Most Popular Thanksgiving Meal Side Dishes From Conejo Valley Guide Facebook Fans

Copyright: 123RF Stock Photo from Mark Stout

In another Conejo Valley Guide Facebook Page drawing today, readers were asked to indicate a favorite Thanksgiving meal side dish. The following is a summary of this informal survey:

Tied for most mentioned side dish...<drum roll>... Sweet Potatoes and Stuffing, each with 19% of total comments.

Tied for third most mentioned side dish: Mashed Potatoes and Green Bean Casserole, each with 11% of comments.

Tied for fifth most mentioned side dish with 6% of total comments each were Yams, Veggies and dishes made with Pumpkin.

Other mentions in the drawing included Potato Casserole, Cranberry Sauce, Broccoli Casserole, a Thanksgiving Jello with Cream/Celery dish, Pecan Pie, Mac & Cheese, Roasted Potatoes, Noodles, Craft Beer (hmm), Sweet Potato Pie, Blair Sausage and Cranberries.

For a compilation of community holiday season events and activities through the end of the year, visit THIS LINK.

Space Shuttle Endeavor at the California ScienCenter Well Worth the Trip

The California ScienCenter is located in Exposition Park, about an hour-long drive from Thousand Oaks. Located adjacent to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the ScienCenter is a fantastic place to explore the world of science with the kids.

Sweetening the deal is the addition of Space Shuttle Endeavor at the Samuel Oschin Pavilion, the Endeavor's temporary home until the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is opened (currently anticipated sometime in 2018).

The Endeavor was first launched into space in May 1992 and its final mission was in May 2011, with 25 space missions and nearly 123 million miles flown. The orbiter has a wingspan of 78 feet and length of 122 feet. At 57 feet tall, it has quite a presence inside the Pavilion.

Also impressive is the array of informational displays surrounding the Endeavor, covering key milestones for all NASA space shuttles, including the Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavor. For example, we learned that the Discovery has flown the most miles of any of the shuttles - over 148 million miles on 39 missions.

In addition to the Pavilion, the Endeavour: The California Story exhibit contains artifacts and displays associated with the shuttle program here in Southern California.

Admission to the California Science Center is free of charge; parking is currently $10. Due to the popularity of the Endeavor exhibit, timed reservations are required for weekends, holidays, special events and other high attendance periods, including Thanksgiving week and school winter/spring breaks. There is a $2 fee for online, printable reservations, $3 for phone reservations.

Better yet, book the Endeavor and an IMAX film together and the $2 Endeavor fee is waived. You won't regret it as the IMAX films are spectacular.

Visit www.californiasciencecenter.org to learn more.

Conejo Valley Guide Facebook Followers are Thankful for Many Things

As part of a drawing for tickets to the Reagan Library yesterday, we asked Conejo Valley Guide Facebook page followers to comment on something they are thankful for this holiday season. Over 300 folks commented in the span of eight hours. The word cloud below sums up what this great local crowd is thankful for as we approach Thanksgiving.

Word cloud courtesy of tool at www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud

For a compilation of community holiday season events and activities through the end of the year, visit THIS LINK.

Tips For Using Public Wi-Fi Networks From the Federal Trade Commission

The Federal Trade Commission notes that wi-fi hotspots in public places like coffee shops, libraries, universities and so on, while convenient, are often unsecured, which means the information you send when you're logged in to these hotspots can be seen by others.

Short of simply not using public wi-fi hotspots, there are things you can do to protect yourself.

1. Try to confine your use of unsecured public wi-fi hotspots to web browsing rather than logging in to websites and apps that require personal information.

2. If you do need to sign in to websites using login and password information, try to only use sites that are encrypted, or that basically scramble the information submitted so that others can't see it. How do you know if it is encrypted? If there is an "s" after http at the beginning of the web address, that means it's secure. But make sure the https shows up on every page you visit, not just the page you sign in.

