Chef Penny Moline shows you how anyone can cook with passion! Keep it simple, Keep it fresh, Keep it safe. And share it with someone you love!

The most important thing I can teach you is wash your hands....and wash your food...Even though Rachael Ray wipes off celery with a damp cloth, and just wipes down her mushrooms with a cloth too..please take the time to wash your produce off...PLEASE....  Please wash them under running water...and give a good once over with your hands...

I want you to have in your head how food is harvested. What I tell my student is this:

Out in a field .... there is not a Hilton close by... there is not a hand washing sink...no restrooms whatsoever....  so what do you think the hard working people in the field do when mother nature calls?  run into town 20 miles?  or just do their duty out in the field.... yes that would be right...then go right back to working hard.....
 Please picture this in your head when you are tempted to not wash a watermelon, or an apple, or any vegetable or produce item for that matter.  We wonder how we are getting ecol i and salmonella in our foods... this is how.  It is so easy to prevent.  Wash everything before you cut into it.  Even an onion....you think you will peel it so what is the point.  You usually put the unwashed onion on your cutting board...then you have contaminated your cutting board even before you started. 
Wash your hands...often... and especially before and during cooking...if you are cooking any raw protein such as chicken please wash your hands before and after handling... make sure you are washing your cutting board too..we don't want any cross contamination....
Lets be safe in our cooking.  Practice washing hands and all produce items that go into our families meals.  After all...when we cook at home for our families...we are cooking with love for them...  We want to keep them healthy and safe from a food borne illness.
When you are washing your hands.... it only takes about  30 seconds of soap with friction from your hands to do the trick...and keep you  and the people you are cooking for safe.. 

The most important thing I can teach you is wash your hands....and wash your food...Even though Rachael Ray wipes off celery with a damp cloth, and just wipes down her mushrooms with a cloth too..please take the time to wash your produce off...PLEASE....  Please wash them under running water...and give a good once over with your hands...

I want you to have in your head how food is harvested. What I tell my student is this:

Out in a field .... there is not a Hilton close by... there is not a hand washing sink...no restrooms whatsoever....  so what do you think the hard working people in the field do when mother nature calls?  run into town 20 miles?  or just do their duty out in the field.... yes that would be right...then go right back to working hard.....
 Please picture this in your head when you are tempted to not wash a watermelon, or an apple, or any vegetable or produce item for that matter.  We wonder how we are getting ecol i and salmonella in our foods... this is how.  It is so easy to prevent.  Wash everything before you cut into it.  Even an onion....you think you will peel it so what is the point.  You usually put the unwashed onion on your cutting board...then you have contaminated your cutting board even before you started. 
Wash your hands...often... and especially before and during cooking...if you are cooking any raw protein such as chicken please wash your hands before and after handling... make sure you are washing your cutting board too..we don't want any cross contamination....
Lets be safe in our cooking.  Practice washing hands and all produce items that go into our families meals.  After all...when we cook at home for our families...we are cooking with love for them...  We want to keep them healthy and safe from a food borne illness.
When you are washing your hands.... it only takes about  30 seconds of soap with friction from your hands to do the trick...and keep you  and the people you are cooking for safe..