Review: Eco-friendly cleaning

It's been a while (cough, cough) since I posted, so I figured I should make a return by reviewing the organic and/or eco-friendly cleaning supplies I've been using recently.

Bentley's Organic Kitchen and Surface Cleaner (cost around £3 or US$5)
This is a spray bottle and works like your regular store-bought cleaner. Spray on and wipe. The first time I used it, I was amazed at the grease-cutting abilities. I've been using Ajax (which I believe is known as Comet in North America) and Skona, a Swedish brand, before this. I've also tried vinegar and baking soda mixtures of various kinds. Comparatively, the Bentley's spray cuts through greas, smells good and I can't find a single horrible ingredient in the ingredient list:

Bentley Organic Kitchen Cleaner - Ingredients:
Aqua, Decyl Glucoside, Lauryl Betaine, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice Powder* Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, Glycerin, Citrus Grandis (Grapefruit) Extract, Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Extract, Citrus Sinensis (Sweet Orange), Extract Citrus Reticulata (Tangerine) Extract, Ascorbic Acid, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis Peel Oil*
* Certified Organically Grown Ingredient

GoodGuide.com gives the spray an 8 out of 10 for the entire product (10 for ingredient disclosure, 10 for level of health concern of ingredients and 8 on other negative aspects). Their objection seems to be the chemicals used to produce bergamot oil. The rating is not complete with both social, health and environement status.

The product promises to kill 99,9% of E.coli, Listeria and Salmonella, but I don't know how much I believe that, mainly because I haven't read the study/studies that they've made to be able to write that on the packaging. All in all though, it works very well on most stains. My cooker may sometimes need extra scrubbing to get rid of dry food or water stains, but scrubbing with a sugar cube solves that easily.

Bentley's Organic Mild Washing Up Liquid (cost around £3 or US$5)
It smells great and cleans good, but I'm not thrilled. The liquid is certainly liquid, and personally I find it too watery. I find it doesn't clean the most difficult greasy pots and pans, but plates, cutlery and glasses come out good. Because it's so watery though, I've had to resort to my regular Yes (Fairy) washing up liquid for most of my dishes. I'm mainly using the Bentley's for cutting boards and the frying pan. The reason is that it's easy to grab and use for the frying pan, and it also claims to kill 99,9% of E.coli, Listeria and Salmonella. Despite doubting this, if it kills a little germs on my cutting boards, I'll be happy enough.

Personally I found nothing wrong with the ingredients:

Aqua (Water), Lauryl Betaine, Decyl Glucoside, Coco-Glucoside, Glycerin, Citrus Grandis (Grapefruit) Seed Extract, Citrus Grandis (Grapefruit) Fruit Extract, Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Extract, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Fruit Extract, Citrus Tangerina (Tangerine) Extract, Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe Vera) Leaf Juice  Powder*, Citrus Medica Limonium (Lemon) Peel Oil*, Citrus Aurantifolia (Lime) Oil*, Limonene*, Citral*, Xantham Gum, Lactic Acid, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate
* Certified Organically Grown Ingredient

... but GoodGuide.com says otherwise. They give the product a 4 out of 10 (10 for ingredient disclosure, 8 for level of health concern of ingredients and 4 on other negative aspects). They object to the chemicals used to produce lime oil and citral, as well as stating that D-limonene is a medium health concern, and citral a low health concern. The rating is not complete with both social, health and environement status.

I won't be buying this product again, I'm afraid. My main reason is it's watery consistency, and I'll be trying another organic brand soon instead.

Ecover Toilet Bowl Cleaner
I find this cleaner does the job well. I squirt it in, brush a little, leave it while I clean the rest of the bathroom and then I go back, brush again and flush. Despite having hard water, Ecover does okay. My only objection is that the scent (which is supposed to be Ocean Waver or something) is so, so strong. It smells like someone drowned themselves in aftershave in my bathroom. The smell goes away after a little while, but I had a migraine last week and spent some time on the bathroom floor or hanging over the toilet bowl, and I could clearly smell the toilet bowl cleaner at that distance, despite it being a few days since I'd used it.

Aqua, Citric acid, Lauryl glucoside, Sodium citrate, Xanthan gum, Fragrance, Sodium benzoate, Linalool (allergen), Limonene (allergen)

Again the ingredient list looks okay to me, but GoodGuide disagrees. They give the product a rating of 6.2, which is pretty okay for a toilet bowl cleaner. It makes the product number 495 out of the 1440 household cleaners they have rated. They give it 4 on health, 8 on enviroment and 6.5 on society. They object to sodium benzoate and linalool as mild health concerns, and to limonene as a medium health concern. I have to say I'm impressed by the ingredient list above, which came straight off of Ecover's homepage, for pointing out linalool and limonene as allergens.

