There’s some simple math when it comes to airfares: the higher the price, the bigger the profit. And the most expensive tickets tend to be those sold at the very last minute-specifically those picked up by business travelers with schedules dictated by sudden deals and unexpected client meetings. And not coincidentally, these fares are usually paid for by the company.

It also turns out there are some marked differences in buying habits among industries, according to data released Thursday by Concur Technologies Inc., which analyzed 25 million airline ticket sales last year across nine industries. Perhaps unsurprisingly, professional service fields, such as lawyers and consultants, bought more than a quarter of their air tickets within three days of a trip, the largest segment. That makes for some pretty pricey seats.

Media was next, at 20 percent-since news events often tend to erupt without warning. At the other end of the spectrum is higher education, with 68 percent of tickets in that field being sold 15 or more days before a trip. Industries such as energy, financial services, manufacturing, and technology fell in the middle of the spending pack.

Airline tickets booked less than a week before departure are 44 percent more expensive, on average, than the same ticket booked 15 or more days in advance, according to Concur, which sells corporate travel and expense-reporting services. (German software giant SAP SE acquired Concur for about $8 billion in 2014.)

Airlines manage their inventories to hold some seats open on most flights for corporate travelers. They’re also keen to sell as many last-minute tickets as they can, a lucrative category the industry terms “close-in bookings” and which tend to yield fatter margins.

These tickets are critical to a carrier’s overall financial health. U.S. airlines suffered an almost two-year revenue swoon starting in 2015, with weak pricing power eventually spreading even to last-minute tickets. Some carriers, meanwhile, set fares for same-day tickets the same as those sold far in advance-a huge bonanza for business travelers.

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Food insecurity in under-served South Asian communities in Indian-Americans, in the New York metropolitan area, was the running theme at South Asian Council for Social Services (SACSS) 2017 Gala held on Nov. 12, at the Congregation Rodeph Shalom.

The SACSS opened the first South Asian Food Pantry in New York City, in July 2016 to tackle the issue of hunger and food insecurity among under-served South Asians in a culturally appropriate manner, according to a press release from the organization. The South Asian Food Pantry’s achievements and operations and how Indian-Americans and others were availing of its services, were featured this May 17 by News India Times (http://www.newsindiatimes.com/south-asian-organization-addresses-hunger-food-insecurity-in-new-york-city/26987) and carried in several of its publications.

In just over a year, the South Asian Food Pantry is serving 1,263 individuals every week, with new community members registering every week, a press release from the organization said. Early this year the South Asian Food Pantry was also featured in a New York Times report that focused on the importance of serving culturally palatable food.

“Every week we have new clients that register for The South Asian Food Pantry, this emphasizes why it is important to have more such programs and expand them to other underserved neighborhoods such as Jamaica and Jackson Heights” Sudha Acharya, executive director of SACSS is quoted saying at the gala.

New York City’s Food Policy Director Barbara Turk, the chief guest at the gala, talked about being impressed by what she saw during her visit to the South Asian Food Pantry. Michelin-star chefs Hemant Mathur of Tulsi fame and Surbhi Sahni of Bittersweet NYC fame, were honored at the event for their culinary achievements and various contributions to the South Asian and immigrant communities.

Other notable dignitaries at the event included Congresswoman Grace Meng, D- New York, a long-time champion and supporter of SACSS; and Nepal Consul General Madhu Kumar Marasini. At the gala SACSS also recognized volunteers Shalini Saini, Lilavati Patel and Elba E Licera, for their support. Youth Volunteer Nikhil Prajith Kumar was recognized as the youth leader of the year.

Actor Pallavi Sastry entertained the audience as she emceed the event. Comedian KC Arora of the ABDC (American Born Desi Comics) group kept the audience laughing. The evening concluded with a rousing Masala Bhangra dance by Sarina Jain.

Started in 2000 to empower and integrate South Asian and other underserved immigrants in the economic and civic life of New York, SACSS serves more than 6,500 clients each year through services in the areas of healthcare access, senior support and benefits, the food pantry, English and computer classes and civic engagement. The South Asian Food Pantry is open every Friday from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm. Apart from providing staple items such as pasta, cereal and fruit juice, the South Asian Food Pantry specializes in giving South Asian items such as rice, flour, lentils and spices.

For additional information about SACSS programs contact at sacss@sacssny.org or 718-321-7929.

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It’s the day after Thanksgiving and all through the streets, 154 million consumers are moving their feet. All aim to get the best deal of the day, whether flat screens, jewelry or a 4K Blu-ray.

But your next door neighbor missed all the cheap deals because his stomach was turning; it’s not made of steel. The Thanksgiving leftovers he went to devour were left on the table past 2 hours. The room-temperature food allowed bacteria to grow, entering his stomach as a terrible foe. A few simple steps could have saved him this fate, but now he must deal with a bad tummy ache. So we offer these five leftover tips to keep you from getting awfully sick. Follow these rules to keep your family healthy and let Black Friday sales keep your pockets wealthy.

Keep food out of the Danger Zone
Bacteria grow rapidly between the temperatures of 40°F and 140°F. That is what is referred to as the Danger Zone. Hot food must be kept hot at 140°F or warmer to prevent bacterial growth. Within 2 hours of cooking food or from keeping it warm in a slow cooker or chaffing dish, leftovers must be refrigerated. Throw away all perishable foods that have been left in room temperature for more than 2 hours.

Cool food quickly
To prevent bacterial growth, it’s important to cool food rapidly so it reaches 40°F or below, which is the temperature of your refrigerator. To do this, divide large amounts of food into shallow containers. A 20-pound turkey, for example, will take a long time to cool, inviting bacteria to multiply and increasing the danger of foodborne illness. Instead, slice the turkey and place into shallow containers, so it will cool quickly.

Wrap leftovers well
Wrap leftovers in airtight packaging, or seal them in storage containers. This helps keep bacteria out, retain moisture and prevent leftovers from picking up odors from other food in the refrigerator.

Don’t store leftovers too long
Leftovers can be kept in the refrigerator for three to four days and then must be eaten or put in the freezer. They will last in the freezer for three to four months. Although the leftovers are safe indefinitely in the freezer, they can lose moisture and flavor when stored for longer times.

Reheat safely
When reheating leftovers, be sure they reach 165°F as measured with a food thermometer. Reheat sauces and gravies by bringing them to a rolling boil. Cover leftovers when reheating to help retain moisture and allow the food to heat all the way through.

Now you see how easy it can be to keep your family bacteria free. Remember these tips when dealing with leftovers so foodborne illness won’t be on your shoulders. Because people won’t remember how great a time they had, they will only remember that your food made them feel bad.

Have food safety questions?
Call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) to talk to a food safety expert. You can also chat live at AskKaren.gov, available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, in English and Spanish.

The post Five tips so you don’t miss the big deals with bad Black Friday leftovers appeared first on News India Times.

Land

Kilkea Castle, an Irish fortress dating to 1180, is offering a special package to celebrate its recent $30 million renovation. The Kilkea Castle deal costs $540 per person (normally $1,080) and includes two nights in a carriage house room, daily Irish breakfast, dinner at the castle’s Hermione Restaurant, a round of golf, guided trout fishing outing with lunch, and taxes. Valid through April 1. Info: 855-954-5532, kilkeacastle.ie/room-special

The Bushcamp Company is offering 30 percent off holiday trips to South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. The six-night trip costs $2,100 per person double (a $900 savings) and includes two nights and a massage at Mfuwe Lodge; four nights at the newly renovated Zungulila or Kapamba bush camps; all meals; laundry service; game drives; walking safaris; holiday activities, including breakfast with Santa; airport transfers; and taxes. Conservation and park entry fees are an additional $70 per person per night at Mfuwe Lodge and $100 at the bush camps. Travel Dec. 1-Jan. 15. Book by calling 804-767-8770. Info: bushcampcompany.com

Sea

Grand Circle Cruise Line is offering free international airfare on four May departures of its Great Rivers of Europe cruise. The 14-night voyage, which sails along the Main, Rhine, and Danube rivers, starts at $4,195 per person and includes round-trip air from Washington Dulles to Amsterdam, with return from Vienna (or the reverse); daily breakfast; 13 lunches and 14 dinners plus house beer, wine, and soft drinks; a dozen tours; gratuities; airport transfers; and taxes. Book by Dec. 4 with code FLYFREENOV. Info: 800-221-2691, gct.com

To entice cruisers back to Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, Windstar has a special on a round-trip cruise sailing from San Juan. The Caribbean Is Open Cruise Package features reduced rates, a $200 shipboard credit per person and free WiFi. The seven-day Caribbean Treasures voyage starts at $1,499 per person double (down from $3,799), plus taxes of $149 to $201. Depart Nov. 25 or Dec. 2, 9 or 16. Info: 855-823-4054, windstarcruises.com

