All The Ways Thanksgiving Can Go Sideways

Thanksgiving is supposed to be festive and cozy, but let’s be honest... it can also go completely sideways. In this episode we're walking you through some of the little (and usually unexpected) holiday hazards that can turn your holiday kitchen into a tornado of chaos.

From mystery potluck dishes and food allergies, to deep-fried turkey disasters, smoky grills, and knives running amok, we've got you covered. And let's not forget about the undercooked poultry (please use a thermometer), choking at the dinner table, and your family’s “famous” recipe... which might be less "famous" and more holiday hazard.

We're taking an honest look at the messiness of cooking for a crowd, and we've got simple and practical tips to keep your day running smoothly. So that this year... instead of calling 911, you can keep everyone safe, fed, and festive.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.

Chapters

• 0:00 Thanksgiving Food Preferences
• 4:40 Food Allergies and Family Gatherings
• 7:46 Kitchen Knife Safety Tips
• 12:39 Fire Safety and Deep-Fried Turkey
• 15:09 Smoker Fire Mishap and Temperature Tips
• 17:13 Choking Hazards and Emergency Response

Transcript

Thanksgiving Food Preferences

Jimmy 0:23

What's happening? It's another Life and Safety podcast with Jimmy and your girl, meg. Hello, today we're going to talk about Thanksgiving safety things. Now, one of the things I want to talk about with Thanksgiving is the cooking.

Megan 0:44

Making good choices while cooking.

Jimmy 0:46

Okay, is that like good food choices, because that's very, or good choices with technique and I, I would.

Megan 0:57

I was more thinking good choices with technique, but I also think that you should make good choices, food wise okay, all right but yeah more specifically good choices technique-wise.

Jimmy 1:08

Well, something controversial, you know canned yams or fresh yams.

Megan 1:18

Ooh.

Jimmy 1:18

Canned cranberries fresh cranberries.

Megan 1:21

Mm-hmm.

Jimmy 1:23

You know, that's all very subjective.

Megan 1:26

Mm-hmm.

Jimmy 1:28

That's true, that's true that's true.

Megan 1:29

very subjective, mm-hmm, that's true. That's true, that's true. Do you have a preference?

Jimmy 1:32

Neither.

Megan 1:33

Neither.

Jimmy 1:35

No, yeah, I don't eat either.

Megan 1:39

Fair enough For both, for yams and cranberries.

Jimmy 1:46

I don't like cranberries and I don't like yams. All right, yeah, fair enough. Not only yams. All right, yeah, fair enough. Um, when I became allergic to cinnamon, cinnamon and nutmeg were like a big, like flavorful thing in the air.

Megan 1:58

Quote family recipe for candied yams oh yeah, to no more my family also puts it in the cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving.

Jimmy 2:09

Yeah, yeah, not for Jim.

Megan 2:13

I guess not.

Jimmy 2:14

Not for your boy. So yeah, I mean, and I've just never really been. And another crazy thing is when people cheer ham. That's my go-to thing on Thanksgiving is ham. I don't like turkey, Unless it's very thinly sliced sandwich turkey. I'll have a turkey on my sandwich, but I won't eat Thanksgiving turkey.

Megan 2:41

Fair enough.

Jimmy 2:42

Yeah, so I'll eat a ham. But certain people, when they cure the ham and like, they use like a sweet ham or something like that, but put a cinnamon on it, like cinnamon and pineapple, and they'll cure it that way.

Megan 3:00

Yeah.

Jimmy 3:02

Other seasonings. A lot of it is um cinnamon, so I can't eat. But a lot of it is um cinnamon, so I can't eat. There's a God the honey baked ham place that you order hams from.

Megan 3:15

Oh, yes, um.

Jimmy 3:17

I can't think of the name of that company here. Everybody always goes there on hams for Thanksgiving, so like that, and yeah, I can't go there cause they put cinnamon in there on their ham.

