Michéle Samarya-Timm, a Health Educator for the Franklin Township Health Department in New Jersey, writes, Thanksgiving, and its hours of food prep, certainly creates a reason to appreciate sound food safety advice. After all, 3 hours seated at the dinner table should never be followed by 3 days seated on a porcelain throne.
Over the past few days, I’ve seen lots of advice to ensure a perfectly cooked (and foodsafe) thanksgiving turkey, but what if you’ve applied the cooking process a little too thoroughly?
Amending a list I found several years ago, here’s an updated version of Reasons to Be Thankful for Burning the Bird:
1. The useless pop-up timer was rendered useless.
2. Your tip sensitive digital thermometer will read at least 165F.
3. Salmonella won’t be a concern.
4. Another valid reason for cooking stuffing outside the bird.
5. No one will overeat.
6. Post dinner sleepiness won’t be due to the tryptophan in turkey.
7. Uninvited guests will think twice next year.
8. Pets won’t pester you for scraps.
9. The smoke alarm was due for a test.
10. Ash residue is a great motivation for handwashing.
11. Carving the bird will provide a good cardiovascular workout.
12. After dinner, the guys can take the bird to the yard and play football.
13. The less turkey Uncle George eats, the less likely he will be to walk around with his pants unbuttoned.
14. You’ll get to the desserts quicker.
15. No arguments about throwing out turkey leftovers.
16. Next year you’ll pay closer attention to Doug Powell’s Canadian Thanksgiving food prep video.
Enjoy your holidays. And wash your hands!
Earlier this week, 
Raymond, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s undersecretary for food safety (right, on the left, at Marler’s food safety bash last week), told a House subcommittee that USDA has enough food inspectors after hiring more than 190 last year and videotaping meat plant operations would be costly and practically difficult to implement, adding, "It’s not as simple as a camera," and that the agency was "not stretched too thin."
"I’m speaking, of course, about Ms. (Rachel) Ray’s complete refusal to adhere to national guidelines regarding the consumption of raw eggs and seafood. To be fair, Emeril "Beer Belly" Lagasse, as well as Mario "Anyeurism" Batali also ignore these warnings, and regularly use raw eggs in many of their concoctions. But these two individuals, obese and stinky as they may be, can actually cook, whereas Rachael Ray cannot."
Today, the 81-year-old Queen Elizabeth II once again proved herself adaptable — at least more nimble than most American food producers, especially spinach growers — and launched her own special Royal Channel on YouTube..jpg)
After training for a semester, you are going to see a lot more video from Andrew and others at iFSN.