Book a select 2018 Caribbean cruise on Silversea Cruises’ Silver Wind or Silver Muse by Nov. 30 and receive free shore excursions. For example, get five shore excursions valued at $59 to $169 each on the seven-night cruise sailing from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to San Juan on Feb. 4. Fares start at $3,600 per person double. The shore excursion promo can be combined with other specials valid on select 2017 and 2018 sailings, such as $199 round-trip economy airfare (book by Nov. 30) and an offer for a two-category upgrade, 50 percent off a second suite or a $1,000-per-stateroom shipboard credit (book by Dec. 28). Info: 888-978-4070, silversea.com

Air

Aer Lingus has sale fares from Washington to Europe. For example, nonstop flights from Washington Dulles to Dublin start at $506 round trip, with taxes; fare on other airlines starts at $647. Travel Jan. 8-March 21; some dates are sold out. Saturday-night stay required. Book by 7 p.m. Eastern time on Nov. 21 at aerlingus.com

Package

Book by Dec. 19 and save up to $800 per couple on Smartours’s Discover Colombia tour. The 10-night trip starts at $1,999 per person double for the Feb. 24, April 7 and June 16 departures. Pay by check and receive an additional $100 off. The package includes round-trip air from Miami to Bogota, with return from Cartagena; flight from Medellin to Cartagena; 10 nights’ accommodations in Bogota, Armenia, Medellin and Cartagena; motorcoach transportation with tour guide; 17 meals; tours with entrance fees; airport transfers; and taxes. Info: 800-337-7773, smartours.com/tour/discover-colombia

THE WASHINGTON POST

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Maybe it’s your first time cooking for Thanksgiving. Or maybe you’re hoping this is the first time you’ll prepare it without inviting stress into the kitchen, too. Whatever the case, I have just the meal for you – along with the strategies to back it up.

This lineup feels familiar but not jaded, and best of all, it’s simple to prepare. (No need to start a countdown 18 days in advance.) My menu offers all the flavors and memories of a traditional meal with recipes that are hard to mess up – and won’t crowd your oven. At the end of the day, Thanksgiving is not about winning awards for having tackled a complicated, intimidating set of recipes.

Worrying, particularly about something you can so easily control, is not the way anyone wants to spend Thanksgiving (or any day, for that matter). Instead, when you follow my advice, your mind-set will be calm and welcoming. That’s a godsend, because the most important part of the meal isn’t actually what’s on the table, but the chance to connect with the people sitting around it, and to reflect about gratitude.

Here’s how to set things on the right track from the beginning, starting with planning

• Keep the scope of the meal small and manageable.

Choose carefully. You don’t have to tick off every box. Just because so-and-so grew up with two types of stuffing and another guest waxes poetic about three desserts doesn’t mean you have to make them. You can have all the nostalgic flavors in a handful of simple dishes. Besides, the fewer the dishes, the easier the calculations of how many servings to make. (My selection of recipes adds up to a plentiful meal for eight, and they’re all easily scalable.)

Skip prepared appetizers. They just fill everyone up before the meal, anyhow. Instead, serve drinks with bowls of peanuts or pistachios – or perhaps whole radishes, olives, cornichons or jarred marinated artichoke hearts.

Forget the cocktails (unless you can’t imagine Thanksgiving without one). Stick to beer, wine and such nonalcoholic beverages as apple cider and sparkling water. If you do want a cocktail, make one pitcher drink or punch so that you don’t have to play bartender.

• Decide what to delegate. Some good candidates:

– Drinks and/or ice. (By the way, if you have a cold porch, that’s a great place to put drinks to make room in your fridge and kitchen.)
– The table setting. Ask someone to bring miniature pumpkins and/or clementines, and set them out before the rest of the guests arrive. (Or consider doing this a few days in advance, because both pumpkins and clementines can sit for days without wilting or needing more water.)
– Cranberry sauce. (Or buy the stuff in a can, which so many people love.)
– Dessert.
– Final prep help.

• Cook everything but the turkey that day before. This renders moot the question of how to prepare multiple dishes so they’re all ready at the same time. Two of these side dishes and the dessert bake at the same temperature, for maximum timing flexibility:

– A simple bread stuffing, which can be reheated just before serving.
– Green beans, which can warm in nutty browned butter at mealtime.
– Roasted sweet potatoes, which can be rewarmed, then split, dolloped with sour cream and topped with crunchy pumpkin seeds. (This allows you to avoid the mashed-potato pitfalls of peeling, chopping and uneven reheating.)
– Apple gingerbread cake, which is just as good, if not better, after it sits for a day, and involves no rolling of pie dough, no mixer and no frosting.

• Think of the turkey as a big chicken and skip all the fuss.

Don’t brine, baste, marinate or stuff. Simply season it generously with salt, add some water to the pan, and roast it for a couple of hours. I like to set it on a little rack made of celery, which helps to circulate air underneath it, plus it gives you yummy celery. But even this, you can skip.

Buy it at least five days in advance. If it’s fresh, it will last a week in the fridge. If it’s frozen, it can stay that way for months, but it needs 24 hours of defrosting in the refrigerator for every 4 pounds. So for the 12- to 14-pound bird I call for to feed eight people, start defrosting on Saturday to be safe. (You can defrost the same size bird in up to nine hours in a sink or other container filled with cold water, but you’ll have to change the water every half-hour.)

Once your turkey is defrosted, remove the giblets and neck if they’re included and save them for stock.

Let the turkey rest after it roasts for at least 20 minutes. Really: It makes such a difference in the bird’s juiciness. Make an easy gravy that doesn’t require an intimidating roux or run the risk of getting lumpy. While the turkey rests, whisk some sour cream into the pan juices. It couldn’t be easier, and the result tastes like pure Thanksgiving.

Learn to carve it by watching online videos. Again, remember: It’s just a big chicken.
Get a head start on leftovers. After you carve the bird, if you’d like, throw the carcass – along with the saved giblets and neck – into a large pot, cover with cold water and let it simmer while you’re eating (at least two hours, and ideally up to four). Later, strain the stock and use it for soup the next day. Add whatever turkey is leftover plus some cooked rice or barley and eat topped with grated cheese and parsley.

• Remember your simple timeline.

Saturday: Begin to defrost the turkey in the refrigerator if frozen.

Wednesday: Make the stuffing, blanch the green beans, bake the cake, roast the sweet potatoes.

Thursday: Roast the turkey and make the easy gravy. While the turkey rests, heat up the sweet potatoes and stuffing in the oven and warm the green beans on the stovetop in the brown butter. If you’d like, assign a guest the green beans so that you don’t have to be at the stove and at the cutting board at the same time. Have that same person or someone else top the sweet potatoes (you can’t mess that up) and serve.

• Think beyond your kitchen.

– Guest list: Try to make it a group you will enjoy being around. If that’s not something you can control and there are some potentially bad actors in the bunch, invite more people. Not only is the more the merrier, but folks seem to have better behavior when they’re around people they don’t know.

– Music: Pick a streaming station or create a playlist well in advance and be sure to include fun music for when you’re cooking. When Thanksgiving comes, just press play.

– Charity: Reflect on the abundance on your table and consider extending it to others in your community. Find out what donations your local food pantry might benefit from, or bring your whole crew to a soup kitchen before you sit down. Or, given the history of Thanksgiving, consider giving to organizations that support indigenous communities (such as Women Empowering Women for Indian Nations).

The following recipes are from cookbook author Julia Turshen:

Brown Butter Green Beans; 8 servings, Healthy

These are basic – no muss, almost no fuss.

For a twist: Add a bag of frozen peas to the green beans right at the end of their cooking/blanching time; top with toasted nuts (chopped or sliced almonds work well); and/or add herbs or spices to the butter while it’s browning (fresh sage or thyme leaves, mustard seed or cumin seed are all great options).

MAKE AHEAD: The cooked/blanched beans can be refrigerated up to 3 days in advance.

Ingredients:
• Kosher salt
• 2 pounds green beans, stem ends trimmed
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

Steps:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Salt it generously (as though you were cooking pasta). Add the green beans and cook for about 2 minutes – just until they’re bright green and barely tender.

Drain the green beans in a colander, then transfer them to a kitchen towel to dry off a bit. (At this point, they can be cooled to room temperature, then refrigerated in a sealed ziptop bag for up to 3 days).

Place the butter in the largest skillet you have and set it over medium heat. Cook the butter until its foam subsides and the butter just begins to brown and smell like (and look like) a toasted hazelnut; this will take about 4 minutes. Watch closely, because the milk solids can burn very quickly.

Add the green beans and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring, until they are warmed through and evenly coated. Taste, and lightly season them with salt.

Transfer to a bowl for the table and serve right away.

