respublica

Cardinals game day give-a-ways for 2020

Want to know what the St. Louis Cardinals will be giving away to fans heading to games this coming season. I'm sure there are non-season ticket holders out there who buy individual tickets according to the free stuff given away upon entering. Two years ago we went to the last game of the season and received red plaid, fur lined, earmuffed, hats for cold weather. This turned out to be one of the more popular giveaways and so many people who weren't at that game were so wanting one.

I've kept mine, I just love it. It looks kind of silly when on my head, but it's warm and a conversation starter. And, the women's clothing store, Talbots, actually had a catalog cover with this hat minus the Cardinals logo. I wore mine the other night when we did the campus lighting ceremonies because it was really cold. Here is KSDK's story on 2020 and the game by game giveaways. You need to scroll down the story a bit before they get to all this.

Campus lights

Every year the seminary campus gets lit up for Christmas and my favorite is the angels which cast their shadows against the building walls. The best is the angel in front of Luther Tower.

Our house has blue snowflakes and blue and white lights on the bushes as well as two dogs. I miss my dog, but these two make me happy.

About those Thanksgiving leftovers

I you know me at all you'd know I'm obsessive about food safety. I am always on the look-out for food that may be under cooked, spoiled or contaminated. As soon as we put our forks down after any meal, I am up and wrapping and refrigerating any leftovers. I never understand people who can eat food which has been sitting out for several hours after a meal. Or leave a pizza out on the counter overnight and have some for breakfast. If you have ever experienced food poisoning, you'll understand.

No, just no.

So this article from ABC7 in Chicago was right up my food philosophy, although they may have been a bit more forgiving than I am. The article is titled:" How Long Do Leftovers Last? Your Guide to Post-Holiday Food Safety."  Here is the advice.

1. Eat or freeze Thanksgiving turkey and other leftovers within 3-4 days. That seems too long for me, that would be the Monday after. Sunday is my limit and anything left is out for pickup. Actually, Saturday is my last day to eat any of it, while Dale can still be found eating it as long as it is within sight. I protect him by not letting it go past Sunday.

2. After the meal is over, get that food in the fridge within two hours. And don't think food should cool down before refrigerating.  Any food left out longer than that should be tossed. I do think you'd be ok with cake left out or cookies, pie.

3. Reheat those leftovers thoroughly, at least to 165 degrees in an oven set to at least 325. Do not reheat in a slow cooker/crock pot. I almost made that mistake last night but after checking online about doing it found it was a real no no. The reason is slow cookers keep food at an unsafe temperature too long and bacteria forms.

4. Leftover food containing meat, fish, eggs, poultry can last two to three months in the freezer. Leftovers without any meat only make it one to two months.

I realize I'm paranoid, but better safe than sick.

 

Food miracle

Yesterday, Thanksgiving, something amazing happened. The food all got finished at the same time. Or, rather, the right time in order to get it all on the table at the right temperature. I did the stuffing and mashed potatoes a bit differently because those two take time and oven/stove top space. I made both in crock pots and it worked perfectly. Both were out of the way cooking slowly while other things could use the time and oven.

 

Watching Black Friday from my couch

Every year local and national news spend an inordinate amount of time on stories about the huge number of people charging into stores at the stroke of midnight or 5 a.m. for stuff at lower prices. I can remember doing this exactly twice and one of those was early on in the Black Friday years. But that was enough to keep me away and just watch the news.

What I've noticed over the years is what shoppers are shown putting into their carts and so much of the time it's huge tv's or other tech stuff. But so often big tv's. You rarely get news video of people buying shoes or coats. My guess is while they call it Christmas shopping, it's mostly shopping for themselves. Which defeats the purpose of spending money this time of year and makes it harder to spend on real gifts in the coming weeks.

And now comes the Thanksgiving food stories

News outlets just cannot resist putting out stories on what foods can make us sick on Thanksgiving. You can be sure turkey is front and center in most of these reports. Just about the time we're ready to begin cooking, here come the food safety stories.

This story came up this morning on the Fox2 news station in St. Louis. It concerns the way turkeys were stored at the Collinsville Walmart.

"A week before Thanksgiving and there are questions tonight about how some turkeys are being stored at a Collinsville Walmart Supercenter. Pictures obtained by Fox 2 News have some concerned about health safety. As a result, Walmart is taking action."

It seems some turkeys were put into recyle bins. "Pictures show turkeys being stored in large blue bins in a freezer at the Collinsville Walmart Supercenter on Collinsville Crossing Boulevard. One of the bins is marked “we recycle."

Walmart is taking action, they said, after being made aware of this.

And of course there are the warnings about how to buy and defrost and cook a turkey. Don't defrost on the counter at room temperature. Do this in the fridge over some days. If you buy a frozen turkey that is already stuffed, then don't defrost it at all, the stuffing will develop bacteria.

Also some panicky food safety people have recommended not stuffing any turkey before cooking. I'm sorry, but we still do this. But whatever you do, don't thaw at room temperature.

After many years of food safety people telling us to rinse off/wash turkey before cooking, now there is some thinking that this makes things worse because of bacteria splatter onto counters. It's much better not to wash or rinse. But I'm telling you I rinse down the outside and inside of turkey and chicken. There is blood on a thawed bird inside and out and I do not want any part of that. You can eat bloody beef, but I draw the line at poultry.

Make sure that turkey is totally done before eating. The temperature of in inner thigh, the thickest part of the bird, should register 180-185. Stuffing should be at least 160-165 and get that stuffing out immediately.

You have only about two hours from the time it comes out of the oven to when the leftovers should be wrapped and put in the refrigerator. Frankly, I don't let the turkey sit even that long before put it away in the fridge. As soon as everyone seems to be done that bird is going in the cooler.

Don't all theses stories and warnings have you looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner?

Recycling old commercials

Last year during the lead-up to Christmas, GMC created an ad which ran pretty much every half hour. It featured a husband and wife giving each other presents. The man brought his wife outside where there were two big pickup trucks, one black, one red, and told her, "one for you, one for me". She shouted, "I love it"! and went right to the black one. He started to tell her, no, that was for me, but when he saw she was in love with the black one, he resigned himself to the red.

Anyhow, this was on tv constantly last year. So guess what. GMC must have loved that so much they've brought it back for this year. So far it has run every half hour (it seems like it anyhow).

"I LOVE IT" is an expression I'm hearing all over the place now because of this commercial.

Lights! Christmas

Some of our seminary students began hanging Christmas lights in the park like area between the campus and Demun. It was a gloomy day, but they were all pretty darn cheerful as they untangled and hung the lights. This will be a long process but we've begun.

As you can see, they don't just toss a string of lights on the branches and call it a day. They really wrap and wrap so that the lights show up.

The above photo has Holy Cross field worker, Alarik Morris working in a Santa hat.

Fall but Christmas

We are off to Maryland in a few minutes, hopefully I can post while out there at Katie's.

Christmas ads

On the early morning local news I heard one of the reporters say that Kohl's already has its Christmas ad available. It's 64 pages and we can see it all online or pick up one in store if it doesn't show up in the mailbox.

My first reaction was...64 pages of ads online?! Have you ever tried to move through that many pages online? It's a constant clicking the forward arrow or back arrow while only a couple items comes up per page. Then trying to go back to something you want to see again takes forever. Some things are just not computer friendly.

Speaking of December...uh...October..

I am so ready for the time change which comes this weekend. It is currently 7:12 and it's still dark. It's dark in the early evening anyway, nature does what nature does, but oh for more light in the morning.