Senior Care in Mansfield OH
As you prepare to make celebrating Thanksgiving with your aging loved ones, your partner, your children, and your extended family and friends part of your senior care journey, your mind may be filled with ideas for how to make this holiday even more special. Now that you are a family caregiver, you may have to change the way that you celebrate Thanksgiving so that you can still get all of the fun, joy, memories, and meaning out of the holiday while addressing your parents’ physical, cognitive, mobility, medical, and emotional needs. Even if they are no longer able to do everything that they once did to help with the celebrations, making sure that your loved ones can still feel like active, engaged members of the family is essential to supporting their mental and emotional health and preserving their wellbeing for the entire holiday season.
One thing that may need to change when it comes to celebrating Thanksgiving as part of a senior care journey is how you cook the turkey. Devoting hours and all of your oven space may not be the best course of action when you need to minimize cooking time, and if your aging parents used to be responsible for cooking the turkey but are no longer able, it may be upsetting to see another person handle this crucial step. By suggesting you cook the turkey in a different way, you can take the focus off of your parents’ inability to do it while also freeing up space, saving time, and changing up your routine in an interesting way.
Deep-frying turkeys has become an extremely popular way to prepare the Thanksgiving bird in recent years. Originating in the South, this method of preparation is far faster than roasting and produces a juicy, rich-tasting turkey. Though it sounds unhealthy, deep-frying actually adds only a few extra calories, and since the most popular oil used for deep frying is peanut oil, it actually adds heart-healthy fats.
If you decide to try this method, there are some safety considerations you should keep in mind to ensure you get a delicious, healthy bird without causing a holiday catastrophe. Use these tips to make your turkey deep-frying adventure safe this Thanksgiving:
• Step away from the house. A bit of splattered oil or a flare-up is not that big of a deal when you are securely on a paved driveway or dirt area of the yard, but it can be disastrous if you are too close to the house. Set up your turkey frying station well away from the home and make sure that your aging parents, children, and pets stay away. This may be a great opportunity for you to hire a respite senior health care services provider to offer supervision and care while you are frying
• Prep the turkey. This is not the time for you to take your partially thawed turkey right out of the refrigerator and dunk it in the oil. Even a little bit of moisture or a wayward ice crystal can lead to an oil spill or a flare, so make sure that your turkey is fully thawed and well-dried before you start the frying process
• Cook thoroughly. Frying your turkey takes about half the time as roasting, but you still want to make sure you cook it all the way. When you think it may be finished, pull it out of the oil and insert a thermometer to make sure that it is cooked all the way in the center of the thickest part of the meat
• Be safe. Just like any cooking method, even with precautions, frying can lead to dangerous situations. Make sure that you have a fire extinguisher, cold water, and a phone nearby in case of emergency.
If you are considering hiring senior care services near Mansfield, Ohio, call the caring staff at Central Star Home Health at (419) 610-2161. Providing services for families in Mansfield, Lexington, Ashland, Bellville, Crestline, Galion, Loudonville, Mt. Gilead, Shelby, Wooster and the surrounding areas.
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