WBEZ | thanksgiving

Thanksgiving traffic deaths down from last year

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 14:11:00 -0600

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) announced traffic deaths over Thanksgiving weekend decreased 63 percent from last year.

Provisional data from IDOT’s crash information unit reported three traffic deaths compared to eight deaths during the holiday in 2011.

Mike Claffey, a spokesman for IDOT, said even though traffic deaths are down there’s still work to be done.

“This weekend there was three too many crashes and the campaign is to drive the number to zero,” Claffey said. “We want to keep the pressure on anybody who thinks of driving under the influence and we want to keep reminding folks... buckle up.”

To help cut down on the number of traffic deaths this holiday season, IDOT launched a partnership with law enforcement called the "Drive to Survive" campaign.

Police will be out in force, pulling drivers over who are not wearing seatbelts and cracking down on drunk driving through the end of the year.

Claffey said the department has boosted its effort to educate people about driving safety, including highway signs that tally the number of traffic deaths to date this year.

Thanksgiving questions and answers 2012

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:00:00 -0600

You asked, I answer your Thanksgiving questions below — and today, live on The Morning Shift with Tony Sarabia. We're joined by guest Steven Rinella: hunter, author and host of MeatEater on the Sportsman Channel!

Q: There are millions of vegetarians/vegans who are lucky if they can eat one side dish or two. We would love some ideas. Fruit salad and green bean casserole for dinner any time of the year sucks.

A: Really? I love green bean casserole and fruit salad, because they don't have to suck. When I've made green beans for Thanksgiving, it's not the classic casserole, but with the same flavors. I stir-fry green beans in butter, leaving them crisp, with thinly sliced onions and wild mushrooms, then smother it all in Béchamel. Alton Brown's recipe for Best Ever Green Bean Casserole looks good — without the frozen beans, and cans of cream of mushroom soup and fried onions — but substitute his chicken broth with vegetable broth. For fruit salad, I mix fresh, cooked and preserved fruit — from poached cranberries, apples, and pears, to persimmons and figs too — usually splashed with an herb-infused, liqueur-spiked, simple syrup. For some beautiful inspiration, see Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks for recent Thanksgiving ideas and previous vegan and vegetarian recipes.

Q: I saw something recently, I think in the New York Times, about how butternut squash is actually the way to go if you want to make homemade, not from a can, pumpkin pie — like pumpkin actually isn't good, no matter how hard you try to sweeten it or get it to be the right texture. True or not true?

A: Melissa Clark did indeed write in the NYT "Diner's Journal" that butternut squash is the best kind of pumpkin/winter squash for pumpkin pie. Clark tested nine varieties: acorn, blue hubbard, butternut, carnival, cheese pumpkin, delicata, kabocha, sugar pumpkin and spaghetti squash. "Deep and richly flavored, sweet, with relatively smooth flesh that is easy to purée," she wrote in her testing notes. But Bang Bang Pie Shop uses sugar pumpkins and their pies are great — sweet enough, with absolutely the right texture, plus roasted pumpkin seeds. With any natural ingredient there will be variations.

Q: Talk about the do's and don'ts of stuffing baked inside the turkey. I've read conflicting things about not doing it because you can get salmonella, or to put it in there once the turkey reaches a certain temperature, etc.

A: Do: Remember the magic number, according to the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service — 165 °F. That's what the agency says should be the minimum internal temperature. Do: Check out the USDA's "Stuffing and Food Safety" fact sheet. Don't: Worry. It's all in there.

Q: We've been hosting Thanksgiving for the last few years, and we always brine the turkey in salt water flavored with ginger and allspice. I saw a recipe the other day that called for salting the turkey for 24 hours. That's a new one for me. What's the difference? I mean, I know one of them is a water soak and the other one is not, but what happens from salting that's different from brining?

A: Salting, or dry-brining, is the new wet-brining. "When you salt a turkey (or chicken) breast, meat juices are initially drawn out through the process of osmosis," writes J. Kenji López-Alt in "The Food Lab: The Truth About Brining Turkey" on Serious Eats. "As the salt dissolves in these juices, it forms what amounts to a very concentrated brine, which then allows it to break down muscle proteins." As a result, López-Alt says he never brines, ever. Michael Ruhlman no longer brines his turkey either, saying it's not worth the hassle, given the busyness of prep.

Q: My family gets a smoked turkey from a BBQ joint in Evanston every year. Any way to replicate this deliciousness as a home cook?

A: Smoking your own in an outdoor smoker is not the answer you're looking for, I'm guessing. Steven Raichlen actually adapted two of his indoor smoked turkey recipes for an article in the Times, using a stovetop smoker like Camerons or a wok. You can find both recipes in his book Indoor! Grilling.

