Dinner Tonight

Dinner Tonight

Healthy Cooking for a Healthy Texas

Carving Pumpkins Knife Safety

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It’s getting close to pumpkin carving time! It’s tempting to pull out your sharpest kitchen knife to get the job done, but you may want to think twice. Using your kitchen knives may lead to more serious injuries and can damage your knives at the same time. Use these tips to make sure carving your pumpkins is a fun & safe activity!

  • Use the Right Tools – Instead of the knives in your kitchen, use the specialty tools in a pumpkin-carving kit—readily found online and in convenience stores and designed for pumpkin carving safety. These tools can saw through rinds, poke holes, and scoop out innards without being razor-sharp. The instruments are also generally small, which makes them easier to control than most knives and easier to use when making intricate cuts.
  • Carve Your Pumpkin With Its Top On – That way you won’t be tempted to put your hand inside and cut toward your hand. Hold the top of the pumpkin to stabilize it and cutting with your carving instrument’s blade pointing down. Instead of removing the top of the pumpkin to scoop out the insides, think about cutting a hole in the bottom. If you’re using a candle inside your pumpkin, you can then place the carved pumpkin on top of the lit candle—rather than awkwardly reaching inside the pumpkin to light the candle.
  • Keep Things Clean, Dry, and Bright – For pumpkin carving safety, work in a clean, dry, and well-lit area, keep your hands and tools clean and dry, and take your time.
  • Don’t Let Kids Carve – Children 14 and younger can participate by drawing the pattern with a marker and cleaning out the pulp and seeds with their hands or a spoon—but make sure an adult does the actual cutting. It’s important to supervise older teens, too. Adolescents often become patients because parents think they’re responsible enough to be left on their own to carve pumpkins.
  • Know First Aid – If you or a family member gets cut while carving a pumpkin, apply direct pressure to the injury using a clean, dry cloth. If bleeding doesn’t stop in 15 minutes, get to an emergency room or urgent-care clinic.

If you still decide to use your kitchen knives, be aware that you may cause permanent damage to them by putting more pressure on the handle and blade than they are made for. This can cause damage that may result in safety issues once they return for use in the kitchen.

Source:
Consumer Reports. Pumpkin Carving Safety Tips – Interview with Stuart J. Elkowitz, M.D., assistant clinical professor at NYU Langone Medical Center in the division of hand surgery.

Stove and Oven Safety

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Stove and oven Safety

  1. Cook with Care-

-Never leave cooking unattended. Turn pot handles inward so that they are not pulled or knocked over. Position your oven racks before pre-heating to prevent burns.

  1. Keep Loose Items Away

– You should tie back long hair, roll up long sleeves, and remove any loose jewelry.  Keep loose items, like towels or oven mitts, away from your cooking area as these can ignite and cause a fire.

  1. Protect Your Home from Fires

– Purchase a fire extinguisher to keep near your cooking area and install a smoke detector in your kitchen to help keep your kitchen safe from fires.

  1. Create a Child-Free (and Pet) Zone

-Setting a “Kid-Free” or “ Pet – Free” zone or using a baby gate can help keep children and pets away from your stove or oven to avoid injuries or accidents.

  1. Turn Off and Check Cooking Appliances

Make sure your stove burners and oven are off. Remove all items from stop top and inside oven. An oven should never be used for storage.

Grilling Safely

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How to Grill Safely

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Food poisoning peaks in the summer months when warmer temperatures cause foodborne germs to flourish. Follow these steps for a safe and enjoyable grilling season.

Separate

When shopping, pick up meat, poultry, and seafood last, right before checkout. Separate them from other food in your shopping cart and grocery bags. To guard against cross-contamination, put packages of raw meat and poultry into indiv

idual plastic bags.

Chill

Keep meat, poultry, and seafood refrigerated until ready to grill. When transporting, keep below 40°F in an insulated cooler.

Clean

Wash your hands with soap before and after handling raw meat, poultry, and seafood. Wash work surfacesExternal, utensils, and the grill before and after cooking.

Check your grill and tools

Use a moist cloth or paper towel to clean the grill surface before cooking. If you use a wire bristle brush, thoroughly inspect the grill’s surface before cooking. Wire bristles from grill cleaning brushes may dislodge and stick into food on the grill.

Don’t cross-contaminate

Throw out marinades and sauces that have touched raw meat juices, which can spread germs to cooked foods. Use clean utensils and a clean plate to remove cooked meat from the grill.

Cook

Use a food thermometerExternal to ensure meat is cooked hot enough to kill harmful germs. When smoking, keep temperatures inside the smoker at 225°F to 300°F to keep meat a safe temperature while it cooks.

  • 145°F – whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb, and veal (stand-time of 3 minutes at this temperature)
  • 145°F – fish
  • 160°F – hamburgers and other ground beef
  • 165°F – all poultry and pre-cooked meats, like hot dogs

After Grilling:

  • 140°F or warmer – until it’s served

Refrigerate

Divide leftovers into small portions and place in covered, shallow containers. Put in freezer or fridgeExternal within two hours of cooking (one hour if above 90°F outside).

Learn more from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here. 

Grilling Safely

When the warmer weather hits, there’s nothing better than the smell of food on the grill.

Seven out of every 10 adults in the U.S. have a grill or smoker*, which translates to a lot of tasty meals. But it also means there’s an increased risk of home fires.

In 2011 – 2015, fire departments went to an annual average of 9,600 home fires involving grills, hibachis or barbecues per year, including 4,100 structure fires and 5,500 outside or unclassified fires.

Watch this video below for safety tips!

https://youtu.be/65RCHLNIKa8

Learn more from the National Fire Protection Association here. 

Cookie Making Tips

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Cookies are little bites of happiness that bring the family together and are a favorite holiday treat! Keep the cookie making safe at your household with these simple food safety tips:

  • Wash counter tops and hands before preparing your recipe. Use only clean utensils such as mixing bowls, baking pans and measuring spoons.
  • Wash your hands again after handling raw eggs.
  • Do not eat raw cookie dough which contains raw eggs, including licking the spoon. Bacteria can be present in raw eggs. Salmonella is one example of bacteria sometimes found in raw eggs.
  • All purpose flour has been the target of a recent recall due to contamination with E. coli. Again, to avoid getting sick, do not eat raw cookie dough.
  • If you want your cookies to taste fresh longer than a few days, freeze them until you are ready to use them. Package your cookies in freezer quality bags, containers, etc. to preserve the quality of the cookies. Label and date the cookies so you know what is in each package. For specific information on freezing baked good, check out the Michigan State University Extension news article: “It’s not too early to make holiday baked goods”.
  • Do not prepare baked goods when you are sick. Save the holiday baking until you are feeling better to avoid spreading germs to others.

 

Content originally from Michigan State Extension

 

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