This bottle is probably going to last me the better part of the year, but as I said above, I think next time I'll buy something else because of the scent.

Soapnuts
These are nuts from India, which contain saponine. Previously, I've used them for the better part of a year, I was very happy using them (notes on why I quit later). They clean the fabric well, leave my clothes soft and easy to iron, and are generally good stuff. Because I have hard water and large machines in the basement, I had to use up to six or eight nuts per wash. I'd use the nuts three or eight times before throwing them away, though, so that was very easy and cheap. For someone with a smaller machine or smaller loads, or soft water, four to six nuts per load should work well. Fat stains and grass stains needed rubbing with soap first, but generally came out clean.

In the end though, we got pets, and I realized they are horrible at getting pet hair off of my clothes, so I had to go back to store-bought laundry detergent. I'll be buying and using soapnuts again soon though, because the store-bought laundry detergent is just about as crap at getting the pet hair off my clothes, and I'd rather use laundry nuts in that case. I can't make my own laundry detergent as some of my American friends can, because Swedish law states that I can't release borax into the environment (borax, if I'm not mistaken, can cause fertility issues and fetal injuries).

So - back to soapnuts it is!

I'm going to continue to try different organic and eco-friendly cleaning agents, and hopefully I'll remember to post reviews of them here afterwards. I will say I'm not too fond of elbowgrease and scrubbing (which I had to do lots of when I tried homemade versions with washing up liquid, baking soda and vinegar), so I'll be looking for an eco-friendly cleaner that does the job as well or better than a normal one.

Gooey Chocolate Muffins

On Wednesday I had an interview for a job I've really, really wanted and in the afternoon, the phone rang with the news that I got it! So to celebrate, I made gooey chocolate muffins, filled them with raspberry topping and had a glass of cider with that.



Here is the recipe for the muffins, unfortunately it doesn't translate well into cups and oz, so you'll have to do with the metric version. Makes about 12 muffins:

100 g butter
2 eggs
2 1/2 dl sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanillasugar (if you haven't got any, ignore it or put some vanillabean in casters sugar over night and use that)
4 tbs cocoa powder
2 dl wheat flour, all-purpose
1/2 tsp baking powder
Melt the butter and stand aside. Set the oven for 200C. Whip egg and sugar till white, then add the dry ingredients. Stirr well, then stirr in the cooled butter. Fill the forms about halfway and put in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes. They shouldn't be cooked through, that's what'll make them gooey!

Then take them out and put them in the fridge. Mix ½ a pack (100g) of Philadelphia cream cheese and powdered sugar untill you get a soft, slightly fluffy paste. I think I had like 2dl of powdered sugar, but taste as you go along! Then mix in 1dl of thawed raspberries. Scoop into the muffins, which should have sunk in and formed small caves. Serve fridge-cold, with spoons.

The white ones on the picture are without raspberries and with vanillaessence, but they weren't half as good as the raspberry ones!

Resources

Since I was out of town this past weekend and didn't have time to do Friday Favorites. I thought I would share a couple links with you today.

Univerisity of California's Agricultural and Natural Resources Free Publications - They have so many great PDF's. I found myself reading and reading one afternoon.

Home Economics Archive - books and journals in Home Economics and related discipline titles that were published between 1850 and 1950 and selected for their great historical importance. This link was shared over on FetLife Domestic Servitude by our newest Domestic Servitude contributor Daphne.

Daphne had a couple guest posts. She is very passionate about her carbon footprint and all things green. And I know she is going to give a unique perspective on many domestic subjects.

Apple Butter

4lbs of apples (sour ones, preferably)
1 cup apple cider (alcohol between 2.25% and 4.5%)
1 lemon (juice and zest)
2 tbs cinnamon
1 tbs all spice (whole)
1 tbs cloves (whole)
~ 4 cups of sugar
A knife edge of salt.

(You need one big pot, a mesh sieve, a mortar and pestle, a ladle and measuring cups, six to eight 8oz jars)

Cut the apples in quarters, and dump in a pot, kernels and peels and all. Add the apple cider. Heat to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes until soft. Put clean and dry jars in the oven and heat it to 200F, boil the lids in water with a heavy boil for 10 minutes.

Mean while, grind the cloves and all spice with the mortar, to a fine powder.

