For Immediate Release
November 18, 2014

These Sometimes Angry Birds Are Delicious! Fun Facts, Holiday Tips, Recipes in New Suffolk Holiday App for Android and iPhone

Never aggravate a turkey. 

Turkeys – the wild variety -- are fast.  Long Island Expressway fast.  An in-flight burst of 55 mph fast.  And they can run at speeds up to 20 mph. Domestic birds, bred to be heavier to provide more meat, cannot fly.

Male turkeys? They tend to become more aggressive as they age.

It’s why Benjamin Franklin wanted the national bird – the wild variety --to be a turkey instead of an eagle. Fast flying and quick running turkeys. 

Franklin also thought eagles were afflicted by bad moral character.

But don’t take our word for it.

These holiday fun facts, history, recipes, tips and more are featured in a new holiday app, Holiday Celebrations, available for Android devices and iPhones. The application was created through a unique collaboration between Auburn University Food Systems Institute (AUFSI) and Suffolk County Community College.

The Food Systems Institute exists to promote collaborations between different colleges and schools within Auburn University, and between Auburn and other colleges and universities. "The opportunity to collaborate with Suffolk County Community College — and its culinary arts program — was too good to pass up," said AUFSI director Pat Curtis.

The app includes articles about food safety and holiday feast planning as well as recipes for favorite holiday foods. Contributors include the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Stations as well as AUFSI staff and others. Suffolk County Community College contributed fun, informative videos on various holiday topics. A website to compliment the application is expected to launch shortly at www.holidaycelebrations.com.

Suffolk County Community College’s Culinary Arts Program Director and “Pilgrim” Richard Freilich, for example, provides new meaning to the phrase “talking turkey” with a witty presentation of “turkey facts.” Other videos include instructional videos about how to make roasted butternut squash, sweet shiitake mushroom lasagne, cooking with pumpkin, wine pairings and how to prepare and set a holiday table.

Suffolk Chef Andrea Glick, who appeared on The Food Network show Chopped, leads one of the instructional recipe videos.

The app includes such miscellanea as how to make pumpkin pie tarts in a dorm room and an explanation of why some people say “stuffing” while others say “dressing.”

Jodi Levin, director of Suffolk County Community College’s dietetic technician program, details the many unexpected health benefits of pumpkin and highlights three healthy pumpkin dishes, including a dish that teams trendy quinoa with butternut squash and roasted pumpkin seeds (which, by the way, are very nutritious and called “pepitas” by culinarians).

The iPhone App is available on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/holiday-celebrations/id938906032?mt=8

The Android App is downloadable in the Google Play store at: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aufsi.holidaytimes&hl=en

Link to Suffolk Thanksgiving Videos: http://goo.gl/ReJn44