News-Record.com

News from the "Good to Know" department.

From AP:

WASHINGTON — Preparing for the arrival of bird flu, the government on Wednesday gave advice for making chicken safe to eat: Cook it to 165 degrees.

....

The department's "Is it Done Yet?" campaign provides a range of temperatures, including 170 degrees for chicken breasts and 180 degrees for whole birds.

Raymond said that's too confusing and from now on, the department will be sticking with a minimum of 165 degrees for all poultry.

"That's based on the best science available — 165 degrees is more than adequate to kill all food pathogens found in poultry, including avian influenza," he said.

Good at Borders and Waldenbooks for Giada's new book, Giada's Family Dinners. Good April 4 - April 19. Check it out.

P.S. I just read that Dino de Laurentiis is her grandfather. Pretty cool.

Oreos are round. Not oblong. Why do they try to change what is good?

From chicagobusiness.com:

"In a bid to capitalize on the dunk portion of the longtime "Twist, Lick, Dunk" theme for its Nabisco sandwich cookie, Kraft Foods this June will introduce a six-week limited-edition version of the typically O-shaped treat that is oblong and marked with messages including "soaked," "soggy," and "dry" lines for fun and easy dunking."

P.S. The Oreos with the red filling at Christmas? Evil.

Here's a nifty site that maps food bloggers around the world. Check it out (and add yourself if you're one of us)!

The U.S. portion:

Easter is only a few days away, so here are few tips and tricks to help you out.

-- For some really amazing looking and all-natural Easter eggs, check out this post. They don't seem that hard to make! And you could probably get a similar effect with regular dye, too.

-- Cut paper towel or toilet paper tubes into one-inch sections to hold Easter eggs while decorating.

-- Harriette Lee of Greensboro makes a trifle using angel food cake and pudding. She tops it with coconut dyed green, jelly beans and marshmallow animals for an Easter treat her kids love.

-- Add some vegetable oil to your dye for interesting spotting on your eggs.

-- Wrap eggs in rubber bands before you dye them for interesting patterns.

-- Let kids draw on eggs with wax crayons. The designs will show through after you dye them.

-- For some other different ways to decorate your eggs, check out this site.

I've had a friend ask me if I know where to get a real empanada here in Greensboro. I have no clue ... does anyone have any suggestions?

Here's the column that ran in today's paper, in case you didn't catch it this morning.

***

Before we get started, I’d like to present you with a problem. One of our photo gurus, whom I talk food with quite a lot, came to me with a bit of a quandary. He loves broccoli, but Fannie Farmer has let him down, and he can’t seem to find any recipes for broccoli casserole. Can anyone help a man out?

***

Well, since my last column, I’ve found out from your e-mails and calls that y’all really like meatloaf, and you all have your own tips and tricks when making it.

Many of you had tips for me on keeping a meatloaf from swimming in grease. Cindy Jordan sent an e-mail saying she first sprays the loaf pan with Pam, uses it to form her meatloaf, then slides it out onto a shallow pan with sides, like a cookie sheet. That way, she says she gets the loaf form, but it doesn’t sit in the grease. After picking up that tip from the Food Network, she and her daughters both use it.

Shannon Burks, who recently ate at Paula Deen’s The Lady & Sons restaurant in Savannah, Ga., was one of many who sent in Paula’s tip: Place two slices of bread on the bottom of a greased loaf pan before putting your meatloaf in, and the bread will soak up the grease. (Just remember to throw the bread out afterward!)

T. L. Kornegay of Greensboro wrote that he enjoys my column, but that I missed a key point in my last column. “From a guy’s perspective, the best thing about Mom’s meatloaf is preparing it just like Mom, and we all know that Mom only degreases her meatloaf AFTER it has been thoroughly cooked since baking it in all that grease actually encourages the crispy and flavorful exterior crust, which is the best part of this dish (leftover meatloaf sandwiches are a close second),” he writes. “I have experimented on this issue repeatedly over the years, and it really only works this way.”

Though he didn’t have a tip for getting rid of the grease, Brian Schmall of Archdale called to tell me that instead of bread crumbs in his meatloaf, he uses a mixture of 1 part crushed Doritos and 1 part crushed Saltine crackers for a bit of zip.

Does anyone else have unusual ingredients in their meatloaf recipes? Let me know!

I don't know. I read this article by J Wynia about how to make your life easier by cutting back on buying food you don't need. We all have cabinets full of ingredients we buy because maybe we'll use them, 10 cans of diced tomatoes or 3 jars of peanut butter (true story) because you can't remember at the store whether you have any left. His solution? A complex system of index cards and note-taking. Supposedly, once you go through the cycle, it takes over and there's not as much to keeping it up. But for people like me, who like to try lots of different recipes and not rely on the same ones night after night, I'm not so sure this is worth the effort.

Why would you want overripened bananas? One, they're sweeter, and two, very ripe bananas make the best banana bread! If you want to ripen your bananas in a hurry, there are a couple ways to do so.

1.) Put them in a brown paper bag for a couple days. To speed the process, add an apple to the bag.

2.)Use the microwave. Pierce the skin of the banana in a few spots, then heat on high for 1-2 minutes with the skin on.

Also, if you find yourself with too many bananas, put them in the freezer, skin and all. To thaw them out, just leave them on the counter at room temperature.

So NBC has already ditched "Celebrity Cooking Showdown," not bothering to air the final episodes of the reality competition. (Of course, you'll be able to watch and vote online -- I would love to see the numbers on who actually bothers to download it.) And I totally understand why. We taped the first two episodes, and I watched the first one on Tuesday. And promptly deleted the other one without watching it.

First of all, the celebrities didn't actually have to do much of anything. Their recipes were made up by the likes of Wolfgang Puck and Cat Cora, and they had to simply learn a few recipes. Nor were they alone in the kitchen -- each got help from their chef on critical steps in the process.

I wanted to see cookng disasters, celebrities I care about being creative on their own, and plenty of cheese and ham. I got none of the above. NBC took what should have been a fun concept and drained it of any taste at all.

A press release from the Greensboro Farmers' Curb Market:

"The Greensboro Farmers’ Curb Market is opening its weekday farmers’ market beginning Wednesday, May 3, 7 am to 1 pm. The Saturday market is open from 6 am to noon yearround. The Market will be open on Wednesdays, 7 am to 1 pm, through December.

"The Market, a facility of the Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department, is located near downtown Greensboro at the corner of Lindsay and Yanceyville Streets, across from War Memorial Baseball Stadium. Among the items available for purchase are fresh produce, cut flowers, bedding plants, potted flowers, baked goods, and a variety of arts and crafts. Admission and parking are free and open to the public."

So it's been a hectic week for me, to say the least. I found out on Monday that I had gall stones and that I would need to lose the gall bladder. On Wednesday, I was recuperating at the High Point Surgery Center, minus one gall bladder, and looking over a list of foods I would need to avoid for the next six weeks. Eventually, I'll be able to work some of them back in (I hope), but in the meantime, this low-fat diet means I need to avoid butter, most cheese, peanut butter(!), and a whole host of other things that basically make up my typical diet.

What does this mean for Mel's Kitchen? Well, it's probably going to get a whole lot healthier as I try to figure out how to eat low-fat without losing the taste.