In honor of Thanksgiving here at Food Safety News we’re hosting our fourth virtual potluck (we’ve also held virtual picnics on Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day).

We’ll be having turkey, of course, and for tips on how to cook a turkey, you can’t beat the Food and Drug Administration’s Keep Food Safe Blog.  For instance, did you procrastinators know it’s safe to cook a frozen turkey?  It will just take 50 percent longer than a fully thawed turkey.   Check out the FDA’s helpful Turkey Roasting Chart and reminders that no matter what method you use — roasting, brining, deep frying or smoking — the bird isn’t safe until it reaches a minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees (and that goes for the stuffing). 

In addition to the turkey, we’ve got two soups–Dan’s lentil and Marijke’s curry kale. Claire has contributed corn pudding, Gretchen made Brussels sprouts, and Helena suggests roasted squash and veggies.  Alexa has shared Parmesan-rosemary potatoes and cranberry Waldorf salad.  For dessert there’s Michelle’s “that blueberry thing,” a variation on a crisp, and Suzanne is bringing an unusual-but-delicious concoction involving butternut squash and pretzels.

We’re sharing the recipes here, so you can join in our virtual potluck or use them at your next one.

Have a happy and food-safe Thanksgiving Day.

The Food Safety News team

Michelle’s “That Blueberry Thing”

My grandparents in RI had a blueberry patch so they would pick gallons and gallons of blueberries in the summer months, then freeze them.  Though blueberries are somewhat unconventional, I jump at any chance to add them to the dessert line-up for any holiday … plus, we used to need to make room in the freezer for leftovers, so here is a recipe we’ve used a bunch of times. Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy!

Ingredients

— 1/2 cup chilled, unsalted butter (cut into pieces and save some for the baking dish)

— 8 cups blueberries, thawed, washed & drained

— 1 cup flour

— 1/2 cup sugar (granulated NOT powdered)

— 3/4 cup brown sugar (the darker the better)

— lemon juice

— vanilla bean ice cream

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter a 2″-deep Pyrex or other glass baking dish.

Mix blueberries, 1/2 cup of the flour and the sugar and lemon juice in a medium-sized mixing bowl.

Spread the mixture evenly in the glass baking dish and pat down gently.

Mix brown sugar & other 1/2 cup flower in a small  bowl, add the butter.

Mix the butter into the dry ingredients in the small bowl with clean hands, it should look crumbly.

Spread the crummy mixture over the blueberries and bake for 10 min.

Reduce oven temp. to 325 degrees and bake for about an hour, or until crumbs have browned and the blueberries and juices seem to have thickened.

Serve with vanilla bean ice cream or whipped cream.