The inspiration for the virtual dinner group blog originally came from a flurry of emails around salad’s place at the Thanksgiving table. (My family of origin has always been a “No” on this matter, mostly because we have every other conceivable vegetable on the table ... simply no room for salad. My mother-in-law, however, makes the best simple salad, and it is always served at Thanksgiving, and every other meal, mostly as a palate cleanser between all the other very rich and delicious foods.) I have looked in vain for that email chain in my archives, because it was hilarious, and I would love to not only share it with you, but also reread it myself (who can’t use a little hilarity on a daily basis?).

As far as Thanksgiving Salad goes, I usually pass, and I believe that if there is going to be a salad on a table that rich, it should be a simple (palate-cleansing) salad, and not interfere with “the main event.” However, I made a spectacular Fall salad last week, that I proceeded to make again and again for lunch as the week went on. It was inspired by a recipe in USA Weekend last week for Escarole salad with provolone, warm white beans and prosciutto crisps. I added a little sweetness to balance the bitter greens and piquant provolone. The red from the pepper, onion, and cranberries stand out among the greens and beans and it looks like Fall.

Fall salad

2 T extra-virgin olive oil
3 oz thinly sliced prosciutto, cut into small dice2 garlic cloves, minced
1 15-oz can cannellini beans, not drained
1 t crushed red pepper flakes
2 T red wine vinegar
1 T agave syrup
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 head escarole halved, cored, chopped, washed, and dried (or slightly bitter greens that are so abundant in Fall)
½ red bell pepper, stemmed, cored, seeded and cut into short thin strips
¼ large red onion, thinly sliced
16 pitted kalamata olives, halved (about ¼ cup)
3 oz provolone cheese, diced
¼ c dried cranberries

Sauté the prosciutto in the olive oil until crisp. Remove to paper towel to drain.

Add the white beans to the sauté pan with the crushed red pepper, and bring to a simmer. Cook until beans are warmed through.

While beans are warming, add vinegar, agave, and olive oil to a jar and shake to combine. Pour dressing into bottom of a large salad bowl. To the salad bowl, add escarole, pepper, onion, olives, cheese and cranberries.

Just before serving, add beans and prosciutto and toss.

HOT Dinners!

Heat wave here, and across much of the country, this week. What are you making for dinner to beat the heat?

Tonight, we are having chicken salad, tomato, mozzarella & basil salad, green salad and watermelon. Tomorrow my kids have a 1/2 day because of the predicted temps and no AC in the schools -- it may well be ice pops for dinner then!

Spinach grapefruit salad

Salad:

1/2 c. red onion, sliked thin in vertical strips

1 large pink or white grapefruit

6 c. spinach leaves

1 large avocado, peeed, pitted and cut into 12 wedges

1 T. pine nuts or pomengranate seeds for garnish

Dressing:

3 T. fresh lemon juice

3 T. honey

1/2 t. coarse salt

freshly ground pepper

Kelly made this for Easter. It was great. Very springy and the flavor mix was great. She was kind enough to share the recipe so wanted to pass it on. It's on the menu tonight.

Summer Pasta Salad Twists

I think I may have to try these 2 recipes this summer.
Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/BUFFALO-CHICKEN-PASTA-SALAD-1231059

Antipasto Pasta Salad
http://www.bullz-eye.com/grub_for_guys/2010/pasta_salad_trio.htm

Summer Salads

Katie posted on her former in home cooking blog (now moved here) about summer salads yesterday. I laughed, because I made two salads to go with dinner last night, and was looking for some more for this week.

First, I tossed blanched green beans with halved cherry tomatoes, basil and balsamic vinegar. Simple and delicious.

For my second salad, I made a thai cucumber salad. I also added shredded carrots. Delish. I have included the cucumber recipe below. Both of these salads are likely to be new go-tos for me this summer. So easy, and so great!

Ingredients

• 3 large cucumbers, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Directions

1. Toss the cucumbers with the salt in a colander, and leave in the sink to drain for 30 minutes. Rinse with cold water, then drain and pat dry with paper towels.
2. Whisk together the sugar and vinegar in a mixing bowl until the sugar has dissolved. Add the cucumbers, jalapeno peppers, and cilantro; toss to combine. Sprinkle chopped peanuts on top before serving.

Happy Cinco de Mayo! We were early on the celebrating this year. We attended a neighborhood bash on Saturday, because we just couldn’t get it together for tonight (too many darn kids running in too many darn directions). Delicious empanadas, fajitas, and frijoles a la charra.