Megan 3:32

Just like honey baked.

Jimmy 3:34

Yeah, it might actually just be called honey baked. I don't think there's an actual name for it. Yeah, it's actually just called honey baked ham. So there you go.

Megan 3:45

Easy enough.

Food Allergies and Family Gatherings

Jimmy 3:46

See, I mean I don't go there, so yeah. So those are some of those things there you go easy enough, see, I mean I don't, I don't go there, so yeah. So those are some of those things so interesting, um decisions, right, and we're talking about that with food and stuff like that. So just think about you, know us poor little people, and use those epi pens or have those epi pens around, because you never know yeah um, especially if you're lucky enough to have friends and family coming over and bringing dishes and things like that, you have something to think about.

Megan 4:17

Yeah, my family always does this huge thanksgiving, like feast basically, and we have, you know, upwards of 20, 30 people sometimes, um, we call it misfits thanksgiving, so we have just a really wide assortment of people that come, and so it's hard to sort of cater to everyone's dietary things because you never know who's going to show up, um. But so, yeah, like whenever we do something, we always make sure to write down all of the ingredients that are in the food, just to you know, and then have that sort of as a place card with the food.

Jimmy 4:54

Yeah, that's a great idea. I should remember last year we did this holiday series of podcasts. That's wild to say we're on our second year of podcasts, I guess I know. Oh my gosh, that's wild. Thank, we're on our second year of podcast, I guess I know. Oh my gosh, that's wild. Thank you all for listening. Yeah, what is it the Jell-O thing that your family makes?

Megan 5:17

Yeah, we make. It's basically like Jell-O salad, is my understanding, but it's Jell-O and then we put Red Hots in it and melt those down into like the Jell-O, and then we put Red Hots in it and melt those down into like the Jell-O base and then put like celery walnuts and then apples, and then there's a dressing on it that is like mayo and oh, what's that? Orange liqueur, something Schnapps, no.

Jimmy 5:59

The orange liqueur huh.

Megan 6:01

Yeah, something, and but it just there's a bunch of different ingredients in the sauce and just like this really nice tangy citrus um creamy sauce that you put on it.

Jimmy 6:15

Yeah.

Megan 6:15

And I'm I'm not a fan. I'll eat the red hots as we make it, but I typically don't eat it. Um, but it's family recipe but we've brought a lot of people into it just because there's so many. You know random assortment of people that come, and I'm always shocked when people are like, oh, this is great, can I have another slice? And I'm like you want more? What?

Jimmy 6:38

I absolutely adore every piece of your family that I've ever met. I do not mean this disrespectfully, but that sounds horrible.

Megan 6:47

Yeah, I mean, I agree with you, but everybody who's with you, but everybody who's like almost everybody's had it has really enjoyed it, and so I'll never have it.

Kitchen Knife Safety Tips

Jimmy 6:55

yeah, well, that's true yeah, so but yeah, but yeah, I don't mean to be disrespectful and I'm so sorry no, well, you have a good excuse. You could just say you can't, I can't I think you said more often no, um well, there's safety things, um you know. So I was researching this a little bit and I was like thinking of like how, um knife safety?

Jimmy 7:33

so knife safety thing is actually belt knives are less safe because you have to work harder with them and then they slip and they move things and you have to work and get your hands closer and then they're not cutting whatever you're trying to cut, but then they cut you. Yeah Right, and technique how to cut things Like? I'll use a bagel as an example. Most people squeeze the bagel between their fingers and their thumb and cut towards their hand. Oh my gosh.

Megan 8:04

That always stresses me out when I watch that.

Jimmy 8:06

Yeah, yeah. That's why I always have Chris cut all the bagels before he puts them out in our classes, because Chris actually ran a bagel shop when it was many high school college jobs. Yeah, he actually worked at a bagel shop, so he actually knows how to hold bagels and cut them. So a good way to cut a bagel is to actually take um the bagel, place it between your hand and the counter and the cutting board you're cutting it on and cut it that way um so that it's like lying flat on yeah, exactly.

