Have a Safe and Happy Independence Day !

Written By Richard DeJoseph (Marketing Coordinator)

As our country’s Independence Day approaches this Monday, fireworks sales have sky rocketed, pun intended. Here in New York and many other states, casual firework use is illegal; however there are a number of areas where it is still legal. If you are going create your own fireworks spectacular, be sure to put together a 4^th of July First Aid Kit. Safety first! You should put the same amount of time into picking out sparklers and Roman Candles into the medical products that can come in handy in case something goes wrong. 

For starters, most home health stores and pharmacies carry a variety of medical products. Start with the basics like gauze sponges, tape, burn ointment or aloe, and adhesive strips. If your local pharmacy has a larger selection, emergency pressure dressings and conforming gauze are great items to have on hand as well.  

Once you are ready to start the show, make sure to read all instructions on your fireworks packaging. Despite what you may think, your novice pyrotechnic skills aren’t enough to rely on. In the event something goes awry, consult a first aid booklet or call 911. Burns leave scars, so be sure that you treat the initial wound with care; continue to care for the wound as it heals to lessen the chance of scaring. Better to remember the festivities with pictures instead of scars from a sparkler mishap; there’s nothing patriotic about that.

We hope that your Independence Day celebration goes swimmingly and without a hitch. But, a few minutes spent at the pharmacy can prove to come in handy in the event something does go wrong. DUKAL wishes everyone a great holiday weekend, happy birthday America! Land of the free, home of the brave!

DUKAL Teaches the leaders of tomorrow

By Heather Llorca-Kropp (Director of Martketing)

     DUKAL had the unique opportunity to participate in the St. Johns University Executive in Residence program this spring.  The program is a semester long class where 3 teams of students were given real business strategy projects by various companies.  The students would meet with us periodically during the semester and conduct strategy sessions where they would learn our business and be given advice on the project by our Marketing, Operations and Finance Executives.  At the conclusion of the program they came to our board room to present 3 different business plans.  We were very impressed with the outcome of their efforts!

    We entered into this expecting a fun experience and ended up having a rewarding and meaningful time with the students.  We looked through their eyes at the work that we do every day with renewed energy and excitement.  Sometimes in our career we become so accustomed to doing things a certain way, working with the students reminded us of the potential that can come by looking “outside the box”.    The experience made me feel very positive about the caliber of young leaders that will be entering the workforce this year and leading us all into tomorrow.  I genuinely enjoyed meeting them all and being a mentor to such a fantastic and enthusiastic group of young people.  Who knows?  Maybe one of them will go on to create and run the next innovative and progressive company of our time! If we gave some inspiration for them to do so, that will be the greatest reward of all.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Written By: Maggie Karl (Manager Contract Manufacture)

Annual DUKAL St. Patty's Day Lunch

 Yesterday Gerry treated his Irish and Irish food loving employees to a traditional feast of Corned Beef and Cabbage, so I thought I would treat our blog readers to my Irish Soda Bread Recipe!

We lovingly refer to this as our “Irish Soda Brick” because it’s a very heavy bread, a sweet and dense treat that’s delicious straight from the oven or toasted with your morning coffee.

Maggie’s Irish Soda Bread   

3 cups All Purpose Flour
1 cup Bread Flour*
1 cup Granulated White Sugar Zest of 1 Large Lemon**
1 Tbsp Baking Powder

3 Large Eggs
1 cup Milk***
¼ cup Buttermilk

1 cup Raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a standard loaf pan.

Combine dry ingredients and lemon zest in a large bowl.
Lightly beat 3 eggs, add milk and buttermilk, then mix in dry ingredients until just combined.  Mixture will be thick, but if it looks too dry add another splash of buttermilk.
Stir in raisins, then pour mixture into greased and floured pan.  Bake for 65-75 minutes, or until the bread sounds hollow when knocked on. 

Notes:
*This was the first year I used bread flour and I really liked the texture.  This bread was still dense but was slightly spongier than the other loafs I made with 4 cups of all purpose flour.  That being said, you can certainly use all non-purpose flour if you don’t happen to have bread flour on hand.

**The more lemon zest the better.  You can add some orange zest if you like, too.

***We only ever have 1% milk in our house, so that’s what I use, but any percent will work.  You could also use all buttermilk, or all regular milk, as long as the total volume of wet ingredients remains the same.