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Show November 22, 2007 9 Nutrition expert: Remember food safety during the holiday season THANKSGIVING SERVICE BY KAY BLAKLEY kay.blakley@deca.mil S Above, Robert Lehmiller serves at Hill Air Force Base's Thanksgiving dinner last year. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., on Thanksgiving, base leadership will be serving the meal at the Hillcrest Dining Facility. It is for active duty military SIK and BAS members, their immediate families and military retirees and their immediate families. There will be appetizers, entrees and dressings and the traditional side dishes and a salad bar, various beverages and desserts. For more information, call 777-3686. Right, Lori Lehmiller (left to right), Joanna Beletic and Robert Lehmiller serve patrons at last year's dinner. NICK SHORT/Standard-Examiner !T\ Shingles vaccine available to beneficiaries age 60, older U.S. Air Force Print Service F ALLS CHURCH, Va. — Following a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation issued last month, TVicare now covers Zostavax, the vaccine designed to prevent shingles for beneficiaries age 60 and older. Shingles is a painful viral disease that affects more than one million Americans every year. More than half of those cases happen in people age 60 or older. The CDC recommends a single dose of shingles vaccine for everyone age 60 and older. In a shingles prevention study done by the Veterans Administration Cooperative TVial, run by Dr. Michael Oxman out of the University of California, San Diego, Zostavax was more than 50 percent effective in reducing the incidence of shingles and more than 60 percent effective in reducing some of its associated symptoms. Even in people who suffer from the disease, most of those who were vaccinated experienced less pain. Beneficiaries who receive the shingles vaccine must have vaccinations administered in a provider's office. Zostavax is covered under the Tricare medical benefit and is not reimbursable under the pharmacy benefit. Beneficiaries with coverage or claims questions should contact the Tricare regional claims processor found on their beneficiary explanation of benefits notice. For more information on shingles and the vaccine you may visit the CDC Web site, www.cdc.gov/ vaccines/pubs/vis/downloads/visshingles.pdf. haring holiday meals with friends and family is an important part of the holiday season. Do partake of the season's merriment, but don't invite food poisoning to join the party by using careless food-handling practices. With a little bit of care and knowledge, foodborne illness is almost entirely preventable. Consider these four tips: • Cook thoroughly: If a golden-brown, whole turkey will be the centerpiece of your holiday table, a meat thermometer should be among your "must-have" kitchen utensils. It's the only sure way to tell if food has reached the desired state of doneness and a temperature high enough to destroy harmful bacteria. Use an oven temperature no lower than 325 degrees Fahrenheit and continue to roast until the thermometer shows a minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees. This is the lowest temperature at which bacteria and viruses are destroyed, according to food safety experts. However, for reasons of personal preference, consumers may choose to cook turkey to the traditional temperature levels of 175 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit in the thigh and 165 to 170 in the breast. Check the temperature in the innermost part of the thigh and wing and in the thickest part of the breast. Make sure the thermometer is not touching bone, fat or gristle. For safety sake, it is best not to stuff the turkey, but to bake the stuffing separately in a casserole. If you simply must cook the stuffing inside the bird, check the stuffing temperature separately. Even if the turkey itself has reached the desired temperature; cooking • must continue until the center, of the stuffing has reached 165 degrees. • Keep it clean: Wash your hands, including under your fingernails, thoroughly and often with soap and water. Remember that bacteria can enter the picture from numerous sources — handling the telephone, petting the dog, taking a bathroom break, wiping the baby's runny nose or blushing her hair out of her face, even handling dirty dishes. Wash up again after any of these or other interruptions, and dry hands thoroughly with a clean towel or paper towel. Change kitchen towels, sponges and dish cloths often. Bacteria can linger on linen used repeatedly between launderings. Always launder these items in hot water, because the cold water wash may not kill all the bacteria. See FOOD I page 10 Get past the rat in 'Ratatouille' as Disney Pixar duo cooks up fun BY STEVE SALLES Standard Examiner movie critic A nyone remember the old UB40 song? — "There's a rat in mi kitchen, what I'mma gonna do/There's a rat in mi kitchen, what I'mma gonna do." ;, Even these laid-back musicians were freaked out by the possibilities. And I have to admit the thought of it (and yes, I know "Ratatouille" is just a cutesy cartoon) still sort of bothers me. Turns out, there's this cute little blue rat named Remy (Patton Oswalt), who has developed a highly sophisticated olfactory sense that's the envy of the local garbage dump. His sense of smell is so refined, he's singlehandedly saved his rat colony from foods laced with rat poison. To go with his good nose is his ability to smell combinations of foods, leading hinnq one of the most prestigious restaurants in Paris, where • he would love to practice his exceptional culinary skills. Unfortunately, "his kind" has never been welcomed into this particular kitchen, or any kitchen for that matter, because they're rats! Of course, Remy is simply labeled as vermin until he runs into the woefully untalented kitchen helper Linguini (Lou Romano), who recognizes the little fellow has culinary skills and he has none. On the other hand, linguini IS human. If only the two could somehow work together. And if they could do it without raising of Gusteau will appear to help the suspicions of the new head Remy realize his dream. chef (Ian Holm) who has taken Linguini will be an over the famous restaurant instrument in Remy's capable after the founder Gusteau little claws. How they create a (Brad Garrett) passed on. strong working team is pretty Remy was a big fan of cute. They'll have to fool not Gusteau's work. The famous only the cranky head chef, but chef's cookbook "Anyone Can also a determined co-worker Cook" was like holy writ to Colette (Janeane Garofalo) him. Now the whimsical gho&t * rand the esteemed food critic A rat named Remy, Skinner and Linguini make entertaining movie fare in Disney Pixar's "Ratatouille." Disney Anton Ego (voiced masterfully by Peter O'Tbole), who's not happy with the change in management. Will Remy be able to convince his father and pals that this is his true calling in life? Will Linguini have the courage to discover his own talents and allow himself some happiness? I fully enjoyed this film — the animation, the Parisian skyline, the humor — but it didn't feel extraordinary — you know "cutting edge" kind of stuff. And those furry little rodents in the kitchen still give me the shivers, but you can't go wrong with a tried and true recipe like "Ratatouille." |