Then, in our household, yesterday I needed a meal I could throw together quickly and early and with what I had on hand, so that everyone could feed themselves when they came in from baseball practice, before the baseball game, and from the baseball game, respectively. It ended up being a great, family-pleasing meal — I love when that happens!

I have a divided crockpot. In half, I put 4 chicken breasts, a can of enchilada sauce, and a can of diced green chiles. In the other half, I put 2 cans of red kidney beans, a large can of diced tomatoes, a cup of white rice, uncooked, a teaspoon of garlic, some salt, pepper, and cumin, and about ¼ cup of diced red peppers that I had on hand. I turned the crockpot on High at 2:30; I cut up some avocados, tomatoes, lettuce, black olives, green onions, and put them and shredded cheese, salsa, and sour cream in Tupperwares together in the fridge, defrosted some tortillas, and by 5:30, the chicken was cooked and ready to be shredded and returned to the sauce, and the rice and beans were cooked (but I might add about ½ cup of water next time) — soft chicken tacos with red beans and rice, from where there was no original meal plan, I love it! (And, as it turned out, thunder and lightning ended the first game early and canceled the second game altogether, so we got to sit down and eat as a family, even better.)

Tonight, we’ll grill, but my nod to Cinco de Mayo will be this Black Bean Salad that my family has lovingly turned into a dip (or filling for burritos and tacos). It’s one of the healthiest dips you’ll find. (Oh, and we’ll have a glass of sangria.) Enjoy!

Black Bean Salad

2 16 oz can black beans, drained, rinsed
1 tomato, diced
2 green onions, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, minced
½ t cumin
2 dashes Tabasco pepper sauce
2 small garlic cloves, minced
4 T balsamic vinegar
8 T olive oil
salt and pepper
2 avocados, diced

Combine all ingredients except avocado in a bowl and let stand for 30 minutes to combine flavors. (Can be prepared up to 2 days in advanced and refrigerated.)

Just before serving, add diced avocado, correct seasonings, and serve on a leaf of Boston lettuce as a salad, or as a dip with tortilla chips.

Countdown to Thanksgiving

Day 5: Does salad have a place at your table? Several years ago, my sisters, my sister-in-law, and I had a long e-mail exchange about salad at Thanksgiving. I think it started when one sister was asked to bring a salad to her husband’s aunt’s for dinner. We were stymied, salad had never had a place on The Traditional Dunican Family Thanksgiving Table. Our meal would begin with lots of appetizers, because we always ate later in the day (about four o’clock). And our table was all about the sides: mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips, carrots, creamed onions. There was just no room for salad.

So, there we were, what salad to serve with Thanksgiving dinner? It went something like this:

Eileen: I'm bringing salad to my in laws for Thanksgiving. Still haven't gotten to the idea that salad is for Thanksgiving but they want one. I found this one. It sounds good to me but I was wondering if the cranberry would be over kill or good to keep similar tastes. Also would you add any other veggies to it? Any ideas are helpful.

Jamie's Cranberry Spinach Salad
Servings: 8

1 T butter
3/4 c almonds, blanched and slivered
1 lb spinach, rinsed and torn into bite-size pieces
1 c dried cranberries
2 T toasted sesame seeds
1 T poppy seeds
1/2 c white sugar
2 t minced onion
1/4 t paprika
1/4 c white wine vinegar
1/4 c cider vinegar
1/2 c vegetable oil

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Cook and stir almonds in butter until lightly toasted. Remove from heat, and let cool. In a large bowl, combine the spinach with the toasted almonds and cranberries. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar, onion, paprika, white wine vinegar, cider vinegar, and vegetable oil. Toss with spinach just before serving.

Katie: If you have to have salad, this one sounds great. I think the cranberries will be great, not too much. You may want to add one yellow and one orange bell pepper to add to the "fall-ish-ness" of the salad; they're pricey, but the color and crunch they add to the salad are worth it. Also, I'd use hazelnuts rather than almonds, but whichever nut you use, I'd dry-saute them in a saute pan, not cook them in butter in a saucepan. You can put them in your toaster oven for one ding too (but sometimes they burn that way), you want them to be just lightly browned. Fred's family always has his Mom's salad at Thanksgiving too, although, more than once, we've found it in the fridge as we're putting away the leftovers.

That was most of The Salad Exchange. The rest was about the merit of appetizers beforehand, or leaving room for the dinner itself. Weigh in, what does your family do?

