Make a paste of baking soda, salt and hot water.

Wood Polish – Mix two parts olive oil with one part lemon juice.

Floor Cleaner (ceramic, stone, marble and tile) – Add 2 tsp. of liquid dish soap to a bucket of warm water.

To Brighten Your White Tablecloth – Tie up the peel of one lemon into a cheesecloth and add it to your washer.

Using these natural products will make you feel much better when your kids drop food on the floor and use the “five second rule” or your dog licks the inside of the oven while you’re bent over cleaning it. We hope you have a green and clean holiday.

Darcy Ratner, MPH, lives in the Bay Area and is trained in Community Health Sciences.

References: Country Home magazine, April 2008, p. 34, and Whole Foods Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2.

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GasBuddy.com can help you find cheap gas prices in your city. In total, they have 204 websites to help you find low gasoline prices in most metropolitan areas. You can also post gas prices that you see to the gasbuddy.com site and have a chance of winning gas cards and other prizes. If you fill up a 20 gallon tank and save 25 cents per gallon, you can put $5.00 in your Wish Jar.

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Save 15% When You
Spend $75 or More.
Use Promo Code 19377.

This blog is from our friends at www.cityhammer.com who are our Guest Authors this week.

Everyone talks about Spring Cleaning, but its oft-neglected cousin, Fall Cleaning, should be on every homeowner’s to-do list right now. Some of these tips apply to people in houses as opposed to apartments and cityhammer.com is proud to announce our new category of Pro’s who handle roofing, siding, windows and more. In the fall, many contractors have a shorter lead time for new jobs so they can get in for an estimate and to do the actual work much faster than at other times during the year. So now that the days are getting shorter and we’re spending more time at home (suffering through another Jets or Giants season), it’s a great time to tackle these 5 maintenance and improvement projects before winter.

• Duct Cleaning: This fall and even more so during the holidays, there is nothing like spending quality time indoors with the family. But now, keep in mind you are all breathing the same air and that air is circulating through the ducts of your home. What else besides air is trapped or lingering in the ducts? Because you really don’t even want to know, get your ducts cleaned for only a few hundred dollars. This involves a super-powered vacuum being hooked to your intake vent so that whatever’s in your ducts will be sucked or swept away. Now take a deep breath and enjoy yourself.

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