Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues now. It is 8.15. Sun, maybe a few high clouds around. Temperature at 29. Time to talk about one of my favorite subjects, food. And to do that with us is Christina Ehlers from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Seneca County. Morning, Christina. How are you?
Christine Ellers: Good morning, Paul. I'm doing great. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Good. And looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday and sitting down to the table and enjoying the holiday meal with all of the classics, which leads me to this question. I don't know if you know the answer to this or not, but I was thinking about how I grew up on frozen turkey from the grocery store. But I'm sure people might be looking for that, shall we say, farm fresh option. Is that available in our area?
Christine Ellers: Well, it is. A lot of our grocery stores have fresh turkeys available and a lot of the CSAs or farmers, organic farmers that produce homegrown chickens and turkeys, they do have fresh turkeys available. A lot of times what they'll do, though, is they'll place, you're going to have to order it ahead of time, like in the spring or something along that line. But I know that a lot of the local grocery stores do have fresh turkeys available. They're a little pricier, but you don't have to wait for it to defrost. And food safety issues are a little, you know, you're not as prone to any of those bacterias when you don't have to defrost a turkey. That can be tricky, getting the turkey defrosted enough to put it in the oven because you can't put it in there partially frozen. That causes some issues.
Paul Szmal: Yes, the bacteria grows and you all, you want to check your turkey with a thermometer. It has to be at least 165 for the bacteria to be killed off. So checking the temperature before you take it out of the oven is very important.
Christine Ellers: Yeah, and you don't want to overcook it either because that creates a different set of problems and issues.
Paul Szmal: Right, because it turns out very dry and it's not very pleasant to eat. And that's where having that gravy comes in handy sometimes, right?
Christine Ellers: Yes. And, you know, you can make your own gravy using, you know, like the pan drippings from the turkey and, you know, mixing in a roux and creating something on your stovetop. But there's, you know, there's other forms of gravies available if you don't want to do the work.
Paul Szmal: This is true. And, you know, doing sort of like an au jus kind of, you know, using those turkey drippings and that kind of stuff without adding more butter or flour into that is always an option. It's a healthier choice. And, you know, making sure that you're actually getting the juices and not all the fat.
Christine Ellers: Yeah. And, you know, there are ways that you can substitute sugar and oil for some different items that will make your meal a little bit healthier.
Paul Szmal: Exactly. So substituting, especially like your pies and your desserts, you want to during the holiday season, we all overindulge. So we want to make a little, you know, make smarter choices and be conscious of maybe substituting in sugar for applesauce. You can also use pumpkin, pureed pumpkin for a lot of oils as well. And crushed up or mashed up bananas. So that can decrease your sugar intake and you'll be better off in the long run.
Christine Ellers: Now, I've heard of using things like maple syrup or applesauce, but never bananas. And what context would you use that?
Paul Szmal: So, yeah, a lot of our farmers markets over the summertime, we do samples of muffins, for instance. So we have a pumpkin muffin and I exchange out the sugar for maple syrup and the oil. I put an extra, you know, cup or so, whatever it calls equal amounts of pumpkin in it. So there's no oil in it and the maple syrup substitutes for the sugar. So it's a much healthier option. But bananas, like you were asking, they also have a benefit of being substituted in for oils or sugar as well.
Christine Ellers: Oh, OK. I'm going to have to try that sometime.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, we're talking with. Yeah, a lot of.
Christine Ellers: Go ahead. No, go ahead. You're fine. I was going to say that a lot of times people will put overripened bananas in the freezer and you can use those, get them out and just smash them up. And you'll be able to substitute those in for sugars or oils.
Paul Szmal: OK, we're talking with Christina Ehlers, CCE, Seneca's nutrition expert, and one of the things that may wind up on the holiday table happens to be the harvest of the month for November, and that's a butternut squash.
Christine Ellers: Yes, butternut squash is such an amazing vegetable. It has a great abundance of vitamin A, C, it has lots of fiber, potassium, magnesium. And this vegetable is low on the glycemic index, which is an index a lot of times diabetics might use this index to see what kind of foods they can eat that are very low in sugars. So it's a great source of all these vitamins that we actually need right now in the wintertime because, you know, we are not seeing the sun as much. We might not be getting outside as much. But, you know, the beta carotenes that our body consumes gets changed into vitamin A, which is a very important, excuse me, vitamin, especially during these winter months.
Paul Szmal: And I know there's a diabetic trick with squash. I don't know if it's necessarily butternut squash, but you can actually make pasta out of it and substitute the starchy pasta with the squash pasta.
Christine Ellers: That's right. A lot of the squashes that you see now can be used for making and substituting in for the flowers and things like that to make pasta. And it's a great choice. Your sugar levels will decrease and it's just a better choice. It's such a great vegetable to have around during these months.
Paul Szmal: I want to make sure we talk about a couple of events that are coming up as we head into the month of December, one of them being a very important one. That's the annual dinner on December 1st.
Christine Ellers: Yes, so Seneca County Cornell Cooperative Extension is having a annual dinner on December 1st at Knapp's Winery. And we are inviting people of Seneca County, people that have participated in any of our workshops over the over the years to come and be a part of our annual dinner. It's a great time to reflect and see what our organization has done and also to look forward to upcoming events and where we would like to take our organization. So you can all register on our website and we hope to see you there.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. And that website, by the way. It is SenecaCountyCCE.org.
Christine Ellers: OK, that's SenecaCountyCCE.org to register for the annual dinner. Again, that's December 1st at Knapp's Winery, kicks off at 545. And then there's a Cookie in a Jar workshop coming up in December.
Paul Szmal: Yes, so this has been popular with our 4-H groups. And while we were doing with our 4-H groups, a lot of the parents like we need to do this as an adult workshop. So I have created, scheduled a time on December 11th and it's a Cookie in the Jar. We'll be putting together. It's a great for gifts, you know, a mixture of ingredients in a mason jar. And we'll decorate it. But it's a nice little gift to give away. And there also will be samples, cookie samples. And we'll be also baking some cookies during that workshop.
Christine Ellers: Sounds delicious.
Paul Szmal: Yes. All right. You got to have that little treat during the holidays, you know, you don't want to go.
Christine Ellers: Yes. You don't want to necessarily go overboard, but you do need that treat.
Paul Szmal: For me, that's like, you know, when it comes to Thanksgiving is having the pumpkin pie. Now, you can make it with, you know, reduced sugars and do some substitutions there. But you still want to have the pumpkin pie.
Christine Ellers: Well, of course. And, you know, in that pumpkin pie, instead of using evaporated milk, you could also use cottage cheese, which increases the protein. And you cut down on the processed foods aspect. And it's very delicious, actually.
Paul Szmal: You know that I've heard that trick before, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet. Maybe this will be the year.
Christine Ellers: Christina, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it as always.
Paul Szmal: Well, I appreciate your time as well, Paul. You enjoy your Thanksgiving and and your family.
Christine Ellers: Yes. Thank you. And same for you and your family as well. It's 8.27 on FLX Morning.
