Tag Archives: Tomatoes

Problem Plants in the Garden

Some plants could cause health problems for some people. Here are a few you might want to think carefully about before planting them or deciding where to plant them. Wattle or acacia is one that affects many people, when it is flowering, with hay fever. But it doesn’t affect everyone. I can eco-exist quite happily with wattle and even bring it in the house in a vase as cut flowers to no ill effect but I cannot go with ten feet of a crepe myrtle bush, which gives me severe hay fever. This is a shame as they are spectacularly … Continue reading →

Growing Your Own Vegetables

There’s nothing quite like vegetables from your own garden. They have a freshness and taste that is missing from shop bought vegetables and fruit. Part of our garden is dedicated to growing vegetables and some fruit. It helps the finances as well. The other week Mick bought vegetable plants. He usually grows tomatoes. They have a totally different taste to shop bought tomatoes. Most years our tomatoes are in well before this, but because he was unwell it didn’t happen as early in spring this time so he bought larger plants that he would normally. Beans we grow from seed. … Continue reading →

Easy and Affordable Chicken Recipes

The price of a regular gallon of unleaded gas rose 11 cents in our city in less than five days. Good gracious! Fortunately, the price of chicken breasts went down about 50 cents since last week. Guess what we’re having for dinner tonight? And the next, and the next? Chicken is a frequent visitor at my family’s dinner table. Luckily, I have an abundance of recipes to turn plain chicken breasts into sensational entrees without breaking the bank. MEDITERRANEAN CHICKEN Ingredients: 6 ounces linguine (or your favorite pasta) 8 ounces chicken breasts 2 ounces marinated artichoke hearts 2 ounces kalamata … Continue reading →

Cooking with Kids—The Letter S

You don’t have to write for a living to know that inspiration can come from random events. Such is the case with this next blog. Yesterday I was cleaning out one of the drawers in the kitchen when I ran across the following recipes. Each features my mother’s perfect penmanship and all three ratty looking recipe cards quickly caught the eye of my preschooler who can spot grandma’s handwriting a mile away. She picked them up and stared at them for a while then very matter-of-factly asked if we were having an “S dinner.” When I asked her what she … Continue reading →

Contaminated Tomato Update

After months of investigation and few answers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that it is once again safe to eat tomatoes. However the FDA still does not know where the contamination came from. The warning has been lifted because there are no longer any tomatoes coming onto the market from locations that were on the suspect list. Towards the end of June, with the outbreak finally starting to slow, new warnings emerged. The FDA warns that people who are risk of salmonella (like infants, the elderly, and people with impaired immune systems) avoid fresh hot peppers like … Continue reading →

Tracking Your Produce

Not surprisingly, there are plans in the works to make fresh produce more traceable in the wake of the recent outbreak of food poisoning from some types of raw tomato. The Center for Science in the Public Interest asked the FDA to institute some kind of food safety plan — including how they would trace their produce — nearly two years ago. The Food and Drug Administration hasn’t ruled (yet) on the petition, but there has been some progress. The FDA has asked Congress for funding for food safety programs for 2009 and forward. Making produce more traceable is just … Continue reading →

Slowly Hunting Down Bad Tomatoes

The recent outbreak of salmonellosis from tomatoes has officially affected 228 people in twenty-three different states. I say “officially” because there may be other cases that were not reported. Some experts estimate that for every reported case of food poisoning, another forty go unreported. Look back at the next most recent veggie problem: the contaminated spinach in 2006. The FDA was aided in that case by patients who still had bags of spinach with UPC codes that led from the store to the supplier and eventually to the field where the greens had been contaminated. Now think about tomatoes. Most … Continue reading →

Preventing Salmonellosis

With all the hubbub over contaminated tomatoes in the news, I thought this would be a good time to take a look at different ways you can prevent salmonellosis — food poisoning with salmonella bacteria. Don’t eat raw or undercooked eggs. Eggs are a common carrier of salmonella. Beware of raw eggs in some foods like salad dressings, sauces, and condiments. And try to resist tasting cookie or cake batter! Don’t eat raw or unpasteurized milk products or dairy products. Pasteurization treats milk and dairy products to make them safer for eating. Cook meats until they are well done. Meats … Continue reading →

Reacting to Contaminated Foods

I read the headlines — but not the stories — before I went to grocery shopping this afternoon. An outbreak of salmonella, related to tomatoes grown in Florida and Mexico. That was all I knew. As I wandered the aisles at Costco — and especially as I reached the fruits and veggies — I started to see signs. Things like, “our tomatoes are safe” and variations thereof. I was pretty impressed with their quick response. Once I checked out and walked past the concession area, I saw another sign: “wraps made without tomatoes”. Maybe the tomatoes they use in their … Continue reading →

What You Need to Know about Contaminated Tomatoes

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning about a salmonella outbreak related to tomatoes. Right now, the FDA does not know for sure where the contaminated tomatoes are coming from. As of the posting of this article, tomatoes from Florida and Mexico are NOT on the FDA’s safe list. Since mid-April, the FDA has received reports of 167 cases of salmonellosis associated with eating raw tomatoes. Twenty-three of those cases required hospitalization and one patient has died. Infections have occurred most often in New Mexico and Texas. The FDA issued the first warnings about contaminated tomatoes on … Continue reading →