Q: Turkey doesn't really thrill me. I could easily have an all-sides meal. Any turkey alternatives that won't completely veer from tradition?

A: Depends on your tradition, but traditional turkey alternatives include ham, duck, goose, Dungeness crab and especially venison. The Wampanoag brought five deer to the 1621 Plymouth feast that's considered the historic model for our modern Thanksgiving.

Q: How many turkeys get killed on Thanksgiving?

A: 46 million is the number widely reported, but that's probably not accurate, according a Wall Street Journal post in 2009. "David Harvey, a poultry and fish-farming analyst with the USDA's Economic Research Service, says it would be difficult to come up with a precise Thanksgiving turkey tally," the WSJ reported then.

Q: Does it make a difference if you get a male or female turkey? I heard the females are more tender.

A: No, it doesn't really matter, and you're probably getting a female turkey anyway, as most turkeys are female, according to this Marketplace story last year. The University of Illinois Extension Turkey FAQs says "age not gender is the determining factor for tenderness and all commercial turkeys are young and tender."

Sports never take a holiday

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:00:00 -0600

Sports never take a holiday: People race in turkey trots, watch the NFL, and some even go bowling on Thanksgiving. When I worked at an all-sports radio station, I was sent to Detroit to cover the Bears on Thanksgiving Day. Fortunately, Detroit isn't a long flight; you fly in early, cover the game and return home after you finish up locker room interviews. The Lions provided us with a full Thanksgiving dinner in the press room that year. Glamorous, the life a traveling sports reporter.

Thankfully, by my choice, those days are behind me now. Call me a softie, but family time matters to me. Thanksgiving and other holidays also matter to athletes, even though many leagues schedule practice, travel or games that day.

I talked to some of Chicago's athletes about the upcoming holiday earlier this week. The Bulls, nearing the end of their five-game road trip, are in Houston Wednesday night and will fly back home for Thanksgiving Thursday. Players are probably hoping coach Tom Thibodeau will give them a day off before they finish the trip in Milwaukee on Saturday. Bears head coach Lovie Smith usually completes practice by 2 p.m., allowing players some time to celebrate.

Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich gets one extra advantage this Thanksgiving: he never sold his home here. Returning as he did, now he gets to enjoy the comforts of home with his family, including his wife and two daughters. Meanwhile, 19-year-old Bulls rookie Marquis Teague said he hopes Mom, Dad, his sisters and his oldest brother will be here for Thanksgiving. Can you imagine being that age and not having your family around? And Bears safety Anthony Walters told me that when he was a rookie last season, Major Wright invited him to spend the holiday with Wright’s family. That is generally what teammates do for the younger players.

Another Bear, long snapper Patrick Mannelly, remembers frequent practices on this holiday during his 15-year career. He's played three games on Thanksgiving Day, twice in Detroit and once in Dallas. When I asked him about Thanksgiving Day, a broad smile came across his face. “I enjoy my family coming into town and my wife (Tamara) cooks a big meal," he said. "Unfortunately, in our business, we have to work that day.” And, Patrick looks forward to the day after Thanksgiving, when he makes "a huge turkey sandwich with gravy, mayonnaise on a roll." (By the way he said it, he seemed to have the picture clearly in his mind.)

Bears linebacker Nick Roach and his family “cram” into his grandmother’s house for a huge feast. While his uncles and brother enjoys watching football, oddly enough, that isn’t a must for him. Roach put the holiday, and its real relationship to football, into perspective: “You are thankful for the God-given abilities and talents, to be able to play the game that you love and be able to do it for a living, to have platform to a be a good example for those that follow you."

"And I am thankful for my family,” Roach added.

My gratitude extends to my family, friends and co-workers — everyday matters having them. While I enjoy covering sporting events, tomorrow is my personal sporting event: cooking a turkey and all the trimmings. I really love the left-overs, too.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Follow Cheryl on Twitter @CRayeStout and Facebook Cheryl Raye Stout #AtTheGame.

Thanksgiving war stories from a Butterball ‘call girl’

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:00:00 -0600

Dynamic Range is taking a break for Thanksgiving and will be back the first week of December. In the meantime, check out this updated episode that originally ran in November 2011:

Butterball produces 20 percent of the turkeys Americans eat every year. And since 1981 their Turkey Talk-Line experts have handled some 100,000 calls each holiday season from frantic home cooks trying to impress their in-laws or salvage a dinner gone horribly wrong.