Nutrition | Per serving (using 1 teaspoon kosher salt): 90 calories, 2 g protein, 8 g carbohydrates, 6 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 150 mg sodium, 3 g dietary fiber, 4 g sugar

Roasted Sweet Potatoes With Sour Cream + Toasted Pumpkin Seeds; 8 servings, Healthy

Jacket-roasted and naturally sweet, these potatoes need little adornment. For best/even roasting, choose sweet potatoes that are all about the same size.

For a twist: Mix a few shakes of hot sauce or chile paste into the sour cream to make it spicy; drizzle the sweet potatoes with maple syrup to make them sweet; feel free to use a different crunchy topping, such as chopped nuts or toasted unsweetened coconut flakes.

MAKE AHEAD: The roasted sweet potatoes can be cooled, sealed in a zip-top bag and refrigerated for up to 3 days; reheat in a 400-degree oven for about 15 minutes, until heated through.

Ingredients:
• 8 medium sweet potatoes (see headnote)
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup salted pumpkin seeds, toasted (pepitas; see NOTE)

Steps:

Lay a large piece of aluminum foil on your middle oven rack; preheat to 375 degrees.
Use a fork or paring knife to prick each sweet potato in a couple spots. Once the oven is hot, place the sweet potatoes directly on the foil; roast for about 45 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a paring knife.

Split the sweet potatoes lengthwise and divide the sour cream among them. Sprinkle each with pumpkin seeds, and serve right away.

NOTE: Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat for about 6 minutes, or until fragrant, popping slightly and lightly browned, shaking the pan to prevent scorching.

Nutrition | Per serving: 180 calories, 4 g protein, 28 g carbohydrates, 6 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 90 mg sodium, 4 g dietary fiber, 6 g sugar

Easy Bread Stuffing; 8 servings

The chunky, rustic texture of the bread makes for a range of crisped and tender bits.

For a twist: Use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth if you want the stuffing to be vegetarian; switch up the type of bread (corn bread and challah are both great options); add sausage (brown 1 pound of crumbled sausage in the pan before adding the onions and celery); or add dried fruit (1/2 cup unsweetened dried cranberries are nice).

MAKE AHEAD: The stuffing can be reheated, covered, in a 300-degree oven until warmed through; uncover for the last 10 minutes of oven time.

Ingredients:
• 1 pound white bread, torn into bitesize pieces (about 10 cups)
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 large yellow onions, cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 3 cups)
• 4 ribs celery, cut into 1/2-inch dice (3/4 to 1 cup)
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh sage (may substitute 1 tablespoon dried sage)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 2 cups good-quality homemade or nosalt-added chicken stock or broth
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Arrange the bread pieces in a large baking dish; toast (middle rack) for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they look dried and crisped. Cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, melt half of the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onions and celery; cook for about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are just softened. Turn off the heat and stir in the salt, sage, parsley and the toasted bread pieces. Pour in the stock or broth and the eggs, then stir to incorporate and evenly moisten the mix.

Coat the now-empty baking dish with 2 tablespoons of the butter, then pack the stuffing mixture in it. Dot the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.Bake the stuffing (middle rack) for about 45 minutes, until it is firm to the touch and the top is browned and crisp. Serve hot.

Nutrition | Per serving: 280 calories, 8 g protein, 34 g carbohydrates, 13 g fat, 8 g saturated fat, 75 mg cholesterol, 640 mg sodium, 2 g dietary fiber, 4 g sugar

Apple Gingerbread Cake; 8 servings

This no-mixer cake is so moist, no one would fault you for not making pie. For a twist: Swap the apples for pears; use fresh ginger instead of dried spices; and/or replace half of the flour for wholewheat flour.

Serve with softly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

MAKE AHEAD: The cake can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature (or wrapped in plastic wrap) for up to 3 days. You may want to apply a fresh sprinkling of confectioners’ sugar just before serving.

Ingredients:
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup neutral-flavored oil, such as canola, grapeseed or vegetable
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple cider
• 1 pound crisp apples, such as Honeycrisp, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat a 9-inch, tall-sided cake pan with baking spray, line the bottom with a circle of parchment, and then spray the parchment, just to be safe.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a medium bowl.

Whisk the egg in a mixing bowl, then add the brown sugar, oil, molasses and apple cider; whisk until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir until thoroughly combined. Fold in the apples.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan. Bake (middle rack) for about 50 minutes, until firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out without any crumbs attached to it. Transfer to a wire rack to cool (in its pan) to room temperature.

Use a round-edged table knife to loosen the edges, then dislodge the cake and transfer it to a serving platter, discarding the parchment paper. Dust the top with confectioners’ sugar, cut into wedges and serve.

Nutrition | Per serving: 390 calories, 4 g protein, 62 g carbohydrates, 15 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 25 mg cholesterol, 310 mg sodium, 2 g dietary fiber, 35 g sugar

Simple Roast Turkey With Simplest Gravy; 8 servings

This is a salted, or dry-brined, bird, roasted in just a few hours, and its accompanying gravy is guaranteed smooth and lump-free – because it has no flour.

For a twist: Mix 2 tablespoons of minced sage, rosemary or thyme with the salt when you rub the turkey; and/or try stuffing the cavity of the turkey with a bunch of any of those herbs and a halved lemon; or add a tablespoon of ground cumin to the salt when you rub the turkey and stuff the cavity with a halved orange.
It’s helpful to have an instant-read thermometer for checking doneness.

MAKE AHEAD: The bird can be salted and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days in advance. It needs to rest at room temperature for 1 hour before roasting.

Ingredients: 
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt, plus more as needed
• One 12- to 14-pound turkey (fresh/defrosted; giblets removed), patted dry with paper towels
• 4 ribs celery
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• Freshly ground black pepper

Steps:

Sprinkle the salt evenly over the exterior of the turkey. If you have the time, refrigerate it for up to 2 days. This will allow the salt to really season the meat more thoroughly. You can either place it in a large zip-top bag or place it on something large like a platter and let it sit in the refrigerator with its skin exposed, which will help dry the skin and leave you with extra crispy skin after roasting.

Whether or not you have the time to refrigerate the salted turkey, let it sit out at room temperature for an hour before cooking it so that it’s not so cold. This will help it cook more evenly.

While the turkey is hanging out at room temperature, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Place the celery ribs on the bottom of a large roasting pan and set the salted bird on top of them (an edible rack!). This will allow some hot air to circulate under the turkey, which will help it cook more evenly. Pour the water around the base of the pan (be sure not to pour it directly on the turkey). If you’re using a disposable aluminum pan, be sure to set it on a sturdy baking sheet to facilitate moving it into and out of the oven.

Roast the turkey for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, depending on the size of your turkey, until it’s gorgeously browned, firm to the touch, the leg wiggles easily and the juice that comes out when you poke the thigh with a paring knife runs clear (not pink or red). Use an instant-read thermometer to make sure the internal temperature of the breast meat registers 170 degrees and the thigh meat (probed away from the bone) registers 180 degrees.

Let the turkey rest at room temperature for at least 20 minutes before transferring it to a large cutting board (it helps to lift it with a couple of clean kitchen towels that you immediately throw into the wash).

Transfer the celery to your serving platter if you would like to serve it (or just snack on it, or discard it). Pour the juices from the roasting pan through a fine-mesh strainer into deep bowl. Whisk in the sour cream to form a smooth gravy. Taste and add pepper, as needed.

To carve the turkey, start with the leg thigh joints. Detach them by holding a drumstick with one hand and cutting through the skin all the way through the thigh joint. It helps to wiggle the thigh so you can see where the joint is. Separate the legs and thighs at the joint and transfer them both to your serving platter.

Next, remove the wings in the same manner – by cutting through the joints – and set them on the platter with the dark meat. Now, onto the turkey breasts: Steady the top of the bird with tongs, a fork, or your hand (a bunched up paper towel makes a nice buffer between your hand and the hot bird). Working with one breast at a time, make a horizontal incision at the base of each breast and then make a vertical cut along the breastbone so that you can remove each breast in one large piece. Once both breasts are off the bone, place them on your cutting board skin side up and slice crosswise into slices that are as thick as you’d like them.

Serve the turkey with the gravy, passed at the table.

Ingredients are too variable for a meaningful analysis.

The post The Ultimate Guide To Your First Stress-free Thanksgiving appeared first on News India Times.

Are you interested in brining a turkey, but aren’t quite sure how to do it safely? USDA is at your service! Though brining may sound like something only done commercially or by a certified chef, it’s quite simple with the right strategy — that means following safe food preparation steps.

Brining simply means to soak your turkey in a water and salt solution (the brine). Often, other ingredients are added to the brine, such as sugar, molasses, honey or corn syrup. The purpose of a brine is to produce a more tender and flavorful turkey.

According to research published in the Journal of Food Science, the salt in the brine dissolves a bit of the protein in the muscle fibers, and allows the meat to absorb the brine and retain moisture during cooking. This makes the poultry juicier, more tender and improves the flavor. There is no shortage of brine recipes, but in order to reap the benefits of brining, you must use the following safe steps.

