In the kitchen with Dan

Hey, hey, hey. You're in the kitchen with Dan. I hope everybody is doing well today. It's been a fantastic week and I anticipate another fantastic week ahead. We've got a lot of celebrating to do this time of year. It's early July and we've got a long weekend. And if you're re watching this, we're recording this on a Sunday just before July 4. But, so anyway, I'm sorry if you're, if you're not joining us live, but check the calendar. There's a little calendar right up, right up on top there. Hit that and it'll give you all of our live schedules for the coming week and all the weeks I had.

So. Hey, Brian, happy 4 July. So look, I wanted to talk to you guys today about safety. Junk food junkie, happy fourth. So I want to talk about food safety. I want to talk about fireworks safety. I want to talk a little bit about pets and children and grilling. I have all sorts of stuff to cover. So I thought about just safety in general because a lot of accidents happen on this holiday. Tons happen. Fires, burns, injuries, water accidents, boating accidents are all at a greater risk of happening right now this time of year in the summer.

So let's talk about food. First. You want to keep hot food hot and cold food cold. And your hot food you want to keep at 140 or above. Oh, wait, hold on the meter. If you don't have one of these, this is a fantastic resource for making sure that your food is at the right temperature. Also, I have an instant read I was so excited about today, I forgot to get my, we have instant read, so this will give you the temp right away. There's all sorts of thermometers for food. You can pick them up at resale shops for almost next to nothing.

Okay, so food, hot food, make sure it's at 140 or higher. And cold food, you want it 40 degrees or lower. You want to keep your hot food hot, cold food cold. Yes. Brian sous vide is a fantastic way to keep whatever you're serving held at the specific temperature. So chicken needs to be 165 degrees at internal temperature. Burgers 160, just throw those out for you. So just make sure that you're aware of your temperatures when you're serving food, especially outside. And if you're reheating food, you want your food at 160 and above, make sure your food reaches 160.

Salads and meats cold and in a cooler on ice. Yes. If you're serving cold food, you want to make sure that it's not out any longer than 2 hours. If it is, it has to be. It has to be dumped out or it should be. So. Yeah, that's a good point. So keeping cold food cold, hot food hot. 40 degrees for cold, 140 for hot. Okay, so let's look at some firework safety. Let's go with the obvious. So you never want to dissemble fireworks or try to make your own. Not a good idea. Don't point sparklers or bottle rockets or any of that stuff.

Add anyone or, you know, at yourself. And I've seen it. I mean, we had neighbors who were bent over fireworks, lighting them on fire intoxicated. Not a good idea. So also don't handle fireworks if you've over served yourself or if you've been drinking. It's not a good idea. Also, don't operate any, any boats or, you know, motor lake vehicles. Don't operate boats while you've been drinking either. Alright, so don't attempt to reignite fireworks. If you've lit them and they're duds, don't try to relight them.

Just throw them in a bucket of water. And speaking of water, you want to, if you have a fire extinguisher, keep it handy. If not, at least a hose or a bucket of water. It's a great idea to keep that stuff around. So, you know, when it comes to sparklers, they can, you can, little kids can really burn themselves if they're not handled correctly. So sometimes, even for the real little ones, it's not a good idea to give them sparklers. But there are other things that you can give them. And here are a few glow sticks, silly string, confetti cannons.

You could even do a laser show or have a firework display on a monitor. So there's different routes to go if you have real little kids around so they don't feel left out. If you're on the water, make sure you're reviewing the boat safety practices. Never consume alcohol while driving a boat again. And always check that there are enough life preservers on the boat for everybody on the boat. And make sure you're not overloading your boat. Each boat has a specific number of passengers that it's designed to carry.

And do not go over that because you can run into some problems if you're grilling. You want to check your grill, you know, always, you should be doing this anyway. Always check that the hoses aren't cracked or they don't have any leaks. And it's a good idea this time of year to keep, you know, always keep kids away from the grill, and never grill in any enclosed areas or indoors or in a garage. And that'll help keep you safe for while you're grilling pets. Let's talk about pets for a minute. We love our Jackson, and he hates fireworks.

He's not a fan. He gets really jittery and he can't get comfortable, and he has a hard time. So we stay in. Our neighbors blow off all kinds of fireworks, which, you know, we're a huge fan of. I love that people can celebrate, but Jack's not a fan, so we stay in with him and help keep him comfortable. If you do want to go to the fireworks and there's a neighbor that you can get to hang with your. With your dog. I don't know. Do cats, you guys, do cats have issues with fireworks? Maybe they do. I don't know, junk food junkie.

Do you have a cat? But anyway, dogs. A lot of dogs do have difficulties, so make sure you're considering your pets during this time. So this. A lot of people lose their pets this time of year because they get freaked out and they run. So make sure that your dog's id tags are up to date. If they have a microchip, make sure the microchip information that you have linked to that chip is up to date so that you can be reunited with your dog if there is a case that they do run off. Don't bring your pets to fireworks displays.

It's just not a good idea for them to be there. It's hot, it's crowded, it's loud. The best place for your animals to be during a fireworks display is at home, where they're most comfortable. And also, we want to remember. Great point, Brian. We want to remember our veterans, people with PTSD. You know, it's not always a great environment for people. It can be very triggering. And so you want to keep that in mind, really, if you know your neighbors and you know already that there's a potential for some issues, you may want to keep that in mind and maybe do your fireworks at somebody else's house.

Let's see. Did I cover everything? Oh, with dogs, try to tire them out, like, go for, you know, exercise them or play a lot. The more tired they are, the less anxious they'll be. Kind of like us. All right, so I think I've covered just about everything I wanted to. I want everybody to stay safe, and I want everybody to have a blast and celebrate. We've got a big party planned here tonight, and we've got some people coming in from out of town, family. And we're really excited. So I hope you guys have something fun planned.

And even if this is the time to just hang out and chill at home, hopefully people have this long weekend and everybody has a good time. Junk food junkie. Yes. Retired policeman. PTSD. I have PTSD. It's not related to gunfire or loud noises, but maybe I should go into that at length on another live. All right, have a great holiday. I love you all, and thank you for checking in, and we'll see you next time right here in the kitchen with Dan. Bye.