Polycarbonate vs. Polypropylene

I just heard through some mamas that I trust that it's a bad idea to put food storage containers in the dishwasher, as the heat can cause yucky chemicals to leach out. Eww. So, thinks I, I will get some glass storage for our leftovers. Haha! Thwarted the plastics industry. And lo and behold we have a Chefs Catalog just sitting around begging me to have a reason to look through it. So this morning I do.

They have 1 (count 'em -- one) listing for glass storage. And they have "poly" lids. Poly-what lids, I ask? A quick flip through the rest of the catalog shows that they have other storage that is polycarbonate (one of the options for that is stainless-steel containers but they still have the polycarbonate lids), and some cutting boards that are made from polypropylene. So I then asked myself what's the difference between polycarbonate and polypropylene, and are either one of them safe?

A quick read of the Wikipedia pages for both made me sure that polycarbonate was not something I wanted near our food. The polypropylene page wasn't so clear so I kept looking. I found a site called Safe Mama that has a tag for the listings about polypropylene. It looks to me like polypropylene is not a hazardous choice to be near our food. I still think I'm going to opt for the Anchor Hocking sets that have glass lids and leave all the plastic behind. I found that they have 3 sizes on Cooking.com along with a ton of other items like cookie jars and chalkboard jars (how cool!) when I searched the site for "anchor hocking storage." I saw the same 3 pieces sold as a set at my local grocery store so I'm going to compare the price before I buy, but this is what I'm going with.

Oh, one other thing I learned on those Wikipedia pages. Polycarbonate has a plastics identification code of 7 and polypropylene is a 5. Just so you can look at what you have in your cupboard and not wonder what it is. As long as there is a number inside of a triangle made of arrows, you can be sure of what you've got. There's even a Wikipedia page with a chart listing all of the codes and linking back to the pages for individual types of plastics.

Enjoy! And keep your food safe.

A reason not to Homeschool?

I've been daydreaming about homeschooling my kids since before I got pregnant. Now that The Biscuit is in preschool and hating it -- I have to stay with him the whole time or he's just a panic attack in the corner -- I'm fighting myself not to pull him.

Now I run across this story and it makes me think that what I should be doing is getting him out of the house every day at school time, even though school is only twice a week. Once he gets that this is the routine I know he'll be ok, but 2 days a week is not enough of a routine that he's going to grasp it quickly. Then we have breaks because I needed to go on a trip and we came home and got sick and it really makes less sense to him. I think that he thinks that school is over. Whew, got through that. Sorry, little dude. Not *even* the case. And I don't need you regressing when you are 25. Not that I blame the parents in the story. In their case I think I would have made the exact same choices. But it sure makes me wonder what I'm setting him up for if I don't get him up and outta here every single day.

Election Gas

Has anyone else noticed that as the election gets closer gas prices are coming down? I'm suspicious! Damn oil profiteers and their war and cronies and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I swear I'd have a stroke if I didn't have a blog to dump some of this frustration on.

Free Starbucks? Sign me up!

Thank you, Heather, for pointing me at this cute Lego photo of MommyKnows'. I had no idea that Legos came in those colors; they are still choking hazards for my kids. The super cool part is that the photo has a link to MommyKnows' blog and that has an post where she is giving away $10 Starbucks gift cards. Woot! Doubling my entry by telling you about it. Go comment and get in the drawing.

Buddy Walk!!!

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