You know how it works in the doctor/dentist’s office. Before you even take a seat after checking in, you’re cruising for a magazine other than a 1980 issue of Field and Stream. Hmmmm. Crap, the good pages are torn out of the three year old copy of Food & Wine. You could just sit quietly and play solitaire or sudoku on the iPhone. But, jeeze, you’re a foodie.
Enter Culinate. OMG. I was more than mildly annoyed when the nurse finally called my name this afternoon. I was so thoroughly engrossed, rapid firing through fascinating articles and recipes that it nearly made me faint with excitment. Even so, my BP was 106 over 76.
Really, I couldn’t help myself. There was just one more great looking recipe or bit of culinary wisdom I had to check out. One of the sweet things is that the site is well optimized for the iPhone - it loads quickly and navigation is easy, unlike so many other sites I could name … uh, Real Simple, for example. Or Eat This, Not That.
So if the iPhone is your primary entertainment app while waiting like an immature adolescent - with anything more than 2:30 minutes being simply too long without something to occupy yourself (and I’m one of the biggest offenders here), then sign up now. Register here for the Culinate newsletter.
You can download a .pdf document here for a handy ‘cheat sheet’ on safe cooking tips and a temperature chart for different foods. You can post this at home, at work, at school or at the picnic pavillion.
Download the ‘chill’ version fact sheet, and post it alongside the cooking sheet in public places, and your own kitchen.
The Partnership for Food Safety website also has out-reach programs for kids and schools, and many other wonderful resources that you’ll enjoy browsing through.
Refrigerate foods quickly because cold temperatures slow the growth of harmful bacteria. Do not over-stuff the refrigerator. Cold air must circulate to help keep food safe. Keeping a constant refrigerator temperature of 40°F or below is one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of foodborne illness. Use an appliance thermometer to be sure the temperature is consistently 40°F or below. The freezer temperature should be 0°F or below.
Refrigerate or freeze meat, poultry, eggs and other perishables as soon as you get them home from the store.
Never let raw meat, poultry, eggs, cooked food or cut fresh fruits or vegetables sit at room temperature more than two hours before putting them in the refrigerator or freezer (one hour when the temperature is above 90°F).
Never defrost food at room temperature. Food must be kept at a safe temperature during thawing. There are three safe ways to defrost food: in the refrigerator, in cold water, and in the microwave. Food thawed in cold water or in the microwave should be cooked immediately.
Always marinate food in the refrigerator.
Divide large amounts of leftovers into shallow containers for quicker cooling in the refrigerator.
Use or discard refrigerated food on a regular basis. Check the Cold Storage Chart for optimum storage times.
Cook: Cook to Proper Temperatures
Food is safely cooked when it reaches a high enough internal temperature to kill the harmful bacteria that cause foodborne illness. Use a food thermometer to to measure the internal temperature of cooked foods. Refer to the Heat It Up chart for the safe internal temperatures. The best way to Fight BAC!® is to:
Use a food thermometer which measures the internal temperature of cooked meat, poultry and egg dishes, to make sure that the food is cooked to a safe internal temperature.
Cook roasts and steaks to a minimum of 145°F. All poultry should reach a safe minimum internal temperature of 165°F as measured with a food thermometer. Check the internal temperature in the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast with a food thermometer.
Cook ground meat, where bacteria can spread during grinding, to at least 160°F. Information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) links eating undercooked ground beef with a higher risk of illness. Remember, color is not a reliable indicator of doneness Use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of your burgers.
Cook eggs until the yolk and white are firm, not runny. Don’t use recipes in which eggs remain raw or only partially cooked.
Cook fish to 145°F or until the flesh is opaque and separates easily with a fork.
Make sure there are no cold spots in food (where bacteria can survive) when cooking in a microwave oven. For best results, cover food, stir and rotate for even cooking. If there is no turntable, rotate the dish by hand once or twice during cooking.
Bring sauces, soups and gravy to a boil when reheating. Heat other leftovers thoroughly to 165°F.
Mark Bittman would like to answer that. Did you know that raising livestock supplies more harmful components to the atmosphere, contributing to climate change, than all our cars and trucks? Did you know that our demand - not need - for animal calories are contributing to the current health crisis, i.e. diabetes, obesity, cancer, heart disease? Did you know that raising animals for food is far and away the largest culprit in land degradation?
Does this mean you have to become a vegetarian? Surprisingly, no. Despite the fact that we, as humans, kill 10 billion … that’s right, 10 billion animals a year. There’s no way to do that gently, humanely.
The time has come to stop raising animals industrially and stop eating them thoughtlessly.
We can eat well, eat better, be healthier and reduce our carbon footprint by doing this - reduce your meat consumption by just 50%.
Snag yourself a copy of ‘Food Rules’ by Michael Pollan. At a mere $5.00 at Amazon.com, you can’t afford not to get a copy. I downloaded it to my Kindle, but then ordered the paper copy for reference.
‘Food Rules’ is a simple, 70 page manual for how to eat. Simple, easy to follow rules that once learned will forever banish junk food, engineered faux food products, overeating, chemicals and additives from your life and your kitchen. With a bit of daily exercise, this is quite simply all you need.
Grist.org and TakePart.com caught up with Anne Lappe from the Small Planet Institute and Take a Bite Out of Climate Change Project. Hear why she’s Hungry for Change.
Food, Inc. is in theaters soon. Visit takepart.com/foodinc or text FOOD to ACTION (228466) for more info.
I almost wish I had more than 5 lbs to loose. I’d actually give this a try. Seriously, the good old Weight Watchers, that’s been around forever … who knew it could be so effective, especially for women on the go.
‘On the go’ : that’s code for busier than hell. A job, a family, commuting, grad school. You’re probably the queen of multi-tasking, right? You work in exercise a couple times a week and try to avoid the obvious junk food, but nothing seems to work?
What I’m about to tell you may sound a little crazy, but it’s supported by a lot of expert opinion these days: ditch the diversity and go for the boredom in your meals.
Oh, this is just great. Now you can loose your house and your health, all thanks to that iconic spiced, pressure packed ‘meat product’: SPAM. It seems that with the economy tanking, the Hormel folks can’t keep up with the demand for the high fat, high sodium, low quality product. Hey, it’s tough times and SPAM is cheap.
I really didn’t want to know that Obama eats it while in Hawaii, it makes me want to retch. Watch the story below.
The UC Davis Mondavi Center presents bestselling author and UC Berkeley journalism professor Michael Pollan. He explores the ecology of eating to unveil why we consume what we consume in the twenty-first century. Michael Pollan is the author, most recently, of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010 at 17:22 
