GOTTA LOVE THE INTERNET

What in the world did we do before the Internet? Hardly a day goes by anymore that one of us doesn't ask a question in passing that the other one answers, "I don't know". For example, this evening watching the Golden State Warriors beat the Oklahoma City Thunder (YAAAYYY!!!!), Lou says semi-rhetorically, "I wonder what nationality Enes Kanter is?" I replied, "I don't know."

Years ago, that would have been the end of it since there wasn't a quick & easy way to find out. We probably had hundreds, or even thousands, of unanswered questions floating around out there. But, now days, thanks to the World Wide Web, I can grab my phone, type in a few words & tell Lou that Mr. Kanter is Turkish.

The Internet has so much valuable, interesting & useful information at our fingertips that it sometimes boggles my mind. It has to be one of the greatest inventions of our time. It amazes me what we can do with our "devices" - pay bills, look up anything in the encyclopedia, store photos & videos, text people instantly, literally watch basketball games, post on Facebook or Twitter, play solitaire, read books or even make a phone call.

Tonight I needed it for a food safety question & sure enough, a few key strokes & I had answers from several sources. First a little background as to why I needed it. It is Memorial Day weekend so Lou & I were planning a backyard barbecue for just the two of us. I'm more health conscious these days & had a recipe for turkey burgers from Rachael Ray I wanted to try - finely chopped apple, celery & onion in the ground turkey.

I decided to make potato salad (one of my favorites), too. Ready-made potato salad from grocery stores is pretty much all mayonnaise with a few bites of potato thrown in - the fat & calorie content makes me gasp! My version uses real potatoes, celery, pickles, onion & low fat mayo - & it tastes great. A quick aside here, the only store-bought potato salad that is REALLY GOOD is the Red Potato Salad from Publix Markets - delicious & tastes like real potato salad. Those of you in the south are really lucky!

But back to my Memorial Day barbecue. Wanting to get a jump on things, I boiled my potatoes late this afternoon while cooking dinner. I intended to let them cool for an hour or so, peel them, then refrigerate them overnight to make the potato salad in the morning. BUT, I got totally into the aforementioned Warriors basketball game which they had to win to force a game seven - AND THEY DID!

The evening continued with more TV, some computer time & a little reading. I went up to bed around midnight but wasn't really sleepy.  About 20 minutes later, my brain kicked in & I remembered, "Shit, I forgot the potatoes!" They were still sitting on the counter. I hopped out of bed, came downstairs, peeled them & put them in the fridge.

I am a real stickler for food left at room temperature for more than an hour or two. I know it is a breeding ground for bacteria. Many times I have taken food home from a get together where I know it has been left out way too long (in my opinion) & thrown it out. I refuse to take a chance on eating something that could cause food poisoning.

It got me thinking about my potatoes that were at room temperature for about 7 hours. So, I headed in here to my trusty Internet & did a quick search for "are boiled potatoes left at room temperature for hours safe". I was again amazed at what is readily available online.

The bottom line is - no, they are not safe & need to be thrown away. One woman who answered had recently taken a food safety course for working in a restaurant. She said that potatoes are the worst for all sorts of bacteria when left at room temperature. Two hours at room temperature seems to be the maximum. Another thing I learned is not to store potatoes that have been baked in foil in the fridge because it causes all sorts of chemical reactions. Who knew?

Apparently, I'll be heading to the grocery store in the morning to buy more potatoes to boil for my potato salad. This time I'll set the timer on my phone (yet another handy gadget - or is it widget?) to remind me to put them in the fridge. Just wish I'd have done my Internet research BEFORE I peeled the damn things that I threw away!