This week we have some great holiday tips, extra yummy food, and Val gives us the low down on aromatherapy and essential oils.

Dori's Remodel
The remodel is going well. The bones of the house are in place, and it is looking good. Dori just bought herself (and her 4 kids) a new washer and dryer from LG (Life's Good).

The Beer
This week we are trying Prohibition Ale from Speak Easy Lagers. You can find out more information about them at goodbeer.com.

The Chocolate
We are sampling one of Val's favorite chocolates, Chocolove Raspberries in Dark Chocolate Bar. We highly recommend you try this one.

The Popcorn?
Dori brought us a new product (at least new to us) to try. It is Orville Redenbacher's Organic Popping Corn. It is so new we couldn't find it on the web (perhaps Chico is a test market). Tell your local supermarket you want to try it. We did find a bit more information on it, so hopefully you will find that useful. Click here to learn more.

Holiday Tips
Getting your Silverware Clean - Easy to make cleaning recipes - We got these from Natural Home and Garden Magazine
Silverware Cleaner
Items Needed:

• Large glass baking pan
• 1/2 cup baking soda
• Recycled Aluminum Foil
• Boiling Water

Boil the water. Line the Pan with the recycled aluminum foil (regular foil will work, too). Put the silverware in the pan, making sure it's touching the foil. Cover the silverware with the baking soda. Immerse the silverware with the boiling water. Dry with a soft cloth. This should get rid of 80-100% of the tarnish.

Silverware Polish
Items Needed:

• 1 Cup Baking Soda
• 1/4 Cup Water

Place Baking soda in a non-reactive container, add water and mix well. Lightly dampen a cotton cloth and work a generous amount of paste into the surface, rub tarnished area, rinse and dry.

Wrapping Presents - We got this one from Natural Home and Garden too.

• Crush old wrapping paper, then open it back up. Do this a few times until the wrapping paper is soft. The texture is beautiful on the packages.
• Wrap your present in old sheet music from garage sales or antique stores.
• Use brown paper and stamps to decorate your package.
• For large items consider a pillow case with ribbon.
• Recycled wallpaper (We recommend not using vinyl wallpaper).
• For Baubles, beads and tags use game pieces, antique keys, seashells, beads, soda bottle tops, string raphia, or recycled yarn.

Send your holiday tips to hip@greenfeet.com.

Essential Oil Basics
Defining the Term Essential Oil Essential oils are concentrated aromatic liquids extracted from a variety of aromatic plant material through the process of steam distillation, cold-press or CO2 methods. Essential oils are organic substances that the plant produces to protect itself from disease and pests and in some cases, to attract pollinators such as bees.

An example of a plant producing a number of essential oils would be the bitter orange tree. The leaves produce Pettigrain essential oil, the blooms produce Neroli essential oil (one of Val all-time faves) and the skin of the fruit produces bitter orange essential oil.

What are Essential Oils good for? Everything. We'll be getting into more specific details in future shows, but in general essential oils are used for everything from cooking to stress reduction, treating colds and flu to treating depression. They're truly amazing.

How do you smell an Essential Oil? Remember that essential oils are concentrated forms of the plants volatile compounds - in other words, they're potent. Simply hold the bottle 4-5 inches away from your nose and move the bottle back and forth gently inhaling the contents. Essential oils can also be used on the skin - we'll cover that in future shows.

To find out more about essential oils visit the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy at www.naha.org

Listener Emails
As always thank you so much for all of your emails. We love hearing from you and appreciate your feedback, even if you don't agree with us... like Michael.
No to CFLs? Michael emailed us and told us his opinion on why we should not be using CFLs. We appreciate his point of view, but we are sticking by our reasoning.
Reusable Bags: Mike (a different Mike) told us he likes to use his man purse (backpack) as a replacement for paper or plastic. Dori also told us about another option made from recycled Sails. Check them out at seabags.com.
Coffee Beer: JanesDaddy told us about this one. We don't know what to think about this, but anything to do with beer is worth investigating further.

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