Ensuring Safe Meals this Holiday Season

The holiday season is already in full swing and that calls for preparing delicious homecooked meals to be shared with loved ones. UGA Extension provides four steps to help you prepare a safe and delicious holiday dinner.

Clean kitchen surfaces and wash your hands. Also, be sure to rinse fruits and vegetables under running water and dry with a clean paper towel. For those firm-skinned produce items such as sweet potatoes or apples that go in your famous pies, scrub with a clean produce brush to get even more bacteria off the surface.

By Kristen Sumpter

Separate raw meat, poultry, seafood and eggs from produce and ready-to eat foods. To prevent crosscontamination, store raw meat, poultry and seafood on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator so juices don’t drip onto other foods. When it’s time to start making the recipes, use one cutting board for fresh produce and a separate cutting board to cut the raw meats.

Chill foods no more than 2 hours after dinner is served in a refrigerator that is consistently 40⁰F or below. Divide those tasty leftovers into small containers for quicker cooling in the fridge.

Cook foods to a high enough internal temperature to kill bacteria that could make you sick. Poking with a fork or looking at the color isn’t good enough; always use a food thermometer! Beef, pork, veal and lamb should be cooked to 145⁰F while poultry must be cooked to 165⁰F. For the day after meal, leftovers should also reach an internal temperature of 165⁰F.

It’s safe to say no one wants to be the source of an upset stomach during the holiday season, so use these easy tips to safely enjoy a delicious meal!

Sweet Potato and Turnip Mash with Sage Butter

This side dish is healthier than most mashed potato recipes because all heavy cream, whole milk and sour cream ingredients are omitted, reducing the total amount of saturated fat in your meal. This is also a great chance to use local sweet potatoes and turnips.

•1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

•8 ounces turnips (about 2 medium), peeled and diced

•3 large cloves garlic

•15 fresh sage leaves, divided (6 left whole, the rest cut into strips)

•2 tablespoons butter

•1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

•1/2 teaspoon coarsely cracked pepper

1. Place potatoes, turnips, garlic and 6 sage leaves in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are fork-tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Drain. Return the vegetables to the pan and keep covered.

2. Heat butter in a small skillet over medium-high heat. As it melts and turns lightly brown, add the strips of sage and allow them to crackle and flavor the butter, about 1 minute.

3. Pour the sage and butter over the vegetables and smash with a potato masher. Stir in salt and pepper and serve.

Recipe from Eating Well Magazine and adapted by Kristen Sumpter, Family and Consumer Sciences Agent, UGA Extension Fulton County