Peek at the apples. If they're soft, put a bowl beneath the sieve, and pour the apples into the sieve. Grind them with the pestle, until all that's left in the sieve is peels and kernels and the apples are att the bottom. Scrape the bottom of the sieve.

Measure the apple pulp you now have. Add about ½ a cup of sugar per cup of apple pulp. Put the puple and sugar back on the stove, then stirr till the sugar has disolved. Add the spices, the salt, the lemon juice and zest.

Simmer for 10 minutes, then taste with a clean spoon (after using the spoon, put it in the dishwasher/sink and use a clean one again next time). Add more spices if you like.

Simmer while stirring until it's thick, which may take 30-40 minutes. Sieve again if you like, if the zest is in large pieces. Take out your jars. Then pour into *warm* sterilized jars and screw the lids on. Turn the jars upside down and cool them on the counter over the night. Mark the jars with content and today's date. Refridgerate. It should keep for at least 12 weeks in the fridge, and around 5-7 days after opening a jar as long as there's no fingers or used utensils poked into it. You can freeze it too, but use plastic containers for that.


Bio: I'm Daphne, and I'm a service-oriented submissive. I'm from Sweden, which is not to be confused with Switzerland - we don't make clocks or chocolate, nor do we wear leatherhosen. I've been in service for the past four years, to my Owner Mephisto. I love cooking, cleaning and organizing. My passion lies in making my Owner's life as pleasant and smooth as possible. I'm also a strong advocate for organic food without additives and cooking from scratch. I recycle, buy used and don't own a car, to minimize my carbon footprint. I'm studying for a Bachelor's in Culinary Arts and Meal Science

Kitchen Hygiene

Kitchen hygiene. How how I (sometimes) despiseth thou. Keeping a kitchen clean and hygenic can be quite the nightmare, sometimes. If it's not for you being sick, tired or overworked, there's little sticky hands looking for crackers and jam, or just Owners having midnight snacks. I know if I just look away for two seconds, it's suddenly full of packages, dishes, pots and pans, and I'm wondering where the heck they came from.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother. Then, just now, at school, we've gone through kitchen bacteria and food poisoning - suddenly I think I need to give my kitchen a good scrubdown. There are some main pointers to keep your kitchen hygenic and your food safe, and I'll try explain why they're important:

Heat everything to 70C (160F) - This will kill most bacteria, for example salmonella, campylobacter and staphylococus aureus. It's really important to know this if you have a poor immunesystem or children. Now, most greens and vegetables can be served cold and uncooked, but wash them carefully in that case. EHEC is a version of e. coli. which can in lead to a fatal disease in the elderly and in children. If you google "e. coli. child death", the 754.000 pages found are quite depressing.


Keep your kitchen dry and clean. - Bacteria thives on moist, warm surfaces. Normal room-temperature is plenty enough warmth for most bacteria to grow. Small flecks of soup or water on already dingy surfaces become a breeding ground, a nest, for all kinds of yucky stuff that we'd rather not think about. Tidy up, dry off and avoid the hazard.


Wash hands after cracking eggs or touching raw meat – with soap that you rub vigorously for 20 seconds. - Washing your hands is the one of the most important thing you can do while cooking. Properly washing you hands means removing all jewelry (which you shouldn't wear while cooking anyway - engravings on rings can be filled with gunk), wetting your hands and taking some soap. Then rubb vigorously while singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Remember between your fingers, under your nails and your cuticles - if you're baking, go up to your elbow. Rinse and dry off on a clean towel. If you touch raw meat, eggshells, your nose, sneeze, cough or accept something from your little one, you need to wash your hands again.


Wash all utensils promptly and always use fresh clean utensils between foods. - Don't touch cooked food with utensils that have just touched raw food. Don't use the same knife for all your ingredients. Wash and dry them in hot water with dishwashing liquid, dry and then go back. If one ingredient is contaminated, you will avoid contaminating the rest of them this way.


Never stick a finger in to taste, always use a fresh clean spoon. - I don't care how many spoons you have to wash. If you stick your finger in to have a taste, the food in the pot is contaminated. The end. Your mouth may carry Staphylocous aureus, and it may be on your skin. If whatever you're tasting is boiling, that's probably not a big problem, but for safety's sake - use a clean spoon every time and toss it in the sink after tasting.


Wash all cutting boards promply and buy new ones at least yearly. - Ah, yes. The cutting board issue. Wood or plastic? In my kitchen at school, we've one wood for vegetables and greens, and one plastic for meat, poultry and fish. That works out pretty well, since they won't contaminate each other. When your cutting board starts to get worn, get a new one. In one of those cracks, just as in your ring engraving, there may be hiding some nasty stuff that you can't get off. In the meanwhile, wash all cutting boards as soon as you're done. Hot, sudsy water works great, but do disenfect them from time to time, please?


