Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Living Well

FIRE HAZARD MAY

LURK IN COSTUMES

The scariest part of Halloween costumes may not be the spooky looks or the prices. Instead, it may be the safety hazard that costumes represent if ignited by a flame.

The friendly jack-o-lantern sitting on the porch is just such a flame source. One way to avoid Halloween fire hazards is to light pumpkins with flashlights.

Another way to make Halloween less hazardous is to select costumes that meet the children's sleepwear flammability standard.

Halloween costumes vary in their design and fiber content. Few are labeled as flame resistant or flame retardant. Some are labeled that they meet Flammable Fabric Act requirements, but most are not. Even fewer are labeled as meeting the children's sleepwear flammability standard.

Whether or not the costumes meet these standards, even flame resistant or flame retardant fabrics can ignite under certain conditions. But flame retardant fabrics do offer a margin of safety, giving time to pat out or smother the fire before serious burn injury occurs.

Children must be taught to stop, drop and roll to put out a fire, should their clothes ignite.

Shoppers will find that most of today's commercially available Halloween costumes are made of polyester, sometimes trimmed with nylon net or modacrylic fur. These materials may or may not be flame resistant. Urethane foam, often used to make standout designs, such as a lion's mane, is flammable.

If a fabric is to be flame resistant, a fabric must be slow to ignite and self extinguish when the source of heat is removed. If the fabric has these properties, the label will say so.

You may have to really look to find the information tag. If you don't find any mention of flame resistance or flammable fabric standards, assume the costume is flammable like the rest of our daytime clothes.

Home-sewn costumes of 100% cotton are highly flammable, especially when they have yards and yards of extra fabric that can trail around out of control. Costumes that fit closer to the body are generally safer and less likely to get caught by a flame source or car door.

When sewing costumes at home, consumers should look for fabric that meets the children's sleepwear standard. The label on the end of the fabric bolt indicates whether the fabric passes the standard. Usually brushed polyester knits meet the standard.

For a comparatively safe costume for young children, make a costume from sleepwear. Children's sleepwear must pass a more rigorous flammability standard. You can create all kinds of creatures from bunnies and puppies to little devils with the addition of a few wool felt cut-outs that are ironed on with fusible films.

Adults should take time to enjoy Halloween in safety with their children. This means taking time to read the costume labels and providing a safe costume and decorations.

DINING ALONE

If you are dining alone tonight, you're part of a growing trend. Each evening, one in ten Americans eats alone. Whether it's an adult heating up a cup of soup or a child micro-waving a hotdog, solitary dining has its pitfalls.

Several studies have shown the diets of people who regularly dine alone come up short on important nutrients. In one study of persons over age 55, the diets of men who lived alone were low in calcium, magnesium, and vitamins A, B6, and C. Women who ate alone had diets low in thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, calcium, and manganese.

Interestingly, those who ate alone did not eat less nutritious foods than those who ate with others. Rather, they tended to skip meals or eat very little in order to shorten the time required for meal preparation.

In another study of seniors, researchers found a direct correlation between loneliness and lowered intake of calories, calcium and vitamin A.

In a study involving children it was noted that children who lacked companionship at mealtime ate poorer quality meals than children who ate with parents or brothers and sisters. Specifically, they ate fewer servings of fruits and vegetables and consumed lessthan recommended levels of iron and vitamin C.

The good news is that several manufacturers now cater to the single diner. From frozen dinners geared for kids to gourmet meals for dieting adults to single serving cans of soup, one can find it all in the supermarket. These prepackaged individual serving foods offer convenience, some variety, and measured portions.

However, they usually cost more - up to twice as much per serving. Also, variety and nutritional value may be limited and the packaging is often environmentally unfriendly, generating more garbage than packages that contain several servings.

Follow these suggestions to make the most of solitary meals.

• Don't skip breakfast, even if you're in a rush or you don't feel hungry. Breakfast can be anything from a fruit milkshake to last night's leftover pizza.

• Serve a combination of prepackaged convenience foods and fresh foods. For example, serve a frozen meat entree with fresh or frozen vegetables and fresh fruit. The fresh fruits and vegetables help balance out the higher fat and sodium in the frozen entree.

• If you don't like chopping vegetables or you don't expect to use a whole head of lettuce before it spoils, purchase salad ingredients already chopped from the salad-bar section of your supermarket.

• Create a pleasant dining setting for yourself at home. An attractive placemat, flowers and candles help make a meal important, even if your only company is the evening news on television.

• If you are a senior, check out senior community meal programs. They are a great place to socialize and get a nutritious meal that is easy on the budget.

For a fall back-to-nature approach to cookies, stalk the backyard or a nearby forest or park for some shapely oak or maple leaves.

Back in the kitchen, trace some of them on paper to make a pattern for some molasses leaf cookies. The dough, an easy one to manipulate, is more traditional. It has the flavor of molasses, ginger and a dash of peppermint flavoring. Ingredients are balanced so the dough won't spread while baking.

The cookies are crisp, and can be served in the buff or glazed with a confectioners sugar icing, colored orange.

To shape them, simply cut around the paper leaf pattern using a sharp pointed knife. The project is fun for children, but the final product also makes a simple and unusual sweet with coffee.

>MOLASSES LEAF COOKIES

>Makes approximately 32 cookies)

Ingredients: 2 and 1/2 cups sifted flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and ground ginger; 1/2 cup each of butter (or margarine) and sugar; 1 egg yolk; 1