Top 5 Recommendations of 2022
The Queen Recommends
From a tea strainer to a compost bin, these were the most popular recommendations from The Queen Recommends newsletter this year.
This tea strainer:
I love tea, but I hate packaging. Individually wrapped tea bags are great for keeping tea fresh, but I’m happiest when I minimize packaging by buying my herbs and teas in bulk and keeping them fresh in reused glass jars. In my experience, most tea balls and strainers are fussy and messy, and they always let little bits of tea spill out — but I adore my For Life tea strainer. It’s rock-solid, large enough for a huge mug of strong tea, and has fine holes so my tea doesn’t end up full of leaves. This strainer is in constant use at my house. I’m not sure how I managed before I got this.
This activity:
Foot rolling. This simple wooden foot roller is similar to one I bought about thirty years ago. I use it every day. My foot roller lives under my desk. While I’m sitting at my desk to work, I’m almost constantly rolling my feet. I love the easy foot self-massage, and rolling my feet gets my legs moving while I work on my computer. It’s not a lot of movement; I’m still sitting. But I’m not sitting completely still, and that’s an improvement.
This pencil sharpener:
Carl angel 5 pencil sharpener. I never, ever would have thought that a pencil sharpener would be worth giving as a gift, or even discussing. But I really enjoy good tools, and this is a pleasure to use every time. Everyone in my extended family has one now. When I first discovered this online, many reviewers said, "As soon as I got it, I sharpened every pencil in the house." I did the same.
This olive oil:
We recently discovered Kasandrinos Olive Oil, and Jane and I had an olive oil tasting — we had a grand time pretending to be olive oil connoisseurs. (It's delicious. As I tasted it, I kept thinking of dessert.) Watch our tasting video here, and let us know if you decide to do a tasting of your own!
As the world comes together to figure out ways to strengthen the immune system naturally, experts are turning to foods and nutrients that can support your system throughout cold and flu season. And olive oil might help. We know that high-quality, cold-pressed olive oil is packed with antioxidants that can help lower inflammation and battle metabolic disease.
Translation? Olive oil may help strengthen your immune system.
You need high-antioxidant oils to get those anti-inflammatory, immune-boosting benefits. And the truth is… most store-bought oils have already been sitting on the shelves for months, slowly losing their potency.
Not only that, many brands water down their product with cheaper oils. Even when you’re paying for the real thing! And because of lax FDA guidelines, the manufacturers don’t even have to disclose it on the label.
The ONLY way to get the immune-boosting benefits of pure extra virgin olive oil is to choose a brand you trust, like Kasandrinos Olive Oil.
This compost bin:
At my house we eat a lot of veggies, and we make a lot of veggie scraps. I can’t bear the thought of putting it in the trash to take up space in a landfill when we can easily turn it into compost, the gardener’s ultimate black gold. I’m excited about composting not just because it’s good for the earth and good for our garden, but because turning waste into fertilizer is magic. You are literally creating life from decay. My family’s compost is as low-tech as you can get, but KQ team member Lisa loves this compost bin, which keeps things tidy, resists pests, and makes it easy to load scraps in and compost out.