COORDINATION ---Food Safety

Candace Summers, Director of Education at the McLean County Museum of History called about the new exhibit opening in March 2009 entitled "Come and Get It! Eating and Drinking Habits in McLean County." They are starting to come up with ideas for programs to do during this exhibit and thought a great one would be a Canning workshop, where we could teach participants basic canning techniques and talk about the history and process of canning, maybe even can something simple as well. The only hitch is where to hold the workshop… they do not have the facilities to do something like this. They were thinking to do this perhaps late summer or early fall. I contacted U of I educators Jananne Finck and Shirley Camp. Vrooman Mansion is starting cooking classes maybe they would let us use their facility and publicize the partnership with Extension and McLean County Museum.

Consumer calls in food safety…. A few are listed below…

...Q: Canned goods were frozen in storage on a screen porch. Canned salmon etc. Are they safe to use even if I see no damage to the cans?

...Q: I mailed some oranges home with a special note to NOT to let them freeze but they arrived frozen. Now what? A: Don't let them thaw until you are ready to eat them, then only partially thaw them. OR… make fruit smoothies.

...Q: Can you freeze fresh mushrooms? I'm talking about the plain, white sliced msuhrooms you can buy in the produce department, not the fancy, expensive ones. They are on sale this week and it made me wonder if I could buy some, freeze them, and then have them on hand to put in soup or salad. A: You can freeze the mushrooms and they would probably be fine for soups and casseroles. Some people would not recommend it, though. I say try it and see what you think. Don't expect to be able to use them in salads, though, but you can see what you think. It's kind of like when you freeze a tomato… great in chili's, soups, and casseroles but don't expect to be able to make a great BLT sandwich with it!

COORDINATION---General Nutrition

1) Dec. 16… Met with Newspaper Features Editor, Chuck Blystone, and Linda Smith.

2) Request for program on Cooking for One or Two from Parkinson's Support Group.

3) Coordinating with Charlotte on Money Smart week.

4) Q: Have you heard of a cut of meat called the Flat Iron Steak? She paid $4.00/ lb A: we checked the web for ratings and ways to cook. Upscale restaurants are beginning to serve it. A: The Flat Iron Steak (also know as a Top Blade Steak), now appearing in grocery stores and on restaurant menus was developed by teams at the University of Nebraska and the University of Florida. The problem that presented these researchers of the cow was what to do with a waste cut of beef from the shoulder of the cow. Though a flavorful and relatively tender cut of meat, the top blade roast has a serious flaw in the middle of it; an impossibly tough piece of connective tissue running through the middle. cutting and presenting this steak, these friendly scientists have presented to us an amazing cut of beef. More than that, they have developed a nearly perfect steak for the grill. The Flat Iron (supposedly named because it looks like an old fashioned metal flat iron) is uniform in thickness and rectangular in shape. The only variation is the cut into the middle of the steak where the connective tissues have been removed.

COORDINATION--- Healthy Family Relationships

1) YAH… Young at Heart day solicitation for hobby displays has begun

2) YAH… New committee members?

3) Promoting Living Single in a Couples World seminar for Jan. 26

News Releases (nutrition & food safety)

4 Pantagraph newspaper/ Community News "In the Kitchen" columns for January-----

… Obesity… more thoughts

… Mold…Good And Bad Mold On Food

… Frozen Canned Goods

… Raisin Sauce… Country of Origin…2

… Gallon...What is in a Gallon