The good news is that many sites requiring login are consistently using https these days, like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, not to mention banking and financial sites. You may notice when you go to a site like Amazon.com, initially you'll see www.Amazon.com in the browser, but a secure web address once you click the sign in page.

As you can see, Yahoo mail uses https

3. The FTC notes that mobile apps don't have a visible indicator like https and that many mobile apps don't properly encrypt information. So if you have that $100 birthday check form Aunt Hattie and want to deposit it to your Chase account using your mobile app while enjoying your Frappuccino at Starbucks, use your phone's 4G or 3G data network, not the free wi-fi.

The Federal Trade Commission has more useful tips for using public wi-fi hotspots at www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0014-tips-using-public-wi-fi-networks.

County of Ventura's VC SafeDiner App Provides Convenient Access to Inspection Results

Ventura County Environmental Health launched the VC SafeDiner app for Apple and Android devices in early 2015.

VC SafeDiner is a quick and easy way to view the latest inspection results for food facilities in Ventura County. The app allows you to search by name, address or city; and also provides a map feature allowing you to view food facilities within a radius of your current location. Full inspection results for the last year are displayed, including recorded violations and inspector comments. 

I've tried it and it works great, replicating the searchable database on the County website at www.decadeonline.com/main.phtml?agency=VEN.

How Long Do We Have Before Halloween Candy Goes Bad?

On Halloween day, my youngest son asked me what he should do with his old Halloween candy. I said, what do you mean? You haven't gone trick-or-treating yet. He tells me he still has candy left over from last year in his closet.

After my initial surprise, I told him to show me the candy. He opened the closet door and pulled out last year's Halloween trick-or-treat bag, which was full of individual plastic sandwich bags full of Snickers, Twix, Butterfingers, M&Ms, Whoppers and so on.

I have to admit, my initial inclination was to consume them (no, I didn't), then I had a passing thought to re-give them out to trick-or-treaters (of course I would not do that).

My son told me we should throw them away because they were old. But I hate throwing stuff away that's still good, so I decided to keep the candy and take a closer look at their "best before" dates.

So what exactly is a "best before" date? There is no mention of it on the Snickers or Mars websites, but the Hershey website indicates this is the last date a product can be expected to be at its "peak freshness." Hershey goes on to indicate that most candy products maintain their best flavor for up to 12 months after they are made and that there may be flavor loss or texture changes past the "best before" date.

But there is no mention of "thou shall not eat candy past the best before date." So it begged the question, are these dates required by law?

The USDA confirms that "Best if Used By (or Before)" dates are not required by federal law (with the exception of infant formula) and indeed relate to best flavor or quality, not safety. So...yes, it's generally OK to eat candy (and other foods), past that date.

My son, who is not a Snickers fan, thankfully (for me, indeed a Snickers fan) scored a full sized Snickers bar last Halloween as well as this Halloween. I devoured last year's Snickers bar, with a "best before" date of May 2015, a full 5 months after said date. It was not bad. Not quite as good as this year's Snickers bar, but quite edible. 

Full size Snickers bars received by son this Halloween and last halloween display "Best Before" Dates

He also gave me numerous Snickers "fun size" bars from last year's Halloween stash. These ones for some reason have no dates on them. The quality was slightly lower. I might not eat them now, but perhaps would save them as a pick-me-up in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

On to Nestle Crunch bars. According to nestlecrunch.com, the recommended shelf life of a Nestle Crunch 1.55 oz bar is 15 months. I see no such date on the mini size bars.

The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup made by Hershey does show a date, though given their popularity in this household is usually a moot point as they are usually consumed within hours, if not minutes.

According to StillTasty.com "Your Ultimate Shelf Life Guide," you can generally keep chocolate covered candy bars in the pantry, refrigerator or freezer for 10 to 12 months. And the site reiterates that such storage times are for best quality only - in most cases, it will still be safe to consume your candy if it has been stored properly.

On that note, I better run off and eat a salad or something to counteract all the candy I just ate.