What's your beef?

Well it looks as if we have another recall on our hands and my sources tell me that the meat was sold about a month ago. In case this is the first time you are hearing about it, ground beef is being recalled because somehow some e.coli decided to invade it. Of course I am being facetious when I use the word invade. It is not the e.coli's fault people; it just is not. Either way people are getting sick and even dying this time. Yes e.coli can be deadly, which is why you are to always be careful when you handle meat (and that medium rare burger is not safe, I repeat not safe). For right now it might be safe to avoid beef of the ground kind, and turn to turkey instead.

I am not a veghead and I do not, I repeat DO NOT support throwing meat out altogether. If you do it, I will try not to judge; but I might eat my bacon and eggs and comment on the tasty deliciousness of fried Wilbur fat. Call me cruel, insensitive, and non-environmental it really won't affect me. I wouldn't give up eating meat if I had to resort to wringing the chicken's neck myself. I might eat it less, or wring a few necks at a time so I could keep some in my freezer; but I would continue my delicious habit.

*Stepping off soapbox*

So since that option is out of the way, really the only option to avoiding ground beef is eating ground turkey. I grew up on ground turkey and really it is a wonderful alternative. I have heard from a few sources that it has the same amount of fat as ground beef has in it, but I dare those people to try to skim fat from the pan when cooking ground turkey. It's just not there. Maybe that doesn't mean it's not still in there, but I like to think it means that ground turkey is a tasty healthy alternative to ground beef.

Matt is a serious hater of ground turkey. When I say serious hater, I mean he is the president of the ground turkey haters club. I have to cook without him around and sneak ground turkey into his diet. Supposedly he has nothing against turkey in general; he just likes beef when it comes to burgers, meatloaf, and Chili. He also likes cooking his eggs in bacon fat, but that's a whole other story my stomach can't handle at the moment.

I am thinking that this recall might work to my favor when dealing with el presidente. It is possible that I can tell Matt that we have to eat ground turkey for a while, and he might come to like it. Then again Wilbur might fly away before I can get a roast out of him.

If you don't have a member of the club in your house hold and haven't tried ground turkey now is a great time. I am not a fan of ground chicken, because it is too dry. Also don't buy lean ground turkey. It will taste lean enough to you if you are used to ground beef. For the first time, you might not be ready for a burger. Try adding it to your favorite Chili recipe. It doesn't look the same as ground beef and it doesn't smell the same when you're cooking it. Don't let that deter you; the end result will taste just like chicken er beef. You won't be disappointed.

I guess the bottom line with all this food recall stuff is; food is not something you want to be flippant about. When you're cooking meat, be careful about temperature and times. Right now avoiding raw hamburger might be wise, even if you just found a great make-it-yourself steak tartar recipe. I think in our age of "here comes the swine flu let's invent a shot to save people from dying from it" we forget that all of the steps and precautions don't guarantee that what you are eating is safe. Honestly I hope they never come up with a way to make food 100% safe, because every time we do something like that to food we lose some of its nutritional value. Homogenized pasteurized milk anyone?

Happy Eating!!!

Emily