Seven steps to summer outdoor food safety
The upcoming holiday weekend signals the start of the summer cook-out season. Warmer weather conditions may be ideal for outdoor picnics and barbecues, but they also provide a perfect environment for bacteria in food to multiply rapidly and cause foodborne illness. Here are seven steps to increase food safety and reduce the risk of foodborne illness this summer:
1. Wash, Wash, Wash Your Hands (as in Row, Row, Row Your Boat). Always, wash your hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food.
2. Marinating Mandate. Always marinate food in the refrigerator. Don’t use sauce that was used to marinate raw meat or poultry on cooked food. Boil used marinade before applying to cooked food.
3. Hot, Hot, Hot. When grilling foods, preheat the coals on your grill for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the coals are lightly coated with ash.
4. Temperature Gauge. Use a food thermometer to ensure that food reaches a safe internal temperature.
5. Where’s the Beef? Hamburgers should be cooked to 160 ºF to be safe. Remember, color is not a reliable indicator of doneness. Use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of your burgers. Larger cuts of beef such as steaks and roasts may be cooked to 145 ºF for medium rare or to 160 ºF for medium. Poultry (either whole or pieces) must reach a temperature of 165 °F.
6. Stay Away from that Same Old Plate. When taking foods off the grill, do not put cooked food items back on the same plate that held raw food, unless it has been washed with hot, soapy water first. And in hot weather (above 90°F) foods should never sit out for more than one hour before going in the refrigerator.
7. Icebox Etiquette. A full cooler will maintain its cold temperatures longer than one that is partially filled so it is important to pack plenty of extra ice or freezer packs to ensure a constant cold temperature. Keep the cooler out of the direct sun and open it sparingly.
Subscribe to the comments for this postTo coupon…or not to coupon?
The weekend newspaper is full of them…. they’re COUPONS, and manufacturers try to entice you to purchase their products by using them. Are you a coupon shopper?
Coupons can save money
As for me, I use coupons to stretch my budget. On my latest grocery shopping spree, I saved $26 by using coupons along with store discount prices. I got about $90 worth of products for $64. Besides saving money on my favorite things, coupons also give me the opportunity to try new or different products with less financial risk.
When coupons don’t add up
But, while coupons can help me save, they are not always the smartest choice. Here are a couple of situations when I opt NOT to use my coupons:
- When the national brand with the coupon still costs more than the store brand. I skipped using several coupons on my most recent shopping trip because they didn’t really save me any money. For example, it was not worth the 35-cent coupon savings on name brand sugar when the store brand was $1.00 less. Since sugar is sugar, I opted to pass on the coupon and buy the store brand without a coupon instead.
- When the coupon is for a product we don’t need. Yes, coupons are supposed to encourage me to buy certain products. But they are no savings if I spend money on something I don’t need or wouldn’t regularly buy. For example, there are lots of coupons on high-fat, high-sodium and high-sugar snacks, desserts, cereals and prepared foods that I don’t choose to feed to my family. So, by being a discriminating coupon shopper, I can save money by NOT buying couponed products that don’t fit my family’s needs and preferences.
How about you?
Do you clip and use coupons? Or are they are waste of time? What’s your stand on coupon shopping? Leave a comment– share your opinion about coupons and your best saving strategies when buying groceries and household products. Let’s learn from each other!
Home cleaning on a budget
A home that is clean and well-maintained is a healthy place for a family to live. But you don’t have to spend a lot of money on fancy cleaners to get the job done. While store shelves are filled with many different types of cleaning supplies, a few basic items are all that’s needed to clean many surfaces in the home.
Basic Cleaning On A Shoestring
These five products will help you deal with many cleaning tasks without breaking the budget:
- Liquid dish detergent. This inexpensive detergent used for handwashing dishes makes a good all-purpose cleaner for many hard surfaces. It removes dirt and cuts grease and when diluted with water, it can be used to clean sinks, bathroom fixtures, countertops, floors and windows.
- Vinegar. White (or cider) vinegar is a mild acid which helps remove hard water deposits. Use it diluted or full strength to loosen crusty hard water build-up and remove hard water spots on sinks, shower doors and windows. Boil a teaspoon of white vinegar in a cup of water to help eliminate unpleasant cooking odors. Or rub a little vinegar on your fingers before and after slicing onions to help remove the odor.
