me too Kalyn

Denise — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:15:27 -0600

I've probably broken every food safety rule in the world at least a dozen times. I know better but I still do it.

And I have thawed a turkey in the microwave, it takes forever but it does work.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Fast Times @ Homeschool High & Flamingo House Happenings

Thaw in the microwave

Kalyn Denny — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 14:54:00 -0600

Of course if you plan ahead, thaw the turkey in the fridge and all will be well. But turkey can also be thawed in a microwave on the lowest setting. It may take as long as an hour, but I believe it's generally considered to be quite safe. I wish I could remember where I first read this, but I've done it many times with no problem. (Of course I've also thawed turkeys in hot water a few times with no problems, so you may wish to disregard me as a food safety expert!)

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

Holidays and Food Safety

Denise — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 14:43:18 -0600

I'm a little troubled by the recent search results provided to me by Google. I don't think this has anything to do with their page ranking issues but who knows...

I searched for "Thanksgiving food safety, blog" and just about all of the first page of results were law blogs providing information about how to protect yourself from a personal injury lawsuit from poisoning your Thanksgiving dinner guests. Errr, not quite the blog posts I had in mind. Then again, you never know so I bookmarked a few of those. Just in case.

As I scrolled a wee bit further through the search results, I stumbled across the Barf Blog. I almost didn't click it, sure that this was again not quite what I had in mind. Oh how wrong I was. It's a fun blog. I've subscribed. I may regret it later, I'll let you know.

OK maybe these odd search results are related to Google's page rank issues. I can't get past the law blogs or the really weird blogs. As interesting as Project Disaster is, I'm not sure I want to read about food safety on a blog that serves information about terrorism and natural disasters. Let's move on...

At first click, I thought I'd found something and I suppose I have. The Circle of Food blog does have turkey safety tips but they also have a recipe for using twinkies for stuffing. Yes, I'm blaming Google page rank for this madness.

Giving up on Google, moving onto Ice Rocket... thank goodness, real blogs that don't talk about turkey and terrorism on the same page!

University of Maine's Cooperative Extension provides good Thanksgiving food safety info.

Wash your hands often with soap and water, for at least 20 seconds. Prevent cross-contamination of foods, and keep cooked and raw foods separate. Wash and sanitize cutting boards and food contact surfaces. Keep your cold foods cold (refrigerated foods below 40 degrees and frozen foods below 0 degrees), and cook foods at the recommended proper cooking temperatures, using a meat thermometer. Avoid holding foods between 40 and 140 degrees F for a period longer than two hours.

Errr and that's it for Ice Rocket, they are providing me with some very interesting and slightly x-rated things to do with a turkey. I'll just head to Slashfood, where they generally keep their turkey talk PG-13 rated.

Thank you Sarah Gim for helping us safely defrost our turkeys.

You can safely roast a frozen turkey; it just takes longer (duh).The USDA recommends that you add 50% of the normal cooking time for a thawed turkey to the total cooking time. Of course, we all know that cooking time is a very bad way to roast a turkey, so use a trusty thermometer and make sure that sexy inner thigh reaches a hot 165 degrees F.

If the turkey was frozen, that little paper packets of creepy turkey innards was probably stuck inside the body cavity under a glacier's thickness of ice. Don't worry about it when you first start roasting the frozen turkey, but make sure to jiggle it out of there as soon as the turkey has defrosted enough in the oven.

I just stumbled across this helpful pets and Thanksgiving safety info when I tried a boring old Yahoo search.

Thanksgiving food can be dangerous for your dog. Thanksgiving means having lots of rich and fatty food around like turkey, mashed potatoes with butter, cakes, gravy, etc. Although, these are mouthwatering for us, but for your dog it might be next to poison.

I'm giving up but want you to have good safety information. Please, go visit the ADA for a little more holiday food safety info. And, wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands. On that note, I leave you with video that has my family in stitches.

To Stuff or Not to Stuff...

(Be sure to watch all four of the "How Not to Kill Your Family on Thanksgiving" videos.)

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

~~Denise
Flamingo House Happenings and Fast Times @ Homeschool High

BlogHer - Holidays and Food Safety - Comments

me too Kalyn

Thaw in the microwave

Holidays and Food Safety