Brining Steps:
Fresh turkeys can only be kept safely for one to two days, in the refrigerator. Let’s use a fresh whole turkey in our example and follow the four steps to safe food preparation:

CLEAN
• Begin by washing hands with warm water and soap for a minimum of 20 seconds.
• Also wash and sanitize surfaces such as countertops and sink using a solution of 1 tablespoon of unscented, liquid chlorine bleach in 1 gallon of water. Let the solution stand on the surfaces for a few minutes; then air dry or pat dry with clean paper towels.

SEPARATE
• Do NOT wash the bird prior to brining. Washing raw poultry can cause cross-contamination — raw juices that can contain harmful bacteria spilling onto other foods or splashing on countertops.
• Prepare the brine by mixing ingredients until all of the salt is dissolved. If your brine recipe calls for heating the mixture, be sure to cool it to room temperature before using it. Then place the turkey in the brine and place in the refrigerator. Don’t leave the turkey sitting out at room temperature while brining.
• Place the bird breast down in a large container made of food-grade plastic, stainless steel or glass, or a brining bag. Be sure the container will fit in your fridge.
• Add brine, covering the entire turkey. Carefully secure the container with a lid or cover, so as not to splash other foods or surfaces inside your refrigerator.
• Place the container in the refrigerator for the period of time specified in the recipe. The amount of time will depend on the type of brine you use; however, do not brine any longer than two days and always keep the turkey and brine refrigerated (at 40°F or less).
• Remove turkey from brine after the recommended time.

NOTE:
If you must rinse the turkey and clean out the cavity, first take the time to remove dishes, dish drainers, dish towels, sponges and other objects from around the sink area. Then cover the area around your sink with paper towels. Place the roasting pan next to the sink, ready to receive the turkey.

Clean the sink with hot soapy water, rinse well and fill it with a few inches of cold water. Even if the cavity is partially frozen, use cold water to rinse the cavity. Cold water is still warmer than the frozen cavity. Run the water gently to prevent splashing. Make sure the water is coming out the other end of the cavity. If it isn’t, the neck or giblets may still be in there.

And that’s it! No need to scrub or rinse the rest of the turkey. Hold the turkey up to let it drain into the sink and gently place the turkey in the roasting pan. Remove the paper towels, clean the sink and the area around the sink with hot soapy water, and proceed with your preparations. See To Wash or Not Wash.

COOK
• Cook the brined turkey according to USDA’s food safety recommendations. You can view more tips on preparation of a turkey at: Let’s Talk Turkey
• Check the internal temperature of the turkey in the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast with a food thermometer. The minimum internal temperature should reach 165°F for safety.
• For quality, let the turkey stand for 20 minutes before carving to allow juices to set.

CHILL
• Divide leftovers into smaller portions. Refrigerate or freeze in covered shallow containers for quicker cooling.
• Cooked turkey, stuffing and gravy should not be left out at room temperature longer than 2 hours; 1 hour in temperatures above 90°F.
• Use refrigerated turkey, stuffing and gravy within 3 to 4 days.

Brining can be used with a variety of poultry and meats. See more food safety tips on brining, including suggested recipes in the Brining, Basting and Marinating fact sheet.

If you have questions about your Thanksgiving dinner, call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) to talk to a food safety expert. You can also chat live at AskKaren.gov, available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, in English and Spanish. If you need help on Thanksgiving Day, the Meat and Poultry Hotline is available from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET.

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Stuffing is a big favorite around the Thanksgiving holiday. Although it is delicious, covered with gravy and mixed with slices of moist turkey, this side dish can also be dangerous. Because moist, warm stuffing is an excellent medium for bacterial growth, it’s important to handle it safely and cook it to a safe minimum internal temperature as measured with a food thermometer. Around the holidays, many consumers call USDA’s Meat and Poultry Hotline and ask stuffing-related questions. So here are a few stuffing tips to help make your Thanksgiving dinner safe.

Step 1
The dry and wet ingredients for stuffing can be prepared separately ahead of time and chilled, but do not mix the dry and wet ingredients together until you are ready to spoon the stuffing mixture into the turkey cavity. Spoon the stuffing in loosely — about 3/4 cup of stuffing per pound. It’s generally recommended to stuff smaller or medium size birds. This makes it easier to take an internal temperature reading (minimum 165ºF), whereas large birds mean larger cavities, causing you to go much deeper into the center of the stuffing to get a good thermometer reading.

Stuffing should be moist, not dry, because heat destroys bacteria more rapidly in a moist environment.

Step 2
Once the bird is stuffed, it should be placed immediately in an oven set no lower than 325°F. Check out the cooking chart for recommended cooking times for stuffed turkey of various sizes. A food thermometer should be used to check the internal temperature of the turkey in the thickest part of the breast, the innermost part of the wing and the innermost part of the thigh and inside the stuffing to ensure all locations reach 165ºF.If the turkey reaches a safe temperature and the stuffing has not, be sure to leave the bird in the oven until the stuffing reaches 165°F. Remove the turkey from the oven and let it stand 20 minutes before serving.

Step 3
If you don’t plan on stuffing the bird, but preparing the dressing as a side dish, you can prepare uncooked stuffing ahead of time as long as you freeze the stuffing immediately after mixing the wet and dry ingredients. USDA recommends that you never refrigerate uncooked stuffing. Why? Remember, stuffing can harbor bacteria, and though bacteria grow slower in the refrigerator they can cause problems because stuffing is a good medium for bacteria growth, therefore a higher risk food in terms of cooking safely.

It is safe to freeze uncooked stuffing; however, the ingredients must be combined, put into a shallow container, and frozen immediately. To use it, do not thaw before cooking. Cook from the frozen state until the stuffing reaches 165°F.

Step 4
For leftovers, remember the 2-hour rule and refrigerate cooked poultry and stuffing within two hours to avoid bacteria from multiplying on room-temperature food. Leftover stuffing should be consumed or frozen within 3-4 days. Do not stuff a whole turkey (or any poultry) with leftover cooked stuffing.

If you have questions about your Thanksgiving dinner, call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline (also available 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET on Thanksgiving Day!) at 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) to talk to a food safety expert. You can also chat live at AskKaren.gov, available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, in English and Spanish.

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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has given nearly 60,000 Haitians with provisional legal residency in this country 18 months to leave, announcing Monday that it will not renew the Temporary Protected Status that has allowed them to remain here for more than seven years.

The decision came after the Department of Homeland Security determined that the “extraordinary conditions” justifying their presence here following a 2010 earthquake “no longer exist,” according to a senior administration official.

“Since the 2010 earthquake, the number of displaced people in Haiti has decreased by 97 percent,” Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke said in a statement. “Significant steps have been taken to improve the stability and quality of life for Haitian citizens, and Haiti is able to safely receive traditional levels of returned citizens.”

The 18-month deadline, Duke said, will allow for an “orderly transition,” permitting the Haitians to “arrange their departure,” and their government to prepare for their arrival.

The Haitians are among more than 300,000 foreigners, the majority of them illegal arrivals from Central America, living here under TPS. The designation was created in 1990 to shield foreign nationals from deportation, if the executive branch determined that natural disasters or armed conflict in their countries had created instability or precarious conditions.

Successive administrations have regularly renewed their status, and many have U.S.-born children.

But the Trump administration has repeatedly noted that the program was meant to be temporary, and not a way for people to become long-term legal residents of the United States. Administration officials have said that decisions on further extensions would be made on the basis of whether initial justifications for protection still exist.

Monday’s announcement comports with a broader administration effort to restrict immigration to the United States and increase efforts to expel those who have no permanent legal status.

Earlier this month, the administration announced it would not renew the provisional residency of 2,500 Nicaraguans, and gave them 14 months to leave the United States.

But Duke deferred for six months a decision for the much larger group of 57,000 Hondurans living here under the same designation, saying that more time was needed for consideration. The deferral came after an unsuccessful White House effort to pressure her to end their TPS authorization, officials said at the time.

Both the Nicaraguans and Hondurans have been shielded from deportation since a devastating 1998 hurricane hit those nations.

TPS status for an additional 200,000 Salvadorans, here since El Salvador was struck by a series of earthquakes in 2001, is due to expire in January. They are by far the largest group of TPS recipients.

More than half the Haitians affected by Monday’s announcement live in Florida, where lawmakers had asked that they be allowed to remain. They cited ongoing economic and political difficulties in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, as well as a still-raging cholera epidemic.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., last week publicly called TPS renewal for the Haitians, saying that those “sent home will face dire conditions, including lack of housing, inadequate health services and low prospects for employment … Failure to renew the TPS designation will weaken Haiti’s economy and impede its ability to recover completely and improve its security,” Rubio wrote in the Miami Herald.

Critics of the decision said it does not match the reality on the ground in Haiti.