Summer Recipes

Now that summer vacation is here -- regardless of what the weather is saying -- I want light, fresh food. What are your favorite summer recipes?

We had a little dinner party here last night, just a few friends, a few tapas, and some nice wine. We ended the evening with a fabulous bottle of limoncello that my brother-in-law brought back from Positano for my birthday.

One of the best things about the party, was that it was followed by a do-nothing day. We’d had a busy week, and even a busy day leading up to the party last night. I hadn’t left myself enough time to do what I really wanted to do, but it was good friends, and nobody really cared about anything but hanging out and being together and relaxing a little. Everyone had had equally busy weeks.

But, back to our do-nothing day today: It was made even better by the fact that I had made tandoori chicken skewers and had enough leftover to add the chicken to salad tonight for our dinner so I didn’t really have to make dinner tonight.

It was so good, and so well received by the family, that I’ll plan it again in the future. The tandoori chicken is perfect for our Friday Night Appetizers-for-Dinner, and I’ll make enough extra for another Do-Nothing Sunday Dinner.

I adapted the tandoori chicken recipe from the Purcell sisters’ Tandoori lamb with cumin dipping sauce. I had chicken and I was looking for an interesting way to serve it, so I used this recipe.

Tandoori chicken with cumin dipping sauce

2 c plain yogurt
2 T ground coriander
2 T paprika
2 T fresh lemon juice
1½ T ground cumin
1½ T ground ginger
½ t turmeric
½ t ground cardamom
½ t salt
1 garlic clove, minced
2 lb chicken breast, cubed


¾ c sour cream
¾ c plain yogurt
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 t ground cumin
salt and pepper, to taste

Combine the first 10 ingredients in a bowl and blend thoroughly. Add the chicken, and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

When you’re ready to prepare the skewers, mix together sour cream, yogurt, lemon juice, and cumin. Salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat broiler. Place chicken onto 5-inch skewers on a broiler pan. Broil for about 3 minutes on each side. Remove to serving platter.

Tandoori chicken salad
For my salad today, I heated my chicken and added what salad ingredients I had in the fridge.

1 lb tandoori chicken skewers, leftover from Appetizers-for-Dinner
10 oz salad greens
1 pt grape tomatoes
1 cucumber, peeled, quartered, sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
1 red bell pepper, diced
3-4 new red potatoes, boiled, chilled, quartered (these were leftover from Thursday’s mashed potatoes)
cumin dipping sauce, leftover from Appetizers-for-Dinner

Combine salad greens, tomatoes, cucumber, celery, and red pepper. Top with potatoes and chicken skewers.

You can dress with whatever salad dressing you like, but it was delicious with a batch of the cumin dipping sauce.

Today's Boston Globe has an amusing article about the candidates in the Food section (that's right, in the Food section). Basically, it tries to define the candidates in terms of their favorite foods, what they like to prepare, and what they order at restaurants; a take on "you are what you eat."

It got me thinking, how would that define me? In college, my roommate Tammy used to like to ask, "If you were on a desert island and could have only one food with you, what would it be?" I used to choose bagels. Now, it's not that bagels are my favorite food, but I'd say they are one of my favorite breakfasts. My choice of bagels is more about choice. Bagels would be the perfect combination of savory and sweet that I'd think I'd need if it were to be the only food I'd get to eat for the rest of my life.

In terms of my favorite food, I like almost anything, in fact, it's easier to point out what I don't like, and all I can think of right now is scallops and deep-fried seafood. And of course, every rule has an exception, I made Hoison-Grilled Scallops for a client, and loved them! And I like fish & chips (it's about ratio, I think, I'm not a lots-of-batter-to-a-tiny-clam-or-oyster person). I'm much more a favorite-food-of-the-moment person, and right now I'm savoring the last days of summer, so I'll be grilling some fish (whatever looks good at the fish market, maybe even Hoison Scallops) and making a grilled-vegetable salad. Don't know what that says about me ...

What are your favorites? What would you take to a desert island?

By request

It’s a great compliment when someone requests one of your recipes, but, if you’ve been to three cookouts this month, and been asked for your signature dish every time, you and your family have probably had enough of it. Each summer I like to add a new favorite to my classics so we don’t get bored.

These next couple of days, I’ll post recipes I’ve been asked for recently. If there’s one you’d like me to post, just let me know.