Keep your fridge at 4C (39F) and your freezer at -18C (-1F). - 4C, or 40F, is the highest temperature allowed to store raw fish at (in Sweden). Fish should actually be stored at the point where ice starts melting, to keep the longest. But anyway, proper temperature in fridge and freezer will keep bacteria at a minimum. There are still bacteria that grow in fridge temperature, like Aeromonas Hydrophilas which is found in, among other things, freshwater fish, can grow in a fridge. When you take things out and the slowly heat up again, the bacteria growth increases. It does not, in anyway, decrease when the item is chilled again. It simply keeps growing, but slower.

Chill food rapidly, so that it reaces 4C (40F) within four hours. - A pot of beef stew can keep a core temp high for a long time, which is also oxygen free and clostridium perfringens mentioned above is having a field day. To avoid that window where bacteria can and does grow, you need to chill food rapidly. In winter, if you can, put it outside in snow and stirr ocationally. In summer, fill your sink with cold water and dump ice in it, then add the pot. Stirr about ever 15 minutes, so that it cools evenly. Add more ice and swap water as needed. Never EVER fall for the old custom of keeping a pot of soup or stew by the stove and reheating the entire thing when you want to eat, only to leave it to cool to room temperature on it's own.


Always reheat to 65C (150F), or serve at below 8C (46F). - Hot food is to be hot and cold food to be cold. That keeps you from that window where bacteria grows. Of course, eating food that's just cooled off on your plate is a rather low risk, but don't serve lukewarm food. Don't buy grilled chicken being kept warm, unless it's hot to the touch. Don't eat at a restaurant or buffé if you food is lukewarm.


Sanitize rags, dishcloths, sponges and brushes, knives and cuttingboards by submerging in bleach solution – two teaspoons of bleach to one quart of water for five minutes. - Or discard them, wash them or change them, as apprpriate. This keeps your utensils and cleaning tools ... well, clean. Sanitary. Hygenic. And all that good stuff. Weekly is a good idea, if not every few days.


Use rubbing alcohol on counter tops, in the fridge, on doors, door knobs, handles and lightfixtures. - ... and anywhere else you touch a lot, like the side of that door that you tend to swing shut behind you. You don't need to go crazy with the sanitizing - it's a home, not a hospital, after all. I'd suggest doing it ever once in a while or when spring and/or fall cleaning, anyway. Or after someone has had a flu or stomach bug. It's so easy to touch these places and not think about it when you return to cooking.

Of course, after writing about this, studying and breathing it for the past fourteen days, I'm a bit obsessive. However, I consider the above to be commonsense, normal guidelines for kitchen hygiene. So, being a good (pompous) example, I'm now off to clean the kitchen. Without a black-light or petry-dish, thank good God.


Bio: I'm Daphne, and I'm a service-oriented submissive. I'm from Sweden, which is not to be confused with Switzerland - we don't make clocks or chocolate, nor do we wear leatherhosen. I've been in service for the past four years, to my Owner Mephisto. I love cooking, cleaning and organizing. My passion lies in making my Owner's life as pleasant and smooth as possible. I'm also a strong advocate for organic food without additives and cooking from scratch. I recycle, buy used and don't own a car, to minimize my carbon footprint. I'm studying for a Bachelor's in Culinary Arts and Meal Science

Penny-pinching vs. Buying organic food

Here's one for the critics. Scenario: You're on a budget, so you're buying in bulk and as cheap as possible. You cut coupons and when you go to bed you consider if it's possible to make your children use cloth rags rather than toilet paper after pissing. Then you stumble across someone with an awesome personality, lots of knowledge and energy – we'll call this person Greta. Greta tells you about the poor, poor, starving children of Asia; the long, exhausting hours that created your low-priced t-shirts; the way Wall-Mart is just stealing customers from small businesses; the poison spewed out over your fresh greens every day by farmers and to top it all off, she goes into depth on the Evils of companies like Monsanto and McDonald's.

To be completely honest, I'm gonna be Greta. Sorry. But bear with me.

It's a moral and economical issue: do you follow Greta's call for you to buy locally produced, fair-trade and organic goods only – or do you penny-pinch? Is it even possible to do both?

I guess, if you live in an area where you're well known and liked, where there's lots of farmers, you could – theoretically – trade goods. ”Give me a five pound bag of your pork, Bill, and I'll make you a gallon of that cider you really like!” That would be cheap, and provided Bill lets his pigs walk outside and gives them only organic food, and you grow your organic apples and make great cider.