- Baking Soda. Baking soda is a mild alkali and a mild abrasive. Sprinkled dry onto a damp sponge, it makes a good powdered cleanser that doesn’t scratch surfaces. Dilute 2 Tablespoons of baking soda in 1 quart of water to make a mild cleaning solution which removes odors and stains from plastic containers. Place an open box of baking soda in the refrigerator to remove food odors. After 2 months, replace with a new box and pour the old box down the kitchen drain to keep it smelling fresh, too.
- Ammonia. Liquid ammonia is a powerful household cleaner. It is frequently used for cleaning ovens and soaking items to loosen baked-on grime. When mixed with water, it can be used as a window cleaner that leaves a streak-free shine. Prepare an all-purpose cleaner by mixing 1 Tablespoon ammonia, 1 Tablespoon liquid detergent and 2 cups of water. NOTE: NEVER MIX AMMONIA AND CHLORINE BLEACH– TOXIC FUMES MAY BE PRODUCED. (This also applies to any product containing chlorine bleach, such as commercial cleansers, toilet cleaners and antibacterial sanitizing products.)
- Chlorine Bleach. Bleach is not used as a cleaning product, but as a sanitizer. It will kill bacteria that may remain after surfaces have been washed and rinsed. A little bit is all that’s needed, so mix 1 teaspoon of bleach in 1 quart of water to use in a spray bottle or to apply with a clean cloth. At this dilution, just let the surfaces air dry- no further rising is needed. Resist the temptation to mix the bleach solution stronger– too much bleach leaves a chemical residue on surfaces and may cause damage to clothing or other textiles if accidentally splashed.
Great for Gifts, Too
This is the time of year when a collection of cleaning products could be a great gift! Combine the five basic cleaners in a bucket with a sponge and a pair of rubber gloves and give for a wedding shower or housewarming gift or for the graduate moving into a first apartment. Tuck in a copy of this article for ideas on how to use the products effectively.
Carefully Label All Products
Be sure to carefully label all cleaning or sanitizing mixtures that you prepare. Keep all chemicals, including household cleaners, out of the reach of children. Remember, homemade cleaning products may require a bit more “elbow grease” to be effective, but the result can be a home cleaned to a sparkling shine on a budget.
Finding the Truth in Email Rumors About Food
You’ve probably seen at least one email come to your inbox that had a rumor related to food. Using scare tactics and dire warnings, most of these emails are full of false information.
To help separate fact from fiction, the web site www.snopes.com can help you clarify hoaxes and squelch rumors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also refers to this site for email rumors. There is an entire section on food-related rumors.
When reading these messages, do they seem too way-out to be true? Trust your instincts and you will probably be right. Snopes can help you bring some reality to exaggerated or fictitious information.
Do your family and friends a favor– investigate an email food rumor rather than just forwarding it on. That will help to control the amount of food misinformation circulating on the Internet.
The joy of cooking (with a rotisserie chicken)
I’ve long been an advocate for cooking a whole chicken as a cost-saving strategy for meat for sandwiches, casseroles and other family meals. I’ve always believed that a fresh raw chicken was the most economical choice. But an Extension client in a neighboring town told me that buying a supermarket deli-roast chicken in Garden City was cheaper than buying a fresh chicken in her own town. So I decided to check it out. Sure enough! Here in town the price of a fresh chicken is nearly equal– about $5.00– to the price of a rotisserie chicken. And the work is all done for you!
One chicken, many meals
The best thing about investing $5 in a roasted chicken is that I can usually get about 3 meals for my family of 3 from just one bird. Stretching the roasted chicken meat stretches my food budget– the price for nine servings of chicken averages about 55 cents per serving. Here’s how- we enjoy the first meal of hot roasted chicken with our favorite sides; the second meal is chicken sandwiches with mayo and lettuce or our favorite chicken salad; and finally, the leftover pieces go into soup or top a salad for a light lunch. During soup season I don’t even let the bones and skin go to waste– I add water and simmer them until I’ve got a cup or two of flavorful chicken broth for my next pot of soup.
Six meals, one chicken
My Extension colleagues in Alabama do even a better job with one chicken– they stretch it to make SIX meals! Their how-to fact sheet “How to Make Six Meals From One Chicken” gives instructions and recipes for six meals that each serve at least 4 people. That’s about 20 cents per meat serving. Wow!
Buy fresh chicken on sale; otherwise buy roasted and enjoy!
When fresh chickens go on sale, stock up! If you can get a whole chicken for less than the $5 price of a rotisserie chicken, you’ll save money by roasting your own. But if the price is comparable, let the store do the work and buy the roasted bird– and discover the joy of cooking with a rotisserie chicken!