Birthday Turkey

I live with a family of wannabe carnivores. According to Ward and the boys, meat would be the sum total of every meal if we didn't need those pesky vegetables to stay healthy. Therefore, I was not surprised when Theodore said he wanted a “Meat Event” for his recent birthday. After some discussion, it was decided that the event would be a fried turkey.

Our turkey fryer setup

Everyone I know swears that a fried turkey is the best turkey they've ever had. Also, they claim that since the oil doesn't penetrate the skin, it's still healthy. Well, that's not entirely true, a little of the oil does go into the meat--why else would it taste so good? But overall, it's not a bad choice, nutritionwise, in the meat world.

350 degrees is optimum frying temp.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with frying a turkey, but the concept is simple. Basically, you take a full size turkey, submerse it in hot oil, and fry it until it is done.* The first time we fried a turkey, I was very excited because a large size bird was only going to take about an hour to cook--what a time saver. However, we failed to realize that the setup and the heating of the oil to cooking temperature took a couple of hours. Lunch was a little late that day.

Ward getting ready to carve the turkey.

Ward was the mastermind behind frying the turkey for Theodore's meat event. He beautifully fried a 10 pound turkey most of which was eaten during the birthday meal. Did I mention that the males of the family like meat? We topped the evening off with a birthday cheesecake—but didn't fry it. Maybe next time.

*A word of caution if you are going to try this at home. A frozen turkey can explode in the hot oil.

This Week Around the Yard 6-1-11

A Second Look around the yard this week found a few new things including a rogue maple tree sprouting in the gutter. We clean them out at least twice a year, but the maple seed must have been determined.  Otherwise, most of the spring flowers are starting to fade and the summer flowers are beginning to bloom. The holly tree has just about finished blooming and I never noticed before this year what an aromatic smell the blossoms have. In addition, the heat is bringing out the bugs which can be annoying at times, but the all important bees are noticeably buzzing.

Note: If anyone can tell me the name of the yellow ground cover, that would be great.

The Logic of a Four Year Old

A conversation with Theodore when he was four years old.

Theodore contemplating the mysteries of life.

Mammals have hair, right? 

So, does that mean that bald people are reptiles?

Three Year Old Pickles

Are you familiar with Food Waste Friday, started by the FrugalGirl? It encourages people to post pictures of the food they let go to waste. The idea is to make you more aware of what happens to the food in your house. I was intrigued with the idea, so I thought Ward, the boys, and I would give it a try.

We started by looking in our refrigerator. As I had anticipated, we didn't find much spoiled food. However, we did find a lot of food that nobody had any intentions of eating. We found eight Clementines from Christmas that had dried up inside. Also, there were the three year old pickles that had turned rubbery. Next to them, was a jar of salsa with crusted sauce in the bottom. Unfortunately, the list goes on.

Hot sauce shelf in our newly organized refrigerator.

By the time we had almost filled up our kitchen trash can, I decided that it was too embarrassing to post our waste. When I had checked out other people's pictures, there was a person who found one apple that was starting to shrivel, so she made apple muffins. Theodore said she was just showing off. However, most entries were like that. So maybe, we'