“It appears ideology won over a practical application of the law,” said Kevin Appleby, senior director of the New York-based Center for Migration Studies.

Rocio Saenz, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, which claims thousands of members living here under TPS, called the decision “heartbreaking, and harmful in every way.”

“Besides the human toll on Haitian TPS recipients and their families, it will be costly for their employers, ruinous to the up and coming neighborhoods where they often live, and destablilizing to their countries of origin,” Saenz said.

TPS holders, who include a relatively small number of Africans in addition to Central Americans and Haitians, “have more than 270,000 U.S.-born children,” she said in a statement, “and thousands of grandchildren. After all of this time, no conceivable purpose is served by upending all of that and ordering them to return to some of the most dangerous and precarious countries on earth.”

But the senior official, one of several who spoke to reporters under the condition of anonymity set by the administration, said that “the law is relatively explicit, that if the conditions on the ground do not support a TPS designation, then the secretary must terminate.”

Duke had “assessed overall that extraordinary temporary conditions” that justified the designation in the first place, “had sufficiently improved such that they no longer prevent nationals of Haiti from returning.” the official said.

As the Haitian status was due to expire last spring, then-DHS Secretary John Kelly extended it for six months, saying that conditions might not warrant further extension. Kelly, now White House chief of staff, visited Haiti shortly after that initial announcement and later joined Vice President Mike Pence for a meeting in Miami with Haitian President Jovenel Moise.

Duke, in her statement, said that she met recently in Washington with Haiti’s foreign minister and the Haitian ambassador to the United States, and consulted other U.S. government agencies.

“In 2017 alone,” Duke said, “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services conducted extensive outreach to the Haitian communities throughout the country.” Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, D, hosted a meeting last week with Duke to which all members of the state’s congressional delegation were invited.

Days before the Nicaraguan and Honduran decisions were announced, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson informed Duke that the State Department assessed that TPS was no longer necessary for the Central Americans or Haitians.

The senior official who briefed reporters, said that the 18-month “wind-down” period for the Haitians was enough time “to allow families with U.S.-born children to make decisions about what to do, and make arrangements.”

Some immigration experts have speculated that many Haitians are likely to seek residency in Canada, particularly in French-speaking Quebec, to avoid being sent home.

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SECAUCUS, NJ – Numerous wedding planners, DJs, banquet facilities and boutiques from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania were present to network with bride-to-be and groom-to-be at the Grand Dulhan Expo, in Secaucus, New Jersey, on November 19.

Walking around the Meadowlands Exposition Center, one was immersed in an Indian wedding setting itself, in fact many, as there were at least five mandaps put up throughout the location and live entertainment was provided by local talent who sang romantic Bollywood songs.

Fashion shows took place throughout the day showcasing different attire for brides and grooms. But mostly people came for the food and shopping.

Organized as food stalls, a way that one would normally find at weddings, restaurants from the New York/New Jersey area served guests with authentic Indian food and boutique stores sold Indian clothing and jewelry.

The Grand Dulhan Expo gave good ideas and insight for the soon-to-be dulhans, dulhas and their families on how to go about each and every aspect of the wedding, from food and catering to DJs and entertainment to decorations and mandaps to mehndi, make-up and attire, and the options out there.

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WASHINGTON – The Justice Department is investigating Harvard University’s use of race in admissions, and is warning the school that it is out of compliance with federal civil rights law because it has not provided documents the department requested.

In two letters sent Friday, Justice Department officials said Harvard had not produced “a single document” that had been requested, despite a Nov. 2 deadline, and that the university’s attorney had tried to “side-step Harvard’s Title VI obligations.” Because Harvard receives that federal funding under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, department officials argue, the university must comply with its request. Title VI, part of the Civil Rights Act, prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs that receive federal funding.

The confirmation of the investigation, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, followed months of signaling from the department that it would challenge affirmative action policies.

The highly charged question – battled in multiple U.S. Supreme Court cases – is whether colleges can consider an applicant’s race as a factor in admissions.

The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly on affirmative action cases in higher education, most recently in June 2016, when it upheld a University of Texas policy that enables race to be a factor in admission decisions. That 4 to 3 ruling was widely interpreted as a green light for the use of race conscious policies in what schools such as Harvard call “holistic” admissions. But critics said the ruling was narrow enough that other lawsuits could be filedto challenge affirmative action.

Seth Waxman, the attorney representing Harvard, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning.

“The Department of Justice takes seriously any potential violation of an individual’s civil and constitutional rights, but we will not comment at this time,” spokesman Devin O’Malley said in an email.

A pending lawsuit brought by an advocacy group, Students for Fair Admissions, asked a federal judge to prohibit the use of race in future undergraduate admissions decisions by Harvard, claiming the school violates federal civil-rights law and intentionally discriminates against Asian-American students.

Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, sent a written statement Tuesday saying his group is gratified that the department had launched an investigation. “For decades, Harvard has unfairly and unlawfully restricted the number of Asians it admits.

“Harvard’s Asian quotas, and the overall racial balancing that follows, have been ignored by our federal agencies for too long. This investigation is a welcome development.”

In a letter sent Friday, Matthew Donnelly of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said Waxman had erroneously challenged the agency’s right to investigate Harvard under Title VI and had proposed a plan to give restricted access to limited documents.

In a separate letter, John Gore, acting assistant attorney general in theCivil Rights Division, said that more than two months had passed without Harvard supplying a single document, and that the university was out of compliance with its obligations under Title VI.

Anurima Bhargava, who was chief of the educational opportunity section in the Justice Department’s civil rights division under the Obama administration, said Tuesday the department’s actions appeared unusual because federal education officials had already considered the issue in 2015 and decided not to pursue it.

“It’s peculiar that you have a situation in which the Department of Education has dismissed a complaint and the Justice Department then decides to investigate under Title VI,” Bhargava said. She said it was also unusual for the Justice Department to conduct a “parallel investigation” when a federal suit is pending on a similar set of allegations. Bhargava recently held fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School, but she said she is not currently affiliated with the school.

A spokeswoman for Harvard University said the school would have a response later Tuesday.

The Harvard admissions process routinely draws public attention because the Ivy League university is one of the most selective in the world. In March, 2,056 students were offered admission to the fall 2017 freshman class, out of 39,506 applicants. That translates to an admission rate of little more than 5 percent.

Of those admitted, 22.2 percent were Asian-American, the university said, while 14.6 percent were African-American, 11.6 percent Latino and 1.9 percent Native American.

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Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai took a big step toward his goal of voiding Obama-era net neutrality regulations Tuesday as he submitted his plan to the rest of the commission for a vote.

But the expected adoption of the plan by his fellow Republicans on the commission next month won’t end a debate that’s roiled the tech world for years. Aggrieved parties will try to save the regulations in federal court, where judges will decide whether the agency is within its rights to reverse a regulation it adopted little more than two years ago.

“There will be lawsuits — that’s a given,” said James Gattuso, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

The planned vote on Dec. 14 will reignite a debate that’s extended for more than a decade as Washington grapples with how the internet has disrupted the phone and cable businesses.

Republicans and Internet service providers have fought the FCC’s rules, while Democrats and internet companies support them. The regulations bar broadband companies such as AT&T and Comcast from interfering with web traffic sent by Google, Facebook and others.

A court last year upheld the FCC’s 2015 decision to place broadband service providers under utility-style regulation. The FCC used that strong legal authority to bar the companies from slowing or blocking web traffic or charging for faster passage across their networks. Two earlier attempts to regulate web traffic were tossed by U.S. judges.

“Our current net neutrality rules are the product of a decade’s worth of work and three trips to the court. They are court-tested and wildly popular,” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, part of the agency’s Democratic minority, said in an email before the proposal was announced. “To wipe them out now is foolhardy and short-sighted.”

Pai sought to vacate the rules adopted in 2015, retaining only a portion that requires broadband providers to explain details of the service they are offering. Under the plan, the Federal Trade Commission would be able to police internet service providers to protect consumers, he said.

“Working with my colleagues, I look forward to returning to the light-touch, market-based framework that unleashed the digital revolution and benefited consumers here and around the world,” Pai said in a statement.

The move hands a victory to such companies as AT&T and Comcast, which opposed the regulations from the start, arguing the rules discourage investment while exposing companies to a threat of heavier regulation including pricing mandates.

Legally, the agency can reverse its rules if it has a good reason.

“You can change your mind so long as you justify it and explain why the policy has changed,” said Christopher Yoo, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Broadband providers have said they support an open internet, and emphasized their opposition to the 2015 rules’ reliance on strong authority that leaves the companies under utility-style common carrier regulations. They say the rules give the FCC too much sway over their operations.

One aspect of the rules that may come before a court is whether they have dampened investment by broadband providers.

“If the court’s looking for something empirical that has changed, that may be the twig they hold onto,” said Gattuso, of the Heritage Foundation.