My Classic Potato Salad has a lot of ingredients (my friend Lynne would be very disappointed in me, the list of ingredients should never be longer than the list of directions), but it’s easy—dice, shake, and toss. The Warm Potato and Green Bean Salad (Lynne requests this one all the time!) has several selling points: It’s served warm (great for last-minute plans), it includes a vegetable (almost every gathering these days includes someone avoiding carbs, they can just pick out the potatoes), and it has no mayonnaise (no spoiling in the hot sun).

Classic Potato Salad

1 bag small red potatoes, boiled and diced
1 t onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2-3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
2 pickles, chopped
1½ T oil
1 T vinegar
1 T pickle juice
½ c Miracle Whip salad dressing
salt and pepper, to taste
1/8 c Dijon mustard
½ c sour cream
dill and parsley to taste (fresh, if you have it)
basil or tarragon to taste (fresh, if you have it)

Place potatoes, onion, celery, eggs, and pickles into large bowl. Shake condiments in a jar for dressing. Pour over potatoes. Toss salad—shaking in a covered plastic bowl works best. Chill. Top with fresh herbs before serving.

Warm Potato and Green Bean Salad
from The North End Italian Cookbook

2 pounds fresh green beans, tips removed, snapped in half
1 pound new potatoes, unpeeled
2/3 cup olive oil
6 tablespoons white wine vinegar
6 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons oregano, dried
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
2 pinches red pepper flakes
salt and pepper, to taste

Steam green beans 8-10 minutes, until tender. Drain and place on serving platter. Boil potatoes until just tender. Drain, do not rinse, let cool, then cube, leaving skin on. Add to green beans. Using a large spoon, gently toss beans and potatoes with remaining ingredients. Serve salad at warm or at room temperature.

Don't labor on Labor Day

My sister, Bridget, is having my parents and aunts to dinner over the holiday weekend, and she wanted the food to be ready so that she could visit, and not spend the day in the kitchen. She wanted to make use of the seasonal vegetables (she usually has some great garden offerings, either her own or from friends), and grilling.

I told her that lately my do-ahead meal has been fajitas. You can do the chicken and steak and leave them slightly rare, and keep them warm in the oven on low or in the crockpot on warm until you're ready to eat. They don't have to be hot, hot, when you serve them, just warm, then you can make all the fixin’s: salsa, guacamole, cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, sour cream, flour tortillas, tomatoes, lettuce, jalapeños, ...

If you aren’t in the mood for Mexican, you can do a nice salad and top it with the steak and/or chicken. You could do some other nice seasonal treats to go along with the salad, almost like a salad bar (nice tomatoes, cucumbers, marinated zucchini), and some corn on the cob on the side.

These are also great meals for those crazy back-to-school nights when we don’t know if we’re coming or going.

What do you think? What do you serve when you don’t want to miss all the fun while you work in the kitchen?

Miracle food: Broccoli?

31 Days of Blog: Day 9.On location in New York.

Last night we arrived at my sister's late (midnight), and I had trouble sleeping so I perused the July issue of SELF magazine. I was very surprised to learn, in two different articles, that broccoli can help shield your eyes from the damage caused by the sun, and that it can also reverse the damage to body tissue and organs caused by age. The luteins in broccoli give it the antioxidant power to protect you from the sun. The sulforaphane in broccoli reverses the aging process (well, perhaps I overstate).

• Now, I have always known that it is high in calcium. One serving of broccoli doesn't quite equal the calcium in one glass of milk, but it's a great boost to the calcium in your daily diet. For your own reference, calcium not only builds strong bones and staves off osteoporosis, it also helps keep blood pressure lower, and is connected with a healthy, cancer-free colon.
  
• Broccoli is also one of those "dark, leafy greens" always extolled for being rich in beta-carotene. Beta-carotene (Vitamin A) and Vitamin C (also abundant in these green "trees") have been linked to the reduction of cataracts and heart disease.
  
• Broccoli is also contains folic acid, especially important in pregnant women. I remember craving it when I was pregnant with my third son, Jude, and the doctor definitely encouraged my indulging my craving. It has been linked to helping create healthy fetuses, it also seems to prevent cervical cancer and can reduce osteoporosis. In both men and women, it helps combat heart disease. It also releases serotonin, which makes it act as a mild antidepressant.
  
• The fiber in broccoli is half soluble and half insoluble, both of which a body needs.
  
• Broccoli is also a member of the cabbage, or crucifer, family. Crucifers are thought to reduce the risk of bladder cancer.
  
• In addition, broccoli provides kaempferol, also found in green tea and onions, which has been found to lower a woman's risk of ovarian cancer.

