Thanksgiving

Or maybe it should be more aptly named, The Chaos that is Thanksgiving. I think that would fit for most people that are trying to host Thanksgiving dinner for their families.

I do have to say, however, that ours was pulled off rather successfully. My sister-in-law and I hosted Thanksgiving for our families. Her parents,

my husband's mother, and then of course our husbands and children. The rest of my family, though I wish desperately they could have been with us, are back in California.

We, well, not really we, mainly my brother, took a huge risk this year. My husband and I decided that for an early Christmas present, we would buy my brother a turkey fryer. He'd desperately been wanting to try a deep fried turkey, and we figured with Thanksgiving just around the corner, why not do it now!

Having tasted a deep fried turkey myself, I knew exactly what we were going to get. A juicy, plump, tasteful, delicious (are you catching the drift) turkey, rather than

the dry meat that you get when you oven bake it. It truly is an art however. Not that anyone ever would, but if they did happen to say that deep frying turkey is an easy thing to do, don't listen to them.

There are a lot of safety precautions that one needs to take. Don't believe me? Hit up youtube and type in deep fried turkey gone wrong. You'll see what I mean.

We were going about this the right way, well, minus the gloves. You'll notice that in the picture I'm sure.

Here's your step-by-step. Well, here's OUR step-by-step.

1. It's VERY important that your oil be the right temperature. 350 degrees to be exact

I'm not sure why this step is so important, but apparently it is, and who am I to question the deep-fried-turkey-masters!?

2. Once the oil has reached the perfect temp (350 degrees) slowly, and I'm seriously emphasizing the word S-L-O-W-L-Y, lower the turkey into the oil. Seriously. SLOWLY. If you think you're going slow enough, you're not. Go slower. It should take you almost 5 complete minutes to lower the turkey into the oil.

3. Once your bird finally been submerged completely into his spa like atmosphere, you let him cook, completely attended. Yes I said attended. You have to stand there, and watch him. The entire time. You let the bird cook, in the 350 degree oil, for 3 1/2 minutes per pound. Our bird was 18 pounds, so he cooked a little over an hour. When it's time to remove your bird from the oil, you're going to think you've ruined dinner. He's going to look burned. He's not. Trust me.

I'd post a picture here of the bird once it came out of the oil, but getting the two pictures here, where I wanted them, was a complete and total pain in the ass. So I'm not doing it again. If you follow me on facebook, you can look at the pictures there. If you follow me on facebook, I'm sure you've seen them already. Why would you want to see them again?!

**side note**  I'm LOVING the new picture placment options!!!  YAY!!!

There's got to be an easier way to get pictures, WHERE I WANT THEM TO BE, into my blog?
Isn't there?!

Oh well, I'll figure that out another day. It's midnight. I have to be up in 6.5 hours ...

until next time ...

~A