Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

How Do Turkeys Cross The Road?

Where I live, I often have to stop my car and wait for the wild turkeys to cross the road.  I’m not kidding.  They start climbing over a stone wall from a wooded area one after another.  Gorgeous, they’re not.   And they don’t cross in a timely fashion, either.  They’re sort of in a line but sometimes one shows an independent streak and turns around to look for the others.  Quite a sight – and, quite annoying when I’m in a hurry having seen this parade many times before – although it makes me smile every time!

These are not the turkeys that most of us will find on our dining room tables – but certainly are distant relatives of those eaten by the early New England settlers.

Turkey Is A Very Good Source Of Lean Protein

Turkey is low in fat and high in protein. A 3 1/2-ounce serving is about the size and thickness of a new deck of cards. The fat and calorie content varies because white meat has less fat and fewer calories than dark meat and skin.

Meat Type (from a whole roasted turkey)	Calories	Total Fat	Protein
Breast with skin	194	8 grams	29 grams
Breast w/o skin	161	4 grams	30 grams
Wing w/skin	238	13 grams	27 grams
Leg w/skin	213	11 grams	28 grams
Dark meat w/skin	232	13 grams	27 grams
Dark meat w/o skin	192	8 grams	28 grams
Skin only	482	44 grams	19 grams

Once Your Bird Is Cooked, Does It Matter How Long You Leave It Out?

Ye, yes, yes! According to the Centers for Disease Control the number of reported cases of food borne illness (food poisoning) increases during the holiday season. You shouldn’t leave food out for more than two hours. To save turkey leftovers, remove the stuffing from the cavity, cut the turkey off the bone, and refrigerate or freeze all leftovers.

The Basic Rules For Leftovers

According to the March 2010 edition of the Nutrition Action Healthletter (Center for Science in the Public Interest):

The mantra is:  2 Hours–2 Inches–4 Days

• 2 Hours from oven to refrigerator: Refrigerate or freeze your leftovers within 2 hours of cooking. Throw them away if they are out longer than that.

• 2 Inches thick to cool it quick: Store your food at a shallow depth–about 2 inches–to speed chilling.

• 4 Days in the refrigerator–otherwise freeze it: Use your leftovers that are stored in the fridge within 4 days. The exceptions are stuffing and gravy  which should be used within 2 days. Reheat solid leftovers to 165 degrees F and liquid leftovers to a rolling boil. Toss what you don’t finish.

How Long Can I Keep Leftover Turkey In The Freezer?

Frozen leftover turkey, stuffing, and gravy should be used within one month. To successfully freeze leftovers package them properly using freezer wrap or freezer containers. Use heavy duty aluminum foil, freezer paper, or freezer bags for best results and don’t leave air space. Squeeze the excess air from freezer bags and fill rigid freezer containers to the top with dry food. Without proper packaging, circulating air in the freezer can create freezer burn – those white dried-out patches on the surface of food that make it tough and tasteless. Leave a one inch head space in containers with liquid and half inch in containers filled with semi-solids.

Happy Thanksgiving

I love my dog, Spike.  That’s him in the picture.  He’s extremely friendly and will happily play with just about anyone – especially if there’s some food involved.  He’s also, as you can see,  all black and small – which makes him very hard to see at night.

Safety Tips for Families With Dogs

Halloween may be a fun for people holiday, but it can be scary and/or dangerous for your dog.  Spike was at the vet’s the other day and I picked up a sheet with the following information – not something we pet owners might necessarily think about.  It is adapted from information supplied as a public service by Bark Busters Home Dog Training (www.BarkBusters.com) and extended to you by an all around dog lover, me.

Bring your dog inside

You don’t want him to be harmed or overwhelmed by little (or big) trick or treaters.  If your dog lives outside bring him in a few times before Halloween so he gets comfortable with being indoors.  Dogs have a natural instinct to protect their families from strangers – and there are plenty of them on Halloween.

Think about restraining your dog or putting him in another room

Keep him away from the “trick or treaters” door.  This is especially true if your dog gets easily frightened, or on the other side of the coin, loves people too much.  Ditto for aggressive dogs.  Putting the dog in another room away from the activity will limit his excitement, aggression, or the possibility of running outside, perhaps unnoticed, and getting lost or hurt.