However, that idyllic life isn't true for most of us. We live busy lives, often far from farmers. So we must choose. Buying the cheapest cans of tomatoes when they're on sale is of course an option. Buying only the organic canned tomatoes from a Farmer's Market or Co-op is another. Growing and canning your own tomatoes is a third.

But why must we choose? Well, first of all, the world is decidedly heading towards globalism in one form or another. Whether you believe in the New World Order or just think that global-trade is happening, what we do on this side of the globe, affects another in some way. So when that farmer sprays his GMO-corn with Round-Up (don't get me started on Round-Up!), he's not affecting only his farm, his city, his state, his country, but in some way this entire world – probably on a rather miniscule scale though. Actions, therefore, have consequences.

Secondly, to have fresh vegetables all year round, they are often imported or otherwise travel really far. I live in Sweden, is it fair of me to buy African oranges – or even the Spanish ones? Or the ones from Florida, because they tend to show up around Christmas. Do I buy oranges at all? They're grown by a farmer, picked by a worked, loaded onto a truck, driven to a boat or an airport, sailed or flown to my country (or state), loaded onto another truck after spending some time in a warehouse, and then slowly distributed to local stores. That procedure goes for a lot of goods, which produces a lot of greenhouse gases, and since most people own a TV I don't think I need to go on about those.

Thirdly, there's the health aspect. Do you know if the tomatoes in your hypothetical can of tomatoes have been sprayed with chemicals – and if so, were they washed properly? Canning does take a lot of heat and pressure, and tomatoes are notoriously acidic, so they're probably not dangerous as such. However, is there long-time exposure to small amounts of chemicals that could be toxic? There's growing research that suggests that we're continuously bombarded with, for one, estrogen and other hormones, or hormone-like substances, which may (or may not) be the cause of some of our modern illnesses. Parabens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraben#Toxicology) were mentioned, I believe, and they're everywhere in soaps, lotions and make-up.

But then again, you're standing there trying to make your family eat for less than that monstrous bill from last month. D'you really care? They're on sale at the low-price store and tomatoes are versatile! Soups, sauces, crock-pots... feel your mouth watering?

The thing is, making a choice is better than pretending it doesn't exist, so that's why I wrote this. Not to convert you to the locally produced, fair-trade, organic-only side (though I may hope, I suppose), but to provoke a thought. I know families on budgets (in the US mainly), who still buy organic-only, but they've had to change their taste-buds and food-choices. Trends go towards very little meat, lots of vegetables and whole grains, beans and eggs for protein and seasonal-shopping. It is quite possible though!


Bio: I'm Daphne, and I'm a service-oriented submissive. I'm from Sweden, which is not to be confused with Switzerland - we don't make clocks or chocolate, nor do we wear leatherhosen. I've been in service for the past four years, to my Owner Mephisto. I love cooking, cleaning and organizing. My passion lies in making my Owner's life as pleasant and smooth as possible. I'm also a strong advocate for organic food without additives and cooking from scratch. I recycle, buy used and don't own a car, to minimize my carbon footprint. I'm studying for a Bachelor's in Culinary Arts and Meal Science

Daphne

I’m living with my Owner in a beautiful town on the south-eastern coast of Sweden. In late autumn 2005, I took what I could carry and left northern Sweden, to move in with the man of my dreams. He is the most honorable and kindest man I’ve ever known. We’ve been together for almost seven years and we’ve lived as Owner and property for four. As his property, I usually don’t use personal pronouns, so please don’t be shocked if you email me.

I’m his cook, maid, nurse, secretary and numerous other things. As such, I live a life of domestic servitude. I’m always looking for new and exciting ways to please him, from how to get the inside of a CPU-fan clean to what to cook for supper.

I study for a Bachelor’s in Food Science and Culinary Arts. That doesn’t make me a cook or chef, but we’ve spent a lot of time learning the basics of food, produce quality, hygiene and food politics. At the moment (spring 2011), I’ve two out of three years left before graduation. During these years we’ll be creating ideas for ready-made meals and new products, we’ll learn about marketing and PR, and study nutrition and health. I try work when not in school, in whatever restaurant kitchen that’ll have me. I’m very excited to hear about recipes and food culture from the world over; the how’s, why’s, what’s and when’s of food and meals intrigue me.

Overall, food and cooking is my thing and it’s what I love to do.

I’m on FetLife, but I don’t blog. Feel free to send me an email or PM!

- Daphne
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