On being
a farm wife
. . ft
rd
Joyce Bnpp
-And other
hazards
“Leftovers” should be banned.
The word. Not the food.
A negative meaning has
attached itself to the term “left
overs” over the years. It implies
something of infinitely lesser
value than the original. In some
cases, that’s probably, as the kids
would have said, a “true fact.”
Actually, leftovers of some sort
or another have been part of the
upbringing of most of us from this
thrifty, frugal part of the country,
though there were often other
terms used, depending on the
commodity. Leftover clothes at
our house were better known as
“hand-me-downs,” and taken for
granted as part of the wearing
apparel most of us wore at some
time in our childhood days.
Today, leftover clothes have a
new chic appeal as a sensible,
more economical way to add gar
ments to a wardrobe while not
blowing the family fortune.
Oodles of shops specializing in
almost-new garments have sprung
up, in locations as diverse as tiny,
rural town store fronts to stylish,
downtown boutiques. From fine
wool suits, to worn jeans, to small
At
FACTORY DIRECT
Prices!
Hardwood Sawdust, Shavings,
And Ground Wood Cover
WALTER H. WEABER SONS, INC.
Route 241 , Lebanon , PA
Phone: 717/867-2212 Toll Free: 800/344-3114
Contact Wes Geib For Pricing And Scheduling
CO
NT
CM
WEABER'S
Loading Daily Monday-Friday
Delivery Available For Tractor Trailer Loads
*Also buyers of standing timber
children’s play clothing, you can
find just the item you had in mind
to recycle.
Whoever heard of a leftover
car? But “used” cars are a back
bone of the automobile sales
industry. And in more politically
correct lingo, they’ll more likely
be called “pre-owned.” Come to
think of it, my last car purchase
was in fact a leftover; a new
model unsold from the previous
year and left over on the lot, when
the newer models came out.
A recent food article I came
across while flipping through a
homemaking magazine encour
aged busy cooks to not only use
“leftovers,” but to build long-term
menu plans around them. It
advised cooks juggling full-time
jobs, childcare, community ser
vice and all the other stuff
wives/mothers do to set aside one
day or maybe one weekend each
month to prepare huge amounts of
food and freeze it. And then use
all that prepared food {leftovers!)
to preplan a couple of weeks
worth of hot, nutritious, meals.
,C’mon, guys. We’ve been
doing that for years.
UEBANON n
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CM
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It’s known as the Thanksgiving
Turkey,
And what we have after the ini
tial feast is over is not a platter
rounded full of leftovers that
threaten to overflow the frigerator
but a whole new kitchen full of
menu potential.
My Mom is a master at utiliz
ing the potential of all that food
promise. Tossing out a turkey car
cass is considered an unpardon
able trespass and sinful waste of
food.
I presume she learned that
from her mother, who it
from her mother, and on back.
Indeed, it’s not hard to visualize
ancestral colonial mothers who
snatched the wild turkey carcasses
after that first Pilgrim feast and
tossed them in a sooty kettle bub
bling over an open-air fire to cook
down into soup fixins’. Or maybe
Pilgrim Pot Pie.
So beloved in our own farm
household are turkey recyclings
that, not only at the holidays but
every several weeks, you can rise
from sleep to the fragrance of a
turkey that has roasted overnight
in the oven. Except for the
instance a few weeks ago, when I
forgot to switch the oven on to
“Bake” and at sunrise found a
cold oven -and a still cold turkey.
Like the Thanksgiving Turkey,
these everyday birds become
recycled, rehashed, reused and
refrozen in cooked, ready-to-use,
assorted dishes, salads, sandwich
makings, soup stocks and gravy
bases. Likewise with chunks of
hams, whole chickens as well as
their parts, and beef and pork
roasts cut with ongoing use in
mind.
Leftovers? Indeed not.
Just think of it as the original
Fast Food.
SPECIAL CHRISTMA
-X • vMtX Z57681%44d&
lent Bargains Throughout The Store. Shoes, Sneakers, Rubl
Boots Such As Bata, Tingley, LaCross And Over The Sock Bi
Magic Holiday Meals
CREAMERY (Montgomery
Co.) “Hello! This is Magic
Turkey Take-Out Service. We
deliver turkeys anywhere. Please
leave your name address and order
after the beep.”
Is there such a service that will
deliver a beautifully cooked holi
day dinner including a fully cooked
turkey and all the trimmings? Yes,
but we have to phone or fax our
order and sometimes we have to
pick it up. Complete holiday din
ners are available from restaurants
caterers and supermarkets. It’s the
way families of the ’9os are trying
to have the traditional meal with
out the usual shopping and prepa
ration.
But as with traditionally pre
pared holiday meals, the safety of
the take-out meal depends on proper
consumer handling of the prepared
meal after it is picked up or deliv
ered. Annette Goodling of Mont
gomery County Cooperative Exten
sion offers the following safety
tips for handling ready-to-serve
holiday turkey dinners.
• Hot From the Oven: Pick up
the food HOT and keep it HOT.
Keeping the food warm is not
good enough. Harmful bacteria
multiply fastest between 40° F
and 140° F. To keep the turkey hot
set the oven temperature at 200° F
or higher. The internal tempera
ture of the turkey should be 140°
F or above when measured with a
meat thermometer. The stuffing
and side dishes should also be
kept HOT.
• Handle Turkey Dinners Safe
ly: It’s not a good idea to try and
keep the foods HOT longer than
two hours. If eating much later,
the turkey and trimmings will be
safer and taste better if you
remove all the stuffing from the
turkey cavity immediately and
November 18 th thru
at the
' Lancaster Faming, Saturday, November 19, 1994-B3
refrigerate. Cut the turkey off the
bone, slice the breast meal, the
legs and wings may be left whole.
Refrigerate the turkey meat, pota
toes, gravy and vegetables in
small, shallow containers.
• Keep Cold Foods COLD:
Some turkey dinners are cold
when you pick them up or when
they’re delivered. For turkey and
trimmings which the establish
ment has refrigerated after cook
ing, refrigerate as soon as you get
it home (always within 2 hours of
pickup). Do not reheat the turkey
whole. If you plan to reheat the
cold turkey, carve and refrigerate
it as described above.
• Cooked Frozen Turkeys with
the USDA Inspection Seal: These
turkeys have been processed
under controlled conditions. Fol
low package directions for thaw
ing, reheating and storing.
• Storing Leftovers: Perishable
foods such as turkey and side
dishes should not be out of the
refrigerator for more than two
hours. Store leftover cooked
turkey and side dishes in the
refrigerator at 40° F or below for
3 to 4 days; stuffing and gravy 1
to 2 days.
• Reheating Cooked Dinners
and Leftovers: always reheat left
overs thoroughly to 165° F or
until hot and steaming. Bring
gravy to a rolling boil. In the
microwave oven, cover food and
rotate dish so it heats evenly.
For more information contact
Montgomery County Cooperative
Extension at (610) 489-4315 and
ask for Annette Goodling. The
USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline,
1-800-535-4555, is available week
days 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. during
the month of November. You can
also call the hotline the weekend
before Thanksgiving and even
Thanksgiving day 8 to 2.