Reassure your dog

If your dog is acting unsettled or anxious about Halloween high jinks, try to act normally because overly reassuring him or giving him extra attention might inadvertently communicate that there is something to worry about.

Get your dog used to people dressed up in costumes

Your dog may think his family members are strangers once they put on their Halloween garb.  Let him sniff your kids’ costumes before they put them on and keep masks off when your dog is around.

Think twice about putting your dog in a costume

Some dogs enjoy – or at least tolerate – being dressed up.  Many dogs don’t so experiment first to see if he likes being a bumble bee or a pirate.  If he is resistant don’t do it – put a great bandana around his neck and he’ll be a whole lot happier – and probably safer.

Check your dog’s Identification Tags

Make certain that they are secure on his collar and that his collar is securely fastened on his neck.  Enough said.

Dog biscuits are for dogs, candy is not

Many types of candy, especially the kinds with chocolate or xylitol, an artificial sweetener, are toxic to dogs.  They can cause problems that range from a mild upset stomach to vomiting and diarrhea, and even death.  Be sure to keep all candy and wrappers – and glow sticks, too – away from your dog.

Protect your dog from candles and pumpkins

When dogs get excited, agitated, or happy, their tails wag.  Wagging tails and jumping dogs can easily knock over anything in their path – including lit candles or jack o’lanterns with candles in them. Keep these things away from dogs (and children) and think about using a battery powered candle for safety’s sake.

Think twice about taking your dog with you to the Halloween parade or trick or treating

Lots of people in weird (or cute) costumes with glow sticks, flashlights, masks, and other objects that go with costumes can be pretty frightening to a dog.  You don’t want to unintentionally instill a new fear in him or create a wariness that could last long past Halloween.  If you do take your dog with you, keep a firm grip on his leash.  Dogs don’t understand that goblins jumping out at you are not necessarily doing so to hurt you – and they can respond by acting aggressively.  Neither children nor adults in costumes and masks should approach a dog without asking for the owner’s consent.

Happy Halloween.  Give your dog an extra dog biscuit for his Halloween treat.

Saratoga Potato Chips

I have a soft spot for Saratoga Springs, New York, home of Skidmore College, my alma mater.  Saratoga is also known for  – to name a few things — the Battles of Saratoga (1777, a turning point in the Revolutionary War), its spa, Saratoga spring water (which I couldn’t stand the first time I tasted it), and another of my favorite spots, the racetrack with its incredible wooden stands.

What I didn’t know is that Saratoga is also credited as the birthplace of American potato chips.  Originally called Saratoga Chips, they are usually credited to George Crum, the Native- and African-American chef at Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs who first prepared them in 1853.

In the 1920s chips were handed out in wax-paper bags. In the 1930’s they were packaged and became a commercial snack food.

We now call them plain old potato chips, Saratoga having vanished from the name.  There’s another big difference, too.  To make classic Saratoga chips, the Browns, 1940 authors of “America Cooks,” told you to slice potatoes “to fairylike thinness” and fry them in lard. A 1904 recipe from The Times called for frying them in olive oil, which gave the potatoes a nutty flavor, and, as we now know, was a lot healthier than many of today’s commercially used oils – or the once used lard.

Modern Day Potato Chips

Modern day potato chips come in a multitude of flavors: vinegar and salt, sour cream and onion, cool ranch, and barbecue.  Some are ribbed or ruffled and some aren’t, they are packaged in noisy foil bags, are plentifully salted, and sometimes are stamped out in identical sizes and stacked in a cardboard tube.  Don’t you wonder what they use to make those flavors?

An eight ounce bag of chips has 1242 calories, 766 of them from fat.  It contains 85.1 grams of fat (24.9 grams of which are saturated, 1192 mg of sodium (slightly more than half of the daily recommendation), and 14.9 grams of protein.