Jimmy 8:44

So you know, the knife doesn't get you yeah, or buy a bagel slicer oh, fair, fair, yeah.

Megan 8:52

Yeah, I mean, if we don't do that for a class, then we'll get a real life time, get to, get to use wound packing and I don't need that in our life.

Jimmy 9:02

Um, you know a lot of good simulators for that. That's true. That's true I spend a lot of money on, so we should use those instead of real people, fair enough. Also, another thing that I see in our house a lot like if we're doing dishes, those people will just take the knife and just throw it in the sink.

Megan 9:24

Oh, that stresses me. I'm so glad when I see that.

Jimmy 9:31

Yeah, and it's you know. You got to be careful with that that, because somebody grabs your hand in there. What have you? I think, like that um actually in the fire department, that was actually a fireable defense. Oh, for offense, not a defense.

Jimmy 9:42

Um, because it was an unsafe work act yeah so if we were all doing the dishes at the sink, we had a special procedure on how to clean it. But then the knife, so the person doing the dishes had the tub of dirty water if you will, cleaned on dirty water, the gross wash if you will, and he or she would wash it and then they'd say sharp, make sure every saw it and then put it down in the sink.

Jimmy 10:12

So we didn't have to touch the blade and off, the other person would say got it, rinse it off, and then say sharp, and then for the final rinse, and then dry and put away. Ah. So it's funny like kids ask me. Well, years ago they've asked me because I was washing the dishes and I dropped the knife into the thing to get sinked, to get it into the shark. And they're like, why do you use shark? And you drop the knife. And I was like, oh, this is why.

Megan 10:41

And they're like oh, all right, I think that's a great procedure yeah.

Jimmy 10:47

So some people actually have the little like sponge holders that are in your sink. We have one here in our sink Actually it's at our home sink. Sometimes I get them confused folks. That's like the sponge or the drain cap and I'll put that ice in there.

Megan 11:09

Oh, that makes a lot of sense so.

Jimmy 11:10

I'll wash it, I'll put the ice in there. Then that way, if lot of sense, so, I'll wash it and I'll put the knife in there, and then that way, if somebody comes up to me I'll help them rinse, or something like that.

Megan 11:14

I don't have to worry about it too much, and then when I was younger, I I think I I don't think I've ever put like a knife in a sink other than like like a butter knife, but never like a sharp, proper sharp knife. But I did put the vegetable peeler in. I had just finished making a carrot cake and so I had like the big mixing bowl and I threw like all the dirty dishes in there and the vegetable peeler and I stuck my hand in and I cut myself on that, um and then, but I just like I hadn't even considered a vegetable peeler. It's like I know that it's sharp, but I like hadn't considered it as something that I could cut myself on sticking my hand in. And it wasn't like it was a very, very minor cut, it was barely anything. But you know, that was something that I hadn't considered.

Fire Safety and Deep-Fried Turkey

Jimmy 12:00

Yeah, yeah, definitely Consider that Done, understood, understood, right. Another big one is you know a lot of fires are caught, started in the fire in the kitchen. You know it's a tangible, measurable staff, so you gotta be really careful with that now big one is the, the famous, deep fried turkey.

Jimmy 12:31

awesome, water and oil do not mix right. It's a little hot oil and they haven't thawed thoroughly. There's turkey and dried it off, or maybe they brine it. They soak it in, you know, salt water or whatever they use, soak it in and they're brine and they don't pat it dry and they stick it straight into the hot oil. Not the business, not the business. Yeah. So if you are going to do fire turkey, make sure you have a fire extinguisher close by An ABC fire extinguisher.

Megan 13:03

Yeah, yeah. What are your thoughts on the fire blankets? Have you seen those for kitchen?