Butterball’s corporate headquarters are in Garner, North Carolina, but their call-in line is located in Naperville, Ill. And, as the company struggles with its public image and new allegations of animal abuse at its North Carolina plants, the ladies of the Talk-Line may be the company's best public face: Some of the experts who work there from November to December every year seem to comfortably conform to a kind of 1950s Suzy Homemaker ethos, pleasingly plump Betty Crockerites who majored in home ec. Others are bilingual registered dieticians with master’s degrees.

Sixty call specialists will be on hand this year to answer questions ranging from the mundane – How long will it take my 18 lb. beast to thaw? – to the shocking – My turkey is on fire. What should I do?

The answer to that last question, incidentally, is to hang up and call 9-1-1.

Butterball’s experts recommend taking as long as four full days to thaw your turkey. They’ll also be happy to walk you through the steps of microwaving the bird, if that’s what you want to do. It’s apparently their “least popular method,” despite being all the rage in the ‘80s, but is still not as horrifying or as gross as cooking a live lobster in the microwave.

Renee Ferguson is a former Butterball expert and self-described Butterball “call girl” who parleyed her experience on the hotline into a cookbook – Talk Turkey to Me (Wishbone Press 2006) – and an appearance on the Food Network’s Throwdown with Bobby Flay.

Ferguson appeared on the show's “Turkey and Dressing” episode, for which she made roasted turkey with an apple sausage dressing and an apricot amaretto sauce. Flay won the round with his combination of a black pepper-pomegranate molasses glazed turkey with a wild rice, goat cheese and chorizo dressing.

If you have any last minute cooking disasters before the big meal on Thursday you can call Ferguson’s former colleagues in Naperville between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. at 1-800-288-8372. (And now, you can also tweet them @butterball with the hashtag #TurkeyChat.) In the meantime, listen to Ferguson’s account of her all-time favorite calls – and some of her cooking war stories – in the audio above.

Dynamic Range showcases hidden gems unearthed from Chicago Amplified’s vast archive of public events and appears on weekends. Renee Ferguson spoke at an event presented by Culinary Historians of Chicago in November of 2010. Click here to hear the event in its entirety.

Talking turkeys

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:24:00 -0600

You all have Thanksgiving memories—but none of your memories go back to 1895.

On Thanksgiving Day that year the country's first official auto race took place. It was a 55-mile round-trip journey between the South Side and Evanston. Competing were four gasoline-powered cars and two that ran on electricity. The winners were brothers Charles and Frank Duryea in their "buggynaut," a marvel that had three forward speeds. They won $2,000 (a lot of dough at the time) for covering the course in just under eight hours.

One of my memories is tied to North Avenue, near where I grew up in Old Town. There was for many years a live poultry place at North and Wells and that was where the alderman of the 43^rd ward, the infamous Mathias “Paddy” Bauler, got the turkeys and ducks that he would dole out to people the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

There are still live poultry stores in the city, a dozen or so, and the owners will tell you more people are interested in fresh birds.

Call me squeamish, but walking into Chicago Live Poultry on Lawrence Avenue. And seeing all sorts of animals—rabbits, pigeons, turkeys, geese, roosters, quail, guinea hens and chickens, lots of chickens—sitting in cages and unknowingly awaiting their inevitable place on someone's dinner table, was almost enough to instantly convert me to vegetarianism. I had entered this store because I had been attracted by its windows, which are covered with colorful paintings of animals, the sort of playful illustrations one might find in a children's book.

The store had been around for more than 25 years, according to Hibib Alshimary, who started working there as a young man and who is now one of the owners. This, of course, is the shop's busiest season. During this month Chicago Live Poultry prepares and sells some 50 turkeys a week.

The process by which this is accomplished is not for the fainthearted. But let's not be hypocritical: It is the same process employed, in a more mechanized and automated fashion, by such huge poultry companies as Tyson and Perdue. Which is the more gruesome?

I watched birds being beheaded, plucked and cleaned. He is not at all squeamish. But many people buying birds and rabbits did not want to have their names appear in the paper, lest they, as one customer put it, "have people think that we are cruel or weird."

"Does it bother me to kill the animals? No way," says Alshimary. "This is a good, fast-growing business."

So good (the store sells about 450 chickens a week) that he opened another store.

"People like because it is fresher," he says. "The animals are raised without any chemicals. People who buy here tell their friends and many yuppies come now."

Wherever I am at Thanksgiving, there will probably be a turkey. And, memories of being in a poultry store nicely faded, I'll probably have some. I just hope it's one I haven't met.

Taking sides: Let's talk turkey Thanksgiving Eve on the Morning Shift

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:00:00 -0600

This Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve, I'll be on The Morning Shift with Tony Sarabia taking your calls to help solve your Thanksgiving food questions. To ask a question, please call 855-848-5551 or email morningshift@wbez.org — and please remember to leave your callback number.

