You would think by all of the Christmas shopping hysteria that Christmas was on its way. I suppose it is, but first comes Thanksgiving. And you know what that means, food. Lots and lots of food, which means more food needs to be refrigerated. Make sure your refrigerator contains enough space for all the extra food purchased. If a refrigerator is filled with too many items, air circulation will be blocked and some items may freeze while others will never get cool. Having an extra refrigerator for meal preparation or leftovers could be a big benefit.
Some of the most problematic foods in large gatherings are dips, cheeses and foods containing cream. Hot foods need to be kept hot and cold foods need to be kept cold. Dips with dairy in them need to be kept at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or less. Hot food items on a buffet need to be kept at 140 degrees or higher. That means leftovers too. Don’t just let the food set around. Put the cold stuff back in the fridge immediately and cool the hot food down and get it in there as soon as you can. Food that sits out longer than two hours should be thrown away.
How food gets treated at many Thanksgiving dinners makes food safety experts cringe. There are so many Thanksgiving food disasters that the USDA staffs their Toll-free Meat & Poultry Hotline 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Central Time on Thanksgiving Day. The Meat & Poultry Hotline number is 1-888-674-6854. Food safety specialists at USDA have an entire section of their web site dedicated to cooking turkey and Thanksgiving feasts. Just Google USDA talk turkey!
There are a couple of things I have for you to put on your calendar. UNL and the Nebraska Cattlemen Seedstock Council are holding a “Sire Selection and Cow Herd Management Clinic” in four locations around the state next week. Locations are Blue Hill on Monday, O’Neill, Tuesday, Burwell, Wednesday and Bridgeport on Thursday.
Also, mark January 14 on your calendars for the annual Ranching for Profitability workshop in Valentine. As always, First National Bank is our co-sponsor for the meeting. The meeting will be from 4:30 – 9:00 pm at Cedar Canyon. You will hear more about it as it gets closer, but I wanted you to get it on your calendars.
We also have this winter’s Beef Satellite Short Course. Our office will be one of the downlink sites again this year. The programs all begin at 7:00 pm Central Time On Monday December 8, the topic will be County of Origin Labeling for the beef producer. December 15 will be Beef Cow Herd Biosecurity and Trich Management Considerations. January 12’s topic is Recessive Genes in Beef Cattle Production and the final topic on January 19 will be Production Tips to Increase Profit Potential in the Cow/Calf Enterprise. This year we are asking that you call our office and let us know if you are planning to attend.
As always, just give us a call at 402-376-1850 for more information on any of the things I’ve covered.