Pai, appointed chairman by President Donald Trump, has shared broadband providers’ criticism of the agency’s claim of utility-style authority, and said the rules led to a decline in investment by broadband companies.

“The more heavily you regulate something, the less of it you’re likely to get,” Pai said in an April speech. He said broadband investment declined by 5.6 percent, or $3.6 billion, between 2014 and 2016, and called the decline “extremely unusual.”

AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson in a January earnings call sounded a similar note, saying that “placing utility style regulation on our mobility and internet businesses, there is no way anybody could argue that that is not suppressive to investment.”

Rule supporters have pushed back. Wireless industry investments peaked in 2013, as carriers completed the bulk of deployments for the current generation of mobile connections known as 4G, according to the policy group Free Press, which supports the Obama-era rules.

Gigi Sohn, who helped write the current rules as an FCC aide, said the case will turn on whether consumers view their broadband internet access as some type of bundled service, replete with email and spam filters, or as “as a big dumb pipe.”

If it’s a dumb pipe, internet access is clearly a telecommunications service and the 2015 rules should stand, said Sohn.

Pai “is going to have to show that two-and-a-half years later people changed their mind, and that now they want want more — that they’re looking for some bundle of services,” Sohn said in an interview. “That’s going to be tough for him to show.”

“The big broadband providers will be free to double their prices,” she said in an emailed statement. With the change, they will be able to “extract extra tolls on fast lanes for online businesses.”

Tina Pelkey, an FCC spokeswoman, declined to comment.

The current regulations forbid broadband providers from blocking or slowing web traffic, or from charging higher fees in return for quicker passage over their networks.

Trump’s White House has opposed the rules. In July, as Pai’s critics protested, a White House spokesman said the administration “supports the FCC’s efforts to roll back burdensome, monopoly-era regulations.”

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NEW YORK – The three-day Anime NYC 2017 convention at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City, powered by Crunchyroll, from November 17-19, was an exciting treat for fans of popular comics and films from Japan, with tons of entertainment like video and card games, panel discussions, special screenings, and concert, on the sidelines. There was plenty of merchandise to choose from. Vendors did brisk business, especially on manga comics, mystery bags, T-shirts and DVDs.

The tremendous turnout for the meet saw hundreds of attendees dress up diligently in their favorite cosplay costumes – a much more intricate, complex and painstaking work than mere Thanksgiving attire – with a bevy of stars of different genres of anime present on location to pose for photos and sign autographs, for dazzled fans.

For fans, dressing up in cosplay is a passionate and committed way to show huge appreciation for favorite comics and films.

For the uninitiated, the word anime, in Japanese, means hand-drawn or computer animation, with the earliest commercial Japanese animation dating back to 1917, according to Wikipedia. The characteristic anime art style emerged in the 1960s with the works of Osamu Tezuka and spread internationally in the late twentieth century.

With over 430 production studios, including major names like Studio Ghibli, Gainax, and Toei Animation, anime are often classified by target demographic, including kodomo (children’s), shōjo (girls’), shōnen (boys’) and a diverse range of genres targeting an adult audience, including ‘hentai’, or pervert as Japanese term it.

The anime industry is expanding at a rapid pace. It dominates film production revenue in Japan: the Association of Japanese Animations reported that in 2016 the anime industry reached a milestone of 2.9 trillion yen (about $25.5 billion).

Anime NYC was organized by LeftField Media, whose founder, Greg Topalian, had earlier created the New York Comic Con. For three years, from 2007-2009, there was a New York Anime Festival, which later merged with the New York Comic Con in 2010. This year, Peter Tatara also was the main organizer, along with Topalian.

It was a satisfying meet for Crunchyroll, as fans lined up during the meet at their booth to pick up some free bags – Yuri!!! On ICE, Boruto, Dragon Ball Super, The Ancient Magus’ Bride, and Kabaneri. There was also keen interest to get hold of merchandise like Mob Psycho 100 and My Hero Academia.

The premiere of the Fullmetal Alchemist live-action film and a Gundam concert featuring three anime divas – Yoko Ishida, Chihiro Yonekura, and TRUE, were packed. The most common grouse of fans was the small size of the screening rooms, which was not able to accommodate all who wanted to get in. The IDOLiSH7 and Sailor Moon panels were a big draw too.

The feature of the meet was a great sense of bonhomie. There was plenty of mutual respect and admiration among attendees. For a brief time, attendees surely felt the surge of excitement they felt watching films and reading manga comics come delightfully alive, in a surreal way, before them.

Earlier this month, there was another anime festival in Long Island – the Hampton’s 20th annual NekoCon. It also featured a live cooking competition where students of ECPI University’s Culinary Institute of Virginia participated in a cooking competition based on Japanese animation show “The Cooking Show.”

In India, anime caught on in the 70s, and a growing fan base in some cities like Mumbai and Delhi saw a DTH channel Animax Asia feature some popular anime. However, it didn’t last long and was reportedly shut down due to low subscription base and financial woes. Comic con meets in India are highly popular though, with the latest edition in Mumbai held last week, which featured a cosplay competition.

(Sujeet Rajan is Executive Editor, Parikh Worldwide Media. Email him: sujeet@newsindiatimes.com Follow him on Twitter @SujeetRajan1)

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Finally, someone in a Bollywood film lives in Virar. This far-flung and much reviled Mumbai suburb and its people have been wholly ignored by India’s popular cinema, whose scope usually doesn’t extend beyond the tried-and-tested urban milieu.

Sulu (Vidya Balan) lives in Virar in a cramped and decrepit flat, wears cheap, synthetic sarees, but never stops dreaming of a better life. A portly, upbeat housewife, Sulu doesn’t let her middle-class existence, her lack of qualifications or her interfering elder sisters come in the way of her determination to make it big someday.

One day, she’ll spot a female taxi driver and decide she wants to own a taxi fleet; on another day, she’ll dream of becoming a caterer. Her good-natured husband, Ashok (Manav Kaul), and son Pranav go along with whatever catches her fancy, nodding sagely every time she proposes a new business idea with an earnest “Main kar sakti hai” (I can do it).

A chance encounter with the head of a radio station fuels the idea in her that she can be a radio jockey. The station head, Maria (Neha Dhupia), is at first dismissive. But when she realises that Sulu’s quirky personality and honesty could make for a good combination, she gives her a shot by letting her host a late night call-in show.

All kinds of people call in, from auto drivers wanting love advice to lonely men just wanting to talk to someone. In one particularly moving scene, Sulu talks to a widowed old man who shares the same name with her. As she speaks to him, we see the man in a long shot throwing his head back and weeping, grateful for this connection across air waves.

It is this affection for characters that makes Suresh Triveni’s film such a winner. There is genuine warmth in the way he tells his story, capturing the little details that make up these people and their lives. From Sulu’s overbearing, meddling sisters to Ashok’s obnoxious boss, Triveni rises above the clichés that these peripheral characters often succumb to in Bollywood.

Aided by Saurabh Goswami’s luminous cinematography, we see scenes like Sulu emerging in slow motion from the mist, like age-old heroines did, except that it’s a haze of mosquito repellant being sprayed on the street.

This off-beat humour pervades the first half of the film. In the second half, it moves smoothly to a more serious tone as Sulu begins to find her feet in the outside world, realising that the one she built at home might be crumbling.

Triveni underscores how difficult most working women have it in India, especially those who find a career late in life. Manav Kaul is pitch-perfect as Ashok, the wounded husband who means well but whose middle-class conservatism cannot cope with the fact that his wife speaks to strange men about love on radio. Neha Dhupia as the station head and Vijay Maurya as Sulu’s cynical show producer are also wonderful in their roles.

But if this film has a beating heart, it is Vidya Balan. She is in every scene and lights it up with her sheer screen presence. This is an author-backed role, but she makes it so much more by adding layers of empathy and vulnerability to make Sulu a character that will stay with you long after you have left the theatre.

REUTERS

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Rohit Shetty’s record in Bollywood was impeccable – he made mass entertainers and was good at them. Whether it was an action film like “Singham” or the “Golmaal” comedy franchise, Shetty’s films routinely exasperated critics and delighted audiences.

But with 2015’s “Dilwale”, a multi-starrer with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead, Shetty faced his first big failure. The film didn’t do well at the box office and faced protests over Khan’s comments on intolerance in India.

Almost two years later, Shetty says he has moved on. His latest film, another edition of the “Golmaal” franchise, is Bollywood’s most successful film this year. It grossed more than 2 billion rupees ($30 million) at the box office. The director spoke to Reuters about his latest success, what happened to “Dilwale” and what Bollywood’s problem is.

Q: Congratulations on the success of “Golmaal Again”. Was it expected?

A: We always knew it would do well, but on this scale, it is madness. People are watching it multiple times.

Q: Why do you sound surprised? You are used to successful films.

A: Yeah, but… (laughs) there is always 10 percent of doubt – whether this will work or not.

