Ideal Bite

Tomorrow I head out for a week in Hawaii, where I plan on spending a lot of time in the sun drinking. I'm packing some vitamin B, Ola Loa, and will be downing a lot of water while I'm there to stay hydrated, but in case of emergency I've also stuffed noneco stuff called Solpadeine in my bag.

Seriously, this stuff is ridiculous. It's basically Tylenol and caffeine, and for some reason they only sell it in the UK (meaning I stock up when visiting friends in London), but it works like nothing else.

-Toshio...off to finish packing... Read the full post... 

For Christmas this year, I did the Good Biter Thing (GBT?) - I made a list of what I wanted for Christmas.

Clearly, there were many things on the list that were a bit of a stretch:

• Black Tesla
• Notoriety
• World Peace

But some things were more manageable...like my plea for funky napkin rings.

Mom came through with flying colors - gorgeous, festive, red-beaded rings - a perfect blend with golds and browns. I didn't have the heart to tell her about today's tip - to admit that I also needed eclectic, mismatched, bizarre rings so that I could use them during the Christmas holiday and let my guests have individual ring designs so that they

Read the full post... 

Next year, I challenge you to rethink the poinsettia as a gift. Biodegradable though they may be, they usually come in plastic pots that aren't always recyclable, and most people just let them die after the holidays. Try another just-as-festive plant for some variety.

-Toshio...off to water our Hanukkah bush... Read the full post... 

Yesterday, I attempted to spend a $50 gift card at Crate and Barrel I received earlier in the year. After browsing through 4-way bottle openers, purple martini glasses, and Christmas-themed throw pillows for about an hour, I finally just admitted that I neither needed nor wanted anything on any of the three vast floors.

Then the CFL went on! I realized that I could use it to get the teapot on my mom's Christmas wish list. Gift: found. Fifty dollars I would have spent on gift sans card: still in bank account.

It won't work with every gift card, but if you don't want anything for yourself, and you don't want to swap or regift the card itself per today's tip, consider using it to buy something that someone you love needs or desires.

-Jenifer Morgan...off to spend my art-store credit on my nephew... Read the full post... 

Christmas, 1970s and 1980s. I probably had a bow in my hair. My (2.5 years older) brother was probably wearing some sort of Michael Jordan-worship gear. Mom was probably frazzled, up to her eyeballs in wrapping paper and cookie dough and turkey grease.

But every year, during the holidays, we'd make cookie cutter sugar cookies using the recipe from the old original Betty Crocker cookbook (not all that eco, but the recipe is below, and they are still the best you'll ever taste).

I always loved baking and decorating cookies each year. I adored using Red Hots as the clappers for the bells. Loved putting those really hard silver BB-style decorations on the points of the stars, wondering if I'd break my tooth on them when it came time to eat them.  Reveled in mixing the most-likely-poisonous food coloring into the frosting and watching those initial striped swirls streak Read the full post... 

There's a matchbox in my bathroom, right next to the candle that sits on the toilet tank for...ambiance. After researching this tip, I checked the back of the box and, sure enough, it says Made in India.

Unfortunately, the Indian match industry has a bad rep for unfair labor practices. Finding an American brand isn't tough, so until matchboxes start carrying the fair-trade label, buy U.S.-made when you can.

-Toshio...off to spread some ambiance... Read the full post... 

When I was in Venice last year, I escaped the millions of littering, rude fellow tourists and the resulting apathetic, run-down Italians by spending a lot of time in incredibly overpriced and relatively deserted traditional Venetian costume shops. (Sounds fun so far, huh?) But really, despite it all, I had a great time trying on fanciful dresses and masks and capes. And hats-one of which I ended up buying (see photo).

I had the hat shipped home, due to its delicacy and awkward size (and did a bit of carbon offsetting on my return). I love it and will keep it long past the time when people start wondering if I'll ever arrive at a costume party as something other than an eighteenth-century militia dandy.

And although the supercute hats in our tip today don't really require Read the full post... 

Kernel popcorn is great: There's less packaging, it generally tastes better, and it's sort of fun watching the kernels pop and expand into a form ten times their original size.

The thing is, sticking a prepackaged bag in the microwave is so easy compared to using an electric popper or the stovetop method - and sometimes I play that big, lazy American whose religion is convenience, to a T. So when I heard the nation's biggest popcorn producer is dropping diacetyl from all its products, I felt a mix of excitement and guilt, because I know it'll make me that much more inclined, when I'm feeling lazy, to just pop a prepackaged bag in the electromagnetic radiation machine (aka microwave) and be done with it.

But thanks to new Biter team member Hanah, we found there's a middle ground - microwave popcorn made using Read the full post... 

When we wrote our first yoga mat tip in mid-2005, I felt a little like a fraud, since I had JUST swapped out my trusty old PVC mat for a jute eco version. Fact was, my old, off-gassing mat was like a security blanket - an old friend that had taken me through my yoga life for years and years, seeing me through hatha in LA, ashtanga in London and vinyasa teacher training in NYC. Truth be told, I was loathe to give it up. (Complete truth be told, I still have it, and use it for my home practice on occasion. It just gives off good vibes alongside the carcinogenic gases.)

I didn't love the new jute mat in the same way, and in a fit of largess, ended up leaving it at a villa in Bellagio, Italy last year, figuring it would give good yoga karma to hapless travelers to Lake Como. (Isn't that always the case when you replace something you worshipped with a new version? The Read the full post... 

When we wrote our first yoga mat tip in mid-2005, I felt a little like a fraud, since I had JUST swapped out my trusty old PVC mat for a jute eco version. Fact was, my old, off-gassing mat was like a security blanket - an old friend that had taken me through my yoga life for years and years, seeing me through hatha in LA, ashtanga in London and vinyasa teacher training in NYC. Truth be told, I was loathe to give it up. (Complete truth be told, I still have it, and use it for my home practice on occasion. It just gives off good vibes alongside the carcinogenic gases.)

I didn't love the new jute mat in the same way, and in a fit of largess, ended up leaving it at a villa in Bellagio, Italy last year, figuring it would give good yoga karma to hapless travelers to Lake Como. (Isn't that always the case when you replace something you worshipped with a new version? The Read the full post...