This is no light list. I think I'll up my intake of this veggie!

Broccoli is basically a cool-weather vegetable, though through refrigeration and trucking it is available year-round, its flavor is best from late fall through early spring.

Often broccoli (both raw and cooked) suffers from the smell of sulfur. Often times, you can avoid this by eating the broccoli before it begins to wilt in your refrigerator. When cooking, avoid this smell of sulfur by just steaming the broccoli until bright green, then running it under cold water or immersing it in an ice-water bath to stop the cooking process. Cooked broccoli tastes best when cooked al dente; it looks most appetizing (bright green) that way too. Raw broccoli, while tasty, repeats on you more than cooked broccoli does.

When my boys were young, my husband always called broccoli "trees" to make them laugh, and try one more bite. We usually served broccoli with something for the kids to dip it in: ranch dressing, cheese sauce, ketchup, marinara sauce, you name it, if those boys could dip it, they would usually eat it, eventually. I love white pizza with broccoli and pasta with broccoli and chicken; my husband doesn't think broccoli belongs on pizza or in pasta, so those don't often get prepared at Chez Habib. We do, however, pile it on stuffed baked potatoes, usually with generous helpings of cheddar cheese and sour cream.

The most commented on salad I've ever served is Broccoli-Bacon Salad. It's something my mom would've served in the '60s and '70s. No one in health-conscious 2008 would have developed this recipe, but it is the #1 hit at every party I've ever served it. My recipe comes from a collaborative cookbook put together by the PTO at my boys' school when my oldest (now a sophomore in high school) was in 1st grade. My friend, Nancy, submitted the recipe, her daughter was in my son's class at the time. Our paths don't cross as often anymore, but I love thinking of her each time I make this salad.

Broccoli-Bacon salad

1 head broccoli
10 slices bacon
1/4 c pecans
1/2 c cheddar cheese, finely shredded
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c sugar
1 c mayonnaise
2 T white vinegar

Cook bacon until crisp; cool, then crumble. Place raisins in 2 c very hot water to plump. Cut broccoli heat into very small bite-size pieces. Mix broccoli with nuts, cheese, and raisins. Combine sugar, mayo, and vinegar to make dressing. Store in refrigerator. Just before serving, dress and toss.

Leftovers by any other name …, continued

Anyone who knows me knows a few things about me:

1. I hate to throw anything out.


2. I love leftovers, but my family doesn’t, which brings me to ...


3. I try to disguise leftovers in every imaginable form, so my family does not recognize them as having been a previous meal — chicken pot pie, chicken soup, vegetable soup, stews of all shapes and sizes, cheesy vegetable enchiladas (really any Mexican is ideal for hiding the evidence of the previous meal).

Given all those givens, I encountered a surprising piece of information last week that made me ask: How did I miss that?!

I put on an interactive dinner party last week, and one of the dishes we made was Gazpacho. Fourteen women were cooking the meal together. When the duo that was making the gazpacho was chatting with me, one of them remarked, “We always had gazpacho growing up, my mother made it out of leftover salad.”

She what?! I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of that. (Even if you know me pretty well, you may not know that I love gazpacho, I seldom make it, because my own family balks at cold tomato and vegetable soup.) n my defense, maybe I never thought of it, because I was never really trying to get rid of leftover salad: I grew up in a family of eight, we never had leftover salad. Even in my own family, my kids love salad, and we seldom have any leftover.

I do remember being surprised when I first met my husband’s family and found out that his Lebanese side of the family even had a name for leftover salad (mixed with day-old Syrian (pita) bread): Fatoush.

So, turning leftover salad into an entirely different dish you could actually serve to people, I love it! I mentioned it to my friend, Eileen, who is a vegetarian, and a very good cook, she said she’d only use the tomatoes and cucumbers from the leftover salad, so I tried.

I used the Gazpacho recipe from a friend I used to work with.

Vivian's blender gazpacho

5 large tomatoes, ripe and firm, divided use
3 European cucumbers, long seedless, peeled, divided use
¼ c olive oil
½ bunch green onions
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch chives
3 garlic cloves
5 dashes red wine vinegar
1 lemon, juiced
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1⅔ c beef broth
black pepper, fresh ground
1⅔ c tomato juice
1-2 dashes Tabasco

Blend 2 tomatoes, 1 cucumber, oil, parsley, garlic, lemon, broth, tomato juice, onion, chives, vinegar, Worcestershire, and peppers in blender briefly and place in large bowl. Chop remaining tomato and cucumber coarsely and add to soup. Stir together and refrigerate overnight before serving.