Q: What was your state of mind after “Dilwale” released? What were you thinking?

A: I wasn’t thinking anything. You saw the film, and you knew something has gone wrong and then there were so many issues and controversies going on, it was better to leave it all and move forward. That is how we started working on “Golmaal”. You know what you are doing, but the industry just comes out with speculation and everybody has their own point of view. It is better to start working on your next (film) as soon as possible.

Q: Did you question your way of film-making after “Dilwale” didn’t do well?

A: No, if you go wrong sometimes, you analyse it – that we should have stuck to the original draft and not changed the script.

Q: Is that what went wrong?

A: Yeah, yeah. That, we realised when it released. Again, there were so many things happening with the film. It didn’t release in so many centres, etc, that it was better to just leave it all and move on.

Q: Did you do anything differently in this “Golmaal” film?

A: If you see the scale of the film, it’s not just another comedy that we go to Goa and we shoot in a bungalow – the whole range of the film, the look, the emotional element of Parineeti’s character, and the ghost bit. People say times have changed, but it is not that times have changed, it is that people want to see something new in the same genre. Every genre was there and will be there forever. It is just that you have to upgrade yourself, which is what we did.

Q: The industry is now increasingly talking of concept films, high-concept films, etc…

A: (interrupts) The problem in the industry is that there are 15-20 directors, three-four production houses and seven-eight actors. The rest of them, nobody is working, so they are talking. (Laughs) Everybody is talking.

The new problem in the industry is that there is too much bakwaas (nonsense) happening. Everybody who has a 4G or a 3G (phone connection) is a critic or knows about cinema. Nobody knows what the audience wants. Nobody is going through the history of cinema, nobody is thinking about what was happening earlier. Just because three films with big stars didn’t do well, it doesn’t change anything.

Q: What do you think is the future of the mass entertainer in Bollywood?

A: If it didn’t have a future, it cannot be a fluke that the film made more than 200 crores (2 billion rupees). And it cannot be a fluke that people are watching it twice or thrice. There are so many niche films which haven’t done well. A good film will do well, whether it is a “Newton” or a “Bareilly Ki Barfi” or a “Golmaal”.

Just because a commercial film has come, niche cinema won’t work – that will not happen. We talk about Amol Palekar, but what was he making at the same time that Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan was a superstar? Whether it was Naseeruddin Shah or Omji (Om Puri), who all came in at the time… “Naseeb” was being made the same time as “Ardh Satya”.

It’s just a panic button. There should be a GST on giving suggestions like this. Then maybe people will stop. (laughs)

REUTERS

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NEW YORK

An Indian-descent father was shot and injured while trying to protect his son from robbers who tried to force their way into his home here, according to media reports.

On Sunday a man came to the home of Thakur Persaud in the Queens district of the city and when his 13-yer-old son answered the door he claimed to have a package for delivery. Two other men who were hiding behind a fence came up and one of them tried to force their way into the house, WPIX TV reported.

“The guy tried to push me in the house I tried to push him out, behind him another guy was coming and he had something in his hand,” Persaud told the station.

“I don’t know how it would have ended if anyone touched my kid.” he added.

Persaud had succeeded in throwing the man toward the street, when that man and another fired weapons, WPIX quoted police. Persaud was hit once in the thigh and hospitalised in stable condition.

The three intruders then fled.

Persaud’s son told WABC that there were several children in the house at that time, but they were in the basement.

A neighbour told the TV that several homes in the area have been victims of “home invasion” robbery recently and Persaud’s house had been hit before. Persaud’s son didn’t think it was a random attack, telling the station “Nothing is random around here.”

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India’s Manushi Chhillar on Saturday won the coveted “Miss World 2017” title at a glittering event here, ending 16 years of drought for India at the international pageant.

Manushi is the sixth Indian to win the title and the first since Priyanka Chopra won the crown in 2000.

“The feeling is still sinking in and I am very excited to make India proud too. I’m also looking forward to the year ahead,” Manushi said in a statement after the win.

All of 21, Manushi was born to doctor parents in Haryana, which once ranked the worst among all states in sex ratio in India.

“My parents have always been my pillar of support and having them here tonight by my side has only brought me more strength and joy.

“My final answer also came to me by having them here with me in front of me,” said Manushi, whose family members, including a brother and a sister, were present at the gala.

In the question-and-answer round after she was shortlisted among the top five, Manushi was asked: “Which profession deserves the highest salary and why?”

She said a mother deserves it most.

Manushi was ecstatic and emotional when she was announced the winner from among contestants from 108 countries. She was crowned by Miss World 2016 winner, Puerto Rico’s Stephanie Del Valle.

Miss Mexico Andrea Meza was announced the first runner up, while Miss England Stephanie Hill was declared the second runner up at the event, held at Sanya City Area.

Apart from the main title, Manushi also won the “Beauty with Purpose” award.
Soon after, congratulatory messages poured in.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar congratulated Manushi, saying: “Manushi, ‘the daughter of Haryana’, has made the country and the state proud.”

Priyanka was joyous about having a “successor”.

“And we have a successor! Congratulations Manushi Chhillar on becoming Miss World 2017. Cherish and learn, and most importantly enjoy it. Bravo,” she tweeted.

Former Miss World Sushmita Sen wrote: “India wins Miss World 2017! Congratulations Manushi Chhillar. Yipeeeee, about time! Super proud! Jai Hind.”

Neha Dhupia, a former beauty queen and who mentored India’s Miss India pageant contestants this year, tweeted: “Congratulations Manushi Chhillar. We knew you had all the qualities to conquer the world ever since we met you for the first time! You go girl!”

Manushi did her schooling in the national capital Delhi and became a student of medicine in Sonepat.

In an interview during her grooming, she said: “The only thing I believe is certain in life is uncertainty, and this is what is amazing about the pageant.”

She was always confident about winning the crown.

The first Miss World crown was won for India by Reita Faria in 1943, followed which Aishwarya Rai (1994), Diana Hayden (1997), Yukta Mookhey (1999) and Priyanka Chopra (2000).

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Turducken. The name doesn’t sound appetizing, but once you cut into the triple layers of chicken, duck and turkey, you can see why people bypass the traditional Thanksgiving turkey for this all-in-one, mega-stuffed delicacy.

The Turducken was born in Louisiana when someone decided to debone a chicken, put it inside of a deboned duck that is then placed inside of a deboned turkey. The end result is a boneless triple threat of poultry. Whew! Traditional turduckens have a layer of stuffing like cornbread or sausage between each section of poultry, but that’s an option for those who want the stuffing on the side.

So how do you make one of these behemoths? Can you purchase one at the store? Are they safe to eat? Well, slow down poultry lover, we have all of those answers for you.

Don’t Let Your Turducken Turn Fowl

When making a turducken, begin deboning the three birds, making sure to keep the raw poultry and their juices away from other foods. There is no need to wash the poultry before deboning. Washing will only contaminate multiple surfaces and other utensils in your kitchen.

If making a turducken with stuffing, make the stuffing first, but keep the wet and dry ingredients separate until you are ready to assemble. Begin deboning the three birds, making sure to keep the raw poultry and their juices away from other foods. After deboning, mix your wet and dry stuffing ingredients together and immediately start assembling the turducken by laying the turkey down first and coating with a layer of stuffing. The duck is next, followed by a layer of stuffing and then the chicken, which is also followed by more stuffing. Be sure to pack the stuffing loosely to promote efficient heat transfer during cooking.

Do not assemble the turducken in advance and put it in the refrigerator to cook later. The turducken must be cooked immediately to avoid the spread of bacteria throughout the stuffing. Cook the assembled bird at 325ºF until the innermost parts of the poultry and stuffing are cooked to 165ºF as measured by a food thermometer.

Frozen is Cool Too

If deboning three birds extends beyond your culinary experience, another option is to purchase an already-prepared turducken at your local grocery store. They generally come frozen and there is no need to thaw them. Follow the package directions, or if there aren’t any directions, cook from the frozen state in an oven set to 325ºF.

All of This Sounds Good, But is it Safe?

Yes, preparing and eating turducken is safe, if you follow safe food handling techniques.

If purchasing fresh birds, store them in the refrigerator no longer than two days before assembling and cooking.

Avoid cross-contamination by wrapping raw poultry securely in the refrigerator or using a casserole dish to avoid raw juices getting on prepared food.

Use a food thermometer to ensure all layers of the turducken and stuffing reach a safe minimum internal temperature of 165ºF.

Slice and serve within two hours after cooking. If it is not intended to be served with in two hours, then slice and cut in smaller portions before putting in the refrigerator to quickly cool.

Use leftovers within three to four days after cooking or freeze for longer storage.

Have questions about turduckens? For this or other Thanksgiving meal inquiries, call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) to talk to a food safety expert. You can also chat live at AskKaren.gov, available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, in English and Spanish. If you need help on Thanksgiving Day, the Meat and Poultry Hotline is available from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET.

