McHenry County offers tips on safe turkey cooking

Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow and the last thing you need is to get food poisoning from the turkey and all of the lovely trimmings.

With that in mind, the McHenry County Health Department has furnished us with tips for healthy food preparation, things that you can also remember for other big meals this upcoming holiday season.

• Thaw means in the refrigerator (a 20-pound-turkey takes about five to six days).

• Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water before and after handling foods.

• Clean all kitchen surfaces before you begin cooking.

• Scrub cutting boards with hot, soapy water after preparing food to ward off cross contamination.

• Use a metal-stemmed food thermometer to make sure food is cooked to the proper temperature.

• Refrigerate leftovers within two hours of serving time.

For more tips, visit www.mcdh.info.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Supporting our soldiers: The fourth-grade class at St. Margaret Mary Catholic School in Algonquin is collecting items that they'll send onto Operation Support Our Troops that will then use the items as stocking stuffers for soldiers from Illinois, but fighting overseas.

Flannery Harman, 9, is in the fourth grade class at the school and her father, Sgt. Matt Harman, just returned from a yearlong stint of fighting in Afghanistan - he is helping out with this project.

The following items are still needed:

• Canned soup or Chef Boyardee ready-made pasta meals

• Canned fruit

• Granola or other snack bars

• Unscented wipes, preferably the smaller travel packages

• Foot powder

• Shaving cream

• Floss or dental picks

• Mouthwash or dental rinse

• Mechanical pencils

• Four-packs of AA and AAA batteries

• Mints and Christmas candy, including candy canes

• Gum

• Individually wrapped beef jerky and Slim Jims

• Individual bags of nuts or trail mix

• Individually wrapped Twizzlers

• New CDs and DVDs

• iTunes gift cards.

Please get everything in by Dec. 1.

For information, call the school at (847) 658-5313.

A tree twinkles in Pingree Grove: Pingree Grove will be holding its third annual tree lighting ceremony at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Centennial Park.

Free sleigh rides, carolers, Santa Claus, a heated tent and food for purchase will accompany the event.

Please bring an ornament to help decorate the tree and nonperishable food for local food banks.

The entire park will be lit up at 5:30 p.m.

For more information, call Cathie Vavra at (224) 659-4747.

Deck the homes in LITH: To all those Lake in the Hills residents who can't wait to get creative with their light displays, here's an extra incentive to get those juices flowing.

Lake in the Hills Parks and Recreation Department is holding a decorating contest and the houses that win for best overall display and the Clark Griswold Award for the most extravagant designs each receive a gift certificate to a local eatery.

Don't roll your eyes, but it took two people from Lake in the Hills to explain to me the significance of Clark Griswold, played by Chevy Chase in "Christmas Vacation" - in the 1989 movie, Griswold claimed to have used 25,000 lights to cover every inch of his property.

The houses will be judged at dusk Dec. 17.

To enroll your house in the contest or to nominate a neighbor, call the department at (847) 960-7460.

Lenore Adkins covers Algonquin, Lake in the Hills, Pingree Grove, McHenry County College, Cary and Fox River Grove. To reach her, call (847) 608-2725 or send an e-mail to ladkins@dailyherald.com