Wednesday, November 21, 2012

November 21 – “Fried turkey day”


I guess if Thursday is nicknamed Turkey Day, then yesterday had to be Fried Turkey Day.  Well, Chris also made a huge batch of no-peanut-allergy-affected cookies, but that was a walk in the park for her.  One day a year, usually the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we break out our two big outdoor fryers, fill up two huge pots with peanut oil and spend the day frying turkeys.  This year’s total was kind of down from years past, though.  We only did ten.  Ten turkeys ranging in weight from 11 pounds (that was the one Kel brought over) to 13 pounds (that one was for Josh and Christi) to almost 16 pounds (that was the one for the fire department where Nathan works).  Most of them hover around 13 pounds, though.  That has proven over the years to be the most effective, “ideal” weight for our pots.  We have a not-so-secret, secret recipe for seasoning that we got from our friend Alex McLaughlin.  Well, if I understand it right, it was technically from his mother.  Where she got it, I have no idea.  Chris rubs the turkeys down a day or so before the frying event and we let them sit in it as the thaw out in the fridge.  I know there’s a word for “let them sit in it,” but I don’t remember what it is right now.  Too early in the morning. 

I got the fire going under the pots by about 9 a.m.  It takes an hour for the grease to get hot enough for the first entry, so the frying didn’t officially begin until around ten.  Ten.  That’s about the time I got the call from Nathan that he was awake and getting ready to come over to help out with the lifting.  This year he brought over something that really was helpful – a pair of his old bunker gear gloves.  That had to be a great picture.  Each of us wearing a big old fireman glove on one hand, dipping a turkey into a bubbling cauldron of 300 degree grease.  Inspiring.  He also invited a fire fighter friend of his to come over and hang out for a while.  Andy’s wife Katy was getting her nails done with April, so Nathan and Andy needed a more “guy-oriented” activity to pass the time.  Burning large birds in fiery pits seemed to fit the bill perfectly.  I tried to get Andy to do some carving, but the only key activity I could convince him to partake in was … tasting.  Hey, somebody’s gotta do it, I guess.  Right, Andy?

The last of the turkeys came out around 3:30.  I finally finished carving and cleaning up some of the utensils by 4 or so.  By that time April and her fingernails had arrived, and Cailyn soon woke up from her nap.  Kel took his 11 pounder with him.  Nathan kept the fire department turkey intact and took it with him.  He said they could carve it themselves.  So we now have a refrigerator full of turkeys ready for Thanksgiving and beyond (Chris freezes three or four of them for use all throughout the year).  The only thing remaining (other than eating, of course) is to pour out the potful’s of grease and scrub the pots down.  That’s always a fun, nasty, grimy project.  Can’t wait.

Psalms 40:4 says, “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.”

Father, help us make Thanksgiving a day of trust as well as thanks.  Amen.

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