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Indian American Shruti Bhatnagar, 46, is seeking a seat on the County Council in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Out of four, there are three seats which are open and 20 candidates have already shown interest but if Bhatnagar is to be elected then she would become the first Indian-American woman to serve on the Council.

Bhatnagar is the founder of the Indian-American Democratic Club of Maryland and is running in a county where 30 percent are estimated to be Indian-American.

The county is also home to the first and longest-serving Indian-American state legislator, Kumar Barve and Aruna Miller, the first Indian-American woman elected to the House of Delegates who is currently making a bid for Congress.

Bhatnagar was born in Udaipur, Rajasthan, lived in Delhi and has been living in Montgomery County for 18 years.

“I am deeply committed to our County, its children, youth and families. I have served the community for the past 15 years, beginning with Kensington Heights Civic Association in my neighborhood and rising to leadership positions at the State, County and Local level,” she says on her website.

Bhatnagar’s father was a small business owner and her mother started her career teaching at a university and later resumed her career in public service.

“Both my parents had to work to make sure my sister and I could get quality education. They taught me the values of putting family first, good education, hard work and community service,” she added.

Although most of her education took place in India, Bhatnagar has a Bachelor’s in Economics and Political Science and a Master’s in Business Administration.

She then worked for a finance company and continued growing her career by working in the telecommunications and software development sectors with U.S. corporations based in New Delhi.

“Since moving to the U.S, I have worked at the American Red Cross, a private Montessori school and at Montgomery County Public School providing academic support to students,” she says on her website.

“As I was adapting to a new culture and building a new life away from my family, friends and land of origin, I started contributing to my local community through the Kensington Heights Civic Association,” she added saying that she always “found it rewarding to work on issues that could help improve the quality of life for all my neighbors.”

Bhatnagar now serves the broader community as an At-Large member on the executive committee of the Montgomery County Civic Federation.

Bhatnagar has been involved with many local, County and State level organizations such as the local PTA’s of Takoma Park schools, Montgomery County Council of PTA’s, Maryland PTA and is a founding member of the organization, Maryland Welcomes Refugees.

“I continue to have an impact issues in the local community through leadership of Takoma Foundation, a local chapter of Greater Washington Community Foundation, where I have been the President for two years and support public schools as the Vice Chair of the Asian Pacific American Student Action and Achievement Group,” she states.

Bhatnagar was also appointed by the County Executive to serve on the Montgomery County Commission of Children and Youth where she led the sub-committee on the Opiod epidemic and continues to work on other issues such as mental health and DACA.

Bhatnagar also mentions that she needs at least $250,000 in order to run an effective countywide campaign and has been working with Barve, Miller and other longtime Indian-American activists to build up the support.

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Vanu Bose, the Indian American who re-imagined cellular networks and extended service to people living in remote areas of the world, died at the age of 52 on Saturday, Nov. 11 in Concord, Massachusetts, from a pulmonary embolism that he had suffered in a hospital emergency room.

Bose was the son of Amar Bose, the founder of the Bose Corporation, known for its high-quality audio systems and speakers, but instead of following through with the family business, Bose founded his own company, Vanu Inc.

According to the New York Times, Vanu Inc., utilizes cellular technology to reach people living in areas where there is either little or no service.

The company has been able to develop durable cellular sites that could run on solar power by focusing on the radio components of wireless networks, which is used in many rural areas around the world.

Having already taken this technology to Africa, Bose’s latest venture took place in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria by donating more than three dozen cellular base stations, where it was used to help residents locate their family members.

“It’s been so motivating for our employees, because everyone watches the news and says, I wish I could do something to help, suddenly we have a way to help,” Bose told the Boston Globe, nearly a month before he died.

“He always wanted to address the needs of people who did not have a voice, either politically or economically,” Andrew Beard, the chief operating officer of Vanu Inc., told the New York Times.

Beard also mentioned that Bose had spent a year working with Project Orbis, which operates a hospital in a DC-10 aircraft to provide eye surgery to economically devastated regions and his summers spent visiting his extended family in India, witnessing extreme poverty and deprivation.

The New York Times reported that Bose’s company helped remake wireless base stations which primarily ran on software instead on complex hardware.

Bose expressed desire to start his company when he was working on his doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where worked on a software radio format.

While he was an undergraduate at M.I.T, Bose told an M.I.T. publication, that he was always interested in wireless technology and even assisted his father in writing a paper about modifications to FM radio broadcasting.

When he started his company, Vanu Inc., he introduced software to a commercial market that wanted to juggle multiple wireless networks using the same equipment.

According to the New York Times report, the company’s virtual radio technology enabled software which would do the heavy lifting of signal processing rather than relying on complicated hardware.

Since software radios allow a single handset such as a cell phone, to access multiple networks at the same time, Vanu Inc. started working with small rural cell phone carriers in the United States that provided roaming services for large companies like Verizon.

Community Connect, a small base station developed by the company, weighing about 20 pounds, is designed to withstand grueling conditions, including temperatures of up to 132 degrees Fahrenheit, and runs on solar power rather than diesel fuel, making it better for both the economy and the environment.

This specific technology allows residents living in rural areas, to make calls or send a text message to friends and family living in nearby towns, as well as have them gain access to medical information, digital banking services and solar lighting systems.

Bose was born in Boston on April 29, 1965 and grew up in Wayland, Mass., he lived in Carlisle, Mass.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer science and mathematics from M.I.T. before earning a master’s and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science.

Bose has received many awards and was named a technology pioneer in 2005 by the World Economic Forum.

He is survived by his wife, Judy Bose, along with his daughter Kamala, 8, his mother formerly known as Prema Sarathy and his sister Maya Bose.

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In an emergency involving face or hand trauma, barely one in four hospitals can muster a specialist surgeon, a recent U.S. study suggests.

In a survey of hospitals in New York State, excluding those in New York City, researchers found that only 27% had hand surgeons available or on call for emergency hand procedures and 29% had plastic surgeons available for facial emergencies.

“Although more people have insurance now, it doesn’t guarantee access, especially in areas with geographic barriers,” said senior study author Dr. Ashit Patel, the chief of plastic surgery at Albany Medical College.

In his practice in Albany, for example, patients are often drawn from 20 counties in New York, as well as Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and Canada, Patel noted.

“Nearly every small town has a small hospital, and these hospitals deliver elective care, but there’s not anyone available 24/7 for emergencies,” he told Reuters Health in a phone interview.

Some 40 million injuries are treated in U.S. emergency departments annually, the study authors write online October 1 in the Annals of Plastic Surgery, and facial and hand traumas make up more than 20% of these injuries.

If they are not treated by a specialist surgeon, or if treatment is delayed in order to transfer a patient to a facility where a specialist is available, these injuries can have poorer outcomes and ultimately higher costs, the study team writes.

To see how often New York patients do have access to these specialists in emergency situations, Patel and colleagues surveyed 52 hospitals throughout the state. They asked about available elective hand surgeries – which are scheduled in advance – such as carpal tunnel release, finger fracture reduction and microsurgery, and elective facial procedures like deviated septum surgery, eyelid surgery and nose surgery.

They also asked whether surgeons who had at least done fellowship-level training in these specialties were available on site or on call for emergency cases.

The researchers found that access to these surgeons in New York State is fairly good for elective procedures: 88% of the hospitals surveyed offered specialist hand surgeries and 79% offered facial surgery.

Increasing the number of specialists who are on call for emergencies could decrease the need for transfer of minor traumas, which would reduce trauma center costs and reduce burden on hub hospitals, the study authors conclude.

“There is benefit in regionalization of care for complex trauma, and there is always going to be a role for this type of concentration of patients with devastating injuries,” said Dr. Megan Patterson, a professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, who wasn’t involved in the study.

“It’s the care of the less complex injuries that could be improved upon,” she told Reuters Health by email. “It’s not just that the patient is transferred . . . but they will then be required to come back for follow-up visits, which can be a significant burden to the patient and their families.”

Telemedicine approaches such as phone consultations, digital X-ray review and email connection to a specialist could help manage patients, she said.

“Access is only going to continue to be more challenging as reimbursement rates drop and smaller rural hospitals close,” Patterson said.

“Medicaid patients who live (on) up to 138% of the poverty line don’t have the resources to travel distances for the right care,” Patel said. “They’re choosing between feeding their children and paying for gas.”

Talking to state legislators about the data is key, too, Patel said. He’s spoken with members of both parties and found similar studies in states such as Tennessee and New Jersey that show a discrepancy in specialist access for trauma.

“It’s impractical to say that the one specialist should be on call all day, every day, so we have to look at how insurance and Medicaid can change,” he added.

“Many residents in these smaller communities may not realize how narrow their insurance networks are,” Patel noted. “Buyer beware about the insurance you have. Do your homework.”

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