Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Big Sky Country
I post to you from Evanston, Wyoming. The Civic travelled far yesterday and we are grateful for her unfailing service. I regret to inform you that we have a man down on this adventure. Mark has succumb to a rather nasty virus, as evidenced by his quite powerful vomiting yesterday evening. The spewage happened directly outside of the Super 8 where we lodged for the evening. Worry not, dear reader. I was still able to capture Mark's work on his handy camcorder. He sleeps yet this morning as I write from a conveniently located library. We shall not rest until we reach the storied Livermore Valley. How about we pray that God keeps special watch over a certain silver Civic heading west on I-80 through Utah this morning? Just a suggestion... Thanks for the comment love. i'm out.
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5 comments:
Aww, Teej, the last time you drove out to California you and I spoke via “cell” phone for a decent percentage of your westward pilgrimage across the great state of Wyoming. But this time you're not coming back. Sniff sniff :(
If Mark is barfing, it's probably food poisoning, or as we call it in the business "foodborne illness." And if he's got cramps and the squirts that are over in about 24 hours, I'd bet the whole ranch that's what it is.
People often speak of "the 24 hour flu"...but the vast majority of the time food poisoning is the culprit. Preventing such a thing is what I am most passionate about in my line of work.
So wash your hands people! Don't let frozen meat thaw on the counter! Don't cross-contaminate! Make sure your refrigerator is no more than 40 degrees F! Don’t allow temperature abuse! And go Illini!
Teresa
so, do you only defrost with the microwave?
Maybe it was the 3.5-week-old donut he ate at my apartment... or maybe it was the salsa from Easter that he mixed with the month-old potato chips. It's a good thing we didn't touch the eggs.
Scott
Defrosting can be done in the microwave but ONLY if you cook the food immediately after it gets thawed. This is because microwaves create hot spots in food, which are perfect little niches for bacterial growth. This is particuarly important for ground meat (or other non-meat products), as meat itself is sterile, and bacterial growth only happens as a result of contamination from something else; so something like a steak or a roast remains sterile on the inside even if the outside is contaminated, but when meat is ground up, any surface contamination is spread throughout the meat (this is why you can eat a steak rare and be fine as long as the surface is cooked, but doing so with ground beef is much more risky). However, I really don't recommend this method of thawing meat.
Your best bet is to thaw in the refrigerator. It takes some planning in advance, but it is food-safe and the meat quality will be better. Meat needs to defrost slowly to give it time to reabsorb the water within the muscle that has been frozen. If you don't allow adequate time for reabsorption, your meat won't have time to reabsorb the water and will be dry and unappealing. In a pinch, soaking packaged meat in a cold water bath is ok, but not preferable to the refrigeration method.
Also essential for quality meat is a very quick freeze...the quicker the better (and frozen meat should be held at a maximum of 0 degrees F in your freezer). If meat freezes slowly, large ice crystals will form and cause cell membranes to rupture, which will cause water loss and thus dried out meat.
Teresa
By the time we got to our 4th hotel that night (many frustrating moments were had as all the hotels were ultrabooked at 1 AM, resulting in a post voyage trek across the beautiful state of wyoming while I was in a food poisoning induced delirium), I kew that I had to poo or vomit. I walked into the hotel and asked the nice lady if she had a bathroom. When she said no, I knew. I knew that the poop option was right out and that a hot torrent of mexican vomit was going to soon pass between my teeth. I took two steps out the door of the hotel and painted the concrete stairs with a forceful stream of orange pleasantness. There were splatter marks for about 5 feet. It was awesome.
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