To modify it, I went with Eileen’s suggestion and just used the tomatoes and the cukes, I used leftover tomato soup instead of the tomato juice, and I didn’t have any chives. I had slightly less parsley and green onions than the recipe called for, but I was very happy with the results, and I bet it will be even better tonight or tomorrow, and next time, I’ll try with more of the salad, just to see how it goes.

As a final note, another friend said she makes meatloaf when she cleans out her fridge. As with my gazpacho recipe, I’ve never entertained deviating from my few favorite meatloaf recipes, but in the interest of wastelessness, I may expand my horizons. Check back here for the results some time soon.

Summer food safety tips

Memorial Day is Monday, May 26th, and with it comes Barbecue Season. But while you’re hanging out in the yard, loitering over the grill, sipping a cocktail, watching the kids run around, bacteria could be contaminating your meal. A watchful eye on a few key areas will go a long way to keeping your family and friend free from food-borne illness all summer long.

Thaw safely. It’s great to have food in the freezer — a spur-of-the-moment party always at the ready! But be careful how you bring it from the freezer to the table. Food safety experts recommend thawing foods in the refrigerator or the microwave oven or putting the package in a water-tight plastic bag submerged in cold water and changing the water every 30 minutes. Changing the water ensures that the food is kept cold, an important factor for slowing bacterial growth that may occur on the outer thawed portions while the inner areas are still thawing. It is not advisable to thaw meat, poultry, or fish on the counter or in the sink without cold water; bacteria multiply much more rapidly at room temperature.

Avoid cross-contamination. Grilling adds great flavor to meals, and makes summertime entertaining both fun and easy. However, once you’ve placed your raw meat on the grill, wash the plate thoroughly with hot soapy water, or get a clean plate for the cooked, ready-to-eat foods. Cooked foods should never be placed on a plate that held raw meat. Thoroughly cook all meat, poultry and seafood, especially shellfish.

Keep cold foods cold and hot foods hot. Once ready to serve, you don’t want your food’s temperature in The Danger Zone (40°F–140°F) for any longer than necessary. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration recommends that you keep hot foods hot (use a warming tray or Sterno or votive candle under your serving dish) and cold foods cold (use a bed of ice under your food) while you serve them. Do not leave food out for more than 2 hours (this includes preparation time and the time it was in the car after you left the grocery store).

The foods that are most likely to cause illness if left unrefrigerated are:

• meat, poultry, and fish (both raw and cooked;
• salads made from starchy ingredients such as pasta, potatoes, rices, and other grains;
• anything containing raw or cooked eggs such as mayonnaise and potato salad, cream pies; and
• anything else containing dairy products.

If serving sour cream– or mayonnaise-based dips, be sure to keep the bowl on ice and avoid direct sunlight if at all possible. If holding your party at the beach, a park, on a boat, or at some other remote location, bring a cooler full of ice and keep all foods that may spoil cold until they are ready to be cooked or eaten. If possible, use two separate coolers—one for drinks and snacks, which people will be dipping into frequently, and a second one for meat and other dishes that stay closed, and therefore colder, until it’s time for the meal. Also, if possible, keep raw meats separate from cooked meats.

If you’re serving snacks and appetizers that will likely be sitting out for a while, stick to foods that don’t need refrigeration, such as fresh veggies, fresh fruit, breads with oil-based dips, nuts, and chips (tortilla chips with salsa provide a healthful addition to your menu as well).

Prepare your foods well. Thoroughly wash raw fruits and vegetables with tap water. Even those fruits and vegetables that do not have pesticides grow very close to the soil—another key bacteria-causing agent.

Cover and store leftover cooked food in the refrigerator as soon as possible. Cooked foods can also breed bacteria. Make sure you refrigerate, or place in a cooler with ice, any unused portion of cooked food (again, keep cooked meats separate from raw meats). If this is not possible, discard the leftovers.

Hot foods should be refrigerated as soon as possible within two hours after cooking. Don’t keep the food if it’s been standing out for more than two hours. Don’t taste-test it, either. Even a small amount of contaminated food can cause illness. Date leftovers so they can be used within a safe time—generally, they remain safe when refrigerated for three to five days.

If in doubt, throw it out; it’s not worth a food-borne illness for the small amount of food usually involved. Eat Well, Live Well, Be Well!