Produce News for December 22, 2008

POTATOES (Monday, December 22):  Hey, the feast of lights begins today – an eight day feast.  It’s called Hanukkah, and of course you can’t have Hanukkah without some beautiful potato latkes - you know, potato pancakes.  So, which potato are you going to use?  Well, may I suggest that you do not use white or you do not use red potatoes.  Those potatoes are very high in sugar content, and when they’re high in sugar content, that means when you go to fry them they turn black, and nobody wants to eat a black potato latke.  You want a nice golden brown potato latke.  So may I suggest some beautiful Yukon gold potatoes or russet potatoes.  Now when you’re buying the russet potatoes for your potato latke, don’t spend a lot of money to buy these big what we call bakers.  Just go ahead and buy it in the bag. I know they may be a little bit smaller, but this is better because, you know, you can get your kids in the kitchen and they can peel the potatoes.  That’s even better.  These are a whole lot cheaper.  So russets or Yukon golds in your potato latke for Hanukkah. 



PINEAPPLES  (Tuesday, December 23)  Okay, Christmas – a couple days away.  Are you going to have some fresh pineapple there for Christmas?  I hope you do.  Pineapple is the universal symbol of friendship and welcome.  May I suggest if you’re going to have some pineapple there, go get the pineapple today.  As soon as we’re done talking and chatting here, I want you to go buy the pineapple today.  Now when you’re picking out the best pineapple, a couple things I want you to look for.  First of all, look at the crown up here.  I want you to make sure it’s really nice and velvety.  Turn it over and just smell.  If it smells like the tropics, if it smells like Hawaii, that’s going to be a good pineapple.  Now get that puppy home today and I want you to set it out on the counter top.  Do not refrigerate it.  So for the next two days your pineapple is going to be on the countertop.  Sometimes I will even just lay them down like this (treat them gently - they will bruise easily) and lay a newspaper over them.  That way they get a little warmer.  Now when you go to cut these on Christmas day, your guests are going to say, “Whoa!  You are the best pineapple picker in all the world.”  Actually, you just ripened them better. 

GREEN BEANS (Wednesday, December 24):  All right.  It is Christmas Eve day.  Oh, my goodness.  I’m so excited.  I’m excited for the presents.  I’m excited for how my kids are going to be excited. I’m excited for the food as well.  Today is the day that I want you to go check your green beans.  Now if you bought green beans over the weekend for your Christmas dinner, I want you to go take a look at those green beans.  Are they looking sad?  Are they looking wilty?  Are they still fresh?  If they’re still fresh, that’s fine.   If they’re starting to look wilty, that’s normal.  Green beans breathe fast, very fast.  So if you bought them over the weekend, by Christmas (tomorrow) they may not be good.  So go to the store today and buy some green beans.  Hey, while you are at the store I want you to buy some raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries.  I will tell you why on tomorrow’s show, but for now I want to make sure you get some good fresh green beans for your Christmas dinner.   And make sure you get the kids in the kitchen with those green beans – grandkids or your kids.  Make sure they get in there and you teach them how to properly snap those green beans.

BERRIES (Thursday, December 25):  Hey, am I the first to tell you, “Merry Christmas!”  Oh, my goodness!  I hope you’re going to have a great day today!  Have you already opened up your gifts?  Well, one thing to make your Christmas dinner later today really, really special.  I want you to have some little jewels.  These are the tiniest produce items in the produce aisle – all the berries.  You’ve got blueberries.  You’ve got blackberries.  You’ve got beautiful raspberries.  And I told you yesterday I wanted you to buy one package of each of these berries.  Now the reason I told you to do that – I’m sure you’re going to serve a salad today or perhaps you’re going to have a fruit platter – and in the salad or fruit platter, I want you to take a few of these berries, and I just want you to sprinkle them onto the salad.  It doesn’t take a lot, but you know, when you sprinkle some blueberries and blackberries and raspberries, it looks absolutely dazzling.  This is one of the biggest hits you will have at your Christmas dinner.   And now around that Christmas dinner, I hope you are going to have great family and friends, and I hope you have a very rich and memorable Christmas dinner. 



LIMES (Friday, December 26):  Hey, New Year’s Eve is just a few days away.  Jimmy Buffett turns 62 this week so of course, are you going to have some margaritas?  Well, you need some limes for those margaritas and maybe for your New Year’s Eve dinner - New Year’s Eve party.   Maybe some limes you’re going to need.  Well, first of all - how to pick out the best lime.  What I want you to do is look at the stem end and the blossom end.  Take a look.  That’s the blossom end.  If a lime is going to rot or mold, it’s usually going to be right around the blossom end  first.  Take a look all around your limes and make sure you don’t see any decay like these.  Now also when you’re picking out your limes, the most juice is going to be in the slick ones.  See how this one is really pebbly, you know, and it’s bumpy, but this one is very shiny and very slick?  This right here is going to be loaded with juice.  This one here not as much juice at all.  Now, how do you get most of the juice out of there?   This is a great way of getting kids in the kitchen.  In fact, I will get little Claire in there, and this is her job – rolling the lime on a hard surface.  And they reason you do that, you are literally breaking up all the water cells in there so when you go to squeeze it all the juice comes out quickly.