Pringles come all nice and neat and layered in a tube.  But, what happened to just potatoes?  Here’s Pringles’ ingredient list:  dried potatoes, vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: corn oil, cottonseed oil, and/or sunflower oil), wheat starch, maltodextrin, rice flour, salt and dextrose.

A one ounce serving size of Lay’s classic potato chips is made from potatoes, sunflower and/or corn oil, and salt.  It has 150 calories, 10 grams of fat (1gram saturated), and 2 grams of protein.

Bottom Line:

Sometimes you gotta love the chips.  However, there are some good choices and some not so good choices.  Oven frying your own is probably the best choice – you get the vegetable lightly coated with olive oil and however much salt and herbs you prefer.

Some commercial brands now come oven baked, too.  If you are buying a bag of chips  look for the kind that is made from real potatoes rather than dried potatoes mixed with sugars, salt, and preservatives.

For home made oven fried potato chips, wash the potatoes well and slice them thinly, about 1/8-inch,  keeping the peel on. Brush both sides with olive oil (you can use a light coating of cooking spray if you are watching your calories) and arrange the slices on a baking sheet in a single layer without crowding. Sprinkle with salt and herbs, if desired. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven until nicely browned and pretend you’re in Saratoga.

Boardwalk, Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York

The Boardwalk at Coney Island

I spent most of Saturday at Coney Island.  It was an absolutely beautiful day and I was there for a birthday party.  What a fantastic idea.

We all had lunch at a Peruvian chicken place.  Chicken, rice and beans, plantains, and some French fries thrown in for good measure.  The chicken was marinated and roasted, the plantains sauteed in butter and brown sugar.  The rice and beans were just that — white rice and brown beans.

Given the other options, this was not a bad meal.  The chicken was very tasty and not fried.  The plantains were very sweet and the rice and beans were not greasy.  The French fries were crispy — but still French fries.  No green food or other veggies in sight.

Birthday cake:  Homemade and decorated with jelly beans.  Birthday girl:  Loved it.

The Alternatives

These are pictures of  what was mostly available.  Although all of these photos were taken on the boardwalk   at Coney Island (near the New York Aquarium), this kind of food is what can be found at many amusement parks.  Peruvian chicken was certainly the best food option in this case.  An even better one could be to bring your own lunch if you want to — otherwise, build this type of meal into your eating for the day.  Whichever choice you make, enjoy.  I certainly did.

A Prescription For Veggies?

Yea for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the docs at three medical centers who are writing prescriptions for produce for families with weight problems.

Families with low incomes get coupons for produce that they can redeem at local farmers’ markets. The value of a coupon is $1 per person per day. It seems like a small amount, but with the coupons a family of four can get $120 of fresh produce  a month.

What’s The Rationale?

This objective is to get kids to increase their fruit and veggies by one serving a day.  It is also seen as a opportunity to introduce the children, who have a limited range of exposure, to real food.  The coupon is somewhat symbolic – the $1 coupon competes with the 99 cent fast food meals so familiar to these kids.

Obesity Has Tripled

According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than tripled over the last 30 years.   Sedentary lifestyles and limited access to fresh, healthy food are seen as reasons for this rapid increase. Along with handing out the coupons, the doctors will follow the families receiving the coupons to determine how their eating patterns are affected.  They will also monitor health parameters like weight and body mass index (BMI).

The hope is, too, that the families become invested in good nutritional practices by hanging out with both the farmers and the consumers at the farmers’ market – and that they then develop a preference for shopping at these types of markets rather than fast food restaurants, supermarkets, big box and convenience stores.

Will It Help Farmers’ Markets, Too?

It may also help the farmers’ markets compete with the fast food vendors who entice kids and families with cheap calories and cheap meals.

The number of farmers’ markets has dramatically increased: from 1,755 in 1994 to more than 5,200.  Although US farmers’ markets generate over $1 billion in annual sales, they are low on the totem pole compared to the fast food industry which brought in over $22.79 billion in 2008.

Healthy Eating Patterns And Lifestyles

As the mayor of Boston said, “When I go to work in the morning, I see kids standing at the bus stop eating chips and drinking a soda.  I hope this will help them change their eating habits and lead to a healthier lifestyle.”