I'm not the only cook in the house. Did you know Tony, also host of Radio M, was once a pastry cook, at Spiaggia no less?

As I mentioned at the end of the show last Wednesday, we're curious about not only your turkey questions, but vegetarian too, despite what some Facebook commenters might think. Vegan, gluten-free and all questions are welcome too.

The only thing I ask: Please Google first. There's a wealth of knowledge out there. Yes, I've cooked in Michelin three-star restaurants but when I have basic recipe questions, I too use my Google fu, and have found most reliable Alton Brown, Simply Recipes and my dear friend, David Lebovitz.

Please feel free to post your questions in the comments below too — thanks.

List: My mom's Thanksgiving dinner menu

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 09:00:00 -0600

Pomegranate, Beet & Mandarin Orange Salad

Mini Sparkling Cranberry Muffins

Pumpkin Bread

Apple Bread

Roast Turkey

Mashed Potato Casserole with Chives

Our Favorite Cornbread Stuffing

Praline Sweet Potato Casserole

Brussels Sprouts Lardon

Apricot Bourbon Roasted Carrots

Maple Cranberry Sauce

The Ultimate Pumpkin Pie

Chocolate Truffle Tart

Cranberry Shortbread Squares

The Paper Machete Radio Magazine: A new Thanksgiving theme song from Matthew Loren Cohen

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:17:00 -0600

Matthew Loren Cohen describes the Pilgrims' first dinner with the Native Americans in what will probably become the only popular Thanksgiving song out there. As usual, if you can hear us, this magazine is LIVE. Some sample lyrics:

You arrived on our shores after much navigation. You put down your oars, we had much admiration. To avoid starting wars, we began conversation. What's ours is yours, and thus an invitation.

This Saturday's kicks off at the Horseshoe at 3 p.m., where you can expect to see Phillip Dawkins, the playwright responsible for The Homosexuals; Micah Philbrook of The Tim and Micah Project; Katie Rich of Second City; magician Dennis Watkins of the House Theatre; and a special performance by Barrel of Monkeys. Music from the Machete house band, Sleepy Lou.

The Paper Machete is a weekly live magazine at the Horseshoe in North Center. It's always at 3 pm, it's always on Saturday, and it's always free. Get all your The Paper Machete Radio Magazine needs filled here, or download the podcast from iTunes here.

Thankful for the holiday season, not for holiday travel

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:30:00 -0600

It was almost Thanksgiving, so you know what that means: 'Tis the season for holiday travel.

More than 42 million Americans were expected to hit the road this weekend - the most since the recession hit. Jetta Bates Vasilatos joined Eight Forty-Eight in studio to share some travel tips. She's a lifestyle and travel writer whose work appears in national publications like Home Style and Ebony magazine.

To gear up for the journey, Eight Forty-Eight opened the phone lines and invited listeners to share their most memorable holiday travel stories.

This audio was edited from the original broadcast.

The Paper Machete Radio Magazine: Shannon Cason on the phenomenon of Black Thursday

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:27:00 -0600

Shannon Cason is a real live Macy's employee (he sells women's shoes).

So the Former Moth GrandSLAM champion is more than equipped to give you his thoughts on Black Friday's move to Thursday, in his Paper Machete Consumer Reports Report.

Below, the beginning of his diatribe. And as usual, if you can hear us, this magazine is LIVE.

In recent years, Black Friday has started earlier and earlier as retailers try to get a jump on the holiday shopping season and appeal to consumer demand. Last year, for instance, Macy's opened its doors at 4 a.m.

This year, however, retailers will mimic the international dateline and begin the day in relation to the rotation of the earth; from 12 am to 12 am, a true Black Friday.

Sales are brightening; October retail sales rose .3 percent, and holiday retail spending is expected to grow 2.3 percent, according to the National Retail Federation. NFR also forecasts a 27 percent increase in Black Friday shoppers.

To account for this increase, Target has announced that it will open its doors at midnight this year, following surveys that showed customer demand for this.

Popular stores like Macy's, Best Buy and Kohl's blame Target for moving up its opening time and forcing them to respond to keep up. As a result, all three retails plan to open their doors at midnight as well. But the midnight opening doesn't come without backlash....

This Saturday's Paper Machete kicks off at the Horseshoe at 3 p.m., where you can expect to see Phillip Dawkins, the playwright responsible for The Homosexuals; Micah Philbrook of The Tim and Micah Project; Katie Rich of Second City; magician Dennis Watkins of the House Theatre; and a special performance by Barrel of Monkeys. Music from the Machete house band, Sleepy Lou.