For the past six weeks, every spare moment of my life has been devoted to GETTING READY FOR THE OPEN HOUSE. The high school graduation open house, that is. It starts when you look around and realize you’ve been living in squalor. The kitchen and dining room must be painted. And the bathroom. Heck, let’s just paint the whole house. Floors must be waxed, cabinets Liquid Golded, holes patched, curtains and throw rugs replaced, new guest towels purchased and basement windows cleansed of all their spider webs (and inhabitants). Invitations must be purchased and arguments waged as to who actually gets them (“Do we have to invite your cousin Judy? She doesn’t even know Albert!”). You weigh the need to purchase more food if you invite Cousin Judy against how much money she’ll put in her “Congrats! You’re a Grad!” card.
I didn't have to worry about keeping the cake hot or cold!
Then there’s the food. Food is huge. How much is enough? What should we serve? How long will it keep? Where are we going to put it all? On the day of the big event, I worried every time I passed the food table whether or not the potato salad and the deviled eggs had been sitting out too long. And I worried again when I brought some of the massive amounts of leftovers to work and had them sitting out on the break-room table over the lunch hour for three days in a row. What exactly were the odds of poisoning one of my coworkers? That might be OK in a few cases but I actually LIKE most of the people I work with!
I know some of you are struggling with these exact same questions, so check out “Summer is Coming…,” an article from the Family and Consumer Sciences area of MSU Extension. It tells exactly how long you can leave cold dishes sitting out and how to keep hot foods hot, plus everything else you need to know for serving food safely at your open house. The article “No Bugs Wanted at Summer Fun Events!” tells how to safely prepare foods and provides a checklist of what to bring to your summer picnics and outdoor food events.
A quick look at publications available through MSUE’s bulletin office shows 54 on the subject of food preparation, storage and preservation and 33 on the subject of food safety. The list includes publications on how to safely sell food, recognizing safe mushrooms, preserving a variety of fruits and vegetables—even an oldy but a goody on planning a roast pig barbecue.
Now I know I did leave the potato salad sitting out too long, although fortunately, nobody called me up complaining of a belly ache—or worse. MSU Extension makes it easy to do things right with all these free resources, so why not be smarter than I was and read up on food safety before the first guest digs in?