Jimmy 13:09

I think they work really cool with hands. I don't think they would work very good with that. I think it would burn too hot for that. Fair enough. So I think an ABC fire extinguisher would work really good on a deep fryer, but actually you're actually going to heat off though. That's a good one, that's a good one, and then do it and just cooking in general.

Jimmy 13:35

Like something that I thought about this weekend, this past weekend, and I forgot, is I was using my smoker, my pellet smoker, and I was like man, I haven't cleaned out like the fire pit in a while, so there's a lot of ash and grease mixed in there. So it's just kind of like every I try to clean it like every three or four cooks, and I think I'm at like six right now. I kind of lost count because I didn't use it for a little while. So I'm like, oh man, I'll just say that I get on fire. That would be embarrassing, but it's a good story. Yeah, I mean because it has caught on fire. Once Grilling chicken, which was actually what I was doing, was smoking chicken. Luckily, though, your boy has skills, so I was able to use the garden hose and cool it off around it and then kind of put a little fire out, and then I was able to get the chicken off the grill and salvage everything.

Megan 14:34

Very impressive, Very impressive. I will say to our listeners maybe don't try that one at home.

Jimmy 14:38

Yeah, don't try that at home.

Megan 14:41

That's a Jimmy only one.

Jimmy 14:46

Yeah, yeah, I was pretty worried. It was a family gathering and a bunch of people at the house. I was like, yeah, flame shitting out of the smoker, you know. And I'm like uh-oh. Every time I looked at the lid it was, I was like, ah, definitely grease fire, oh my gosh so.

Jimmy 15:02

I unplugged it, you know, just cooled it off from the outside a little bit, let the stuff inside burn, and then I picked it up and just started. I pulled all of the chicken off with my big barbecue tongs. I put my fire glove on Okay, that's good, so it was a plus. It was a plus and cut it all out, and then I just kind of put a little bit of water on the firebox thing and it ended up being okay. Nice.

Megan 15:32

Very impressive yeah.

Jimmy 15:35

Chicken was done and I think we needed like a couple degrees on it. So we just stuck it in the oven for like 10 minutes or whatever it was, just get it up to temp to make sure we weren't getting salmonella too.

Megan 15:46

That would be important.

Jimmy 15:47

Yeah, which is another good key tip when you're cooking things, make sure you don't serve raw poultry.

Megan 15:52

Yeah. Yeah, cooking it to the internal temperature that you need to meat thermometer.

Jimmy 15:59

Meat thermometers are huge, you know, don't be afraid to buy one. And the best Mieze monitor I've ever had unsolicited advice here is a cheap one I got at Safeway. It was a Pyrex one, I think I spent $12 on it and I've had that thing for 20 years Nice, and it works the best. I have a really nice thermal one that my family gifted me. It's like a Father's Day thing and it works the best. I have a really nice thermal one that my family gifted me. It's like a Father's Day thing and it works great. I use that all the time because it's air quote more accurate, but my go-to anytime I'm making a really nice piece of steak or something like that, especially in the house. My Pyrex ones I go to Nice Every time. My Pyrex lungs I go to Nice, it's fine.

Choking Hazards and Emergency Response

Megan 16:46

Another Thanksgiving mishap that we might encounter choking.

Jimmy 16:50

Yeah, definitely catch a video on abdominal thrust If you know, remember if you've been to one of my classes. Don't be afraid to you know. Pull out that flow chart.

Megan 17:01

Yeah, appreciate it and make sure you know the difference between partial airway obstruction and a complete airway obstruction yeah, partial airway obstructions.

Jimmy 17:11

They're coughing and they're talking to you yep, and for that one.

Megan 17:15

You just monitor them and keep them coughing yep and full airwaydominal thrusts all the way.

Jimmy 17:23

Yep, don't be shy, get in there, dig in deep, you know. And if they pass out, start CPR. Make sure you call 911 regardless. Even if it does pop out, call 911, just in case.

Megan 17:37

Very much.

Jimmy 17:38

So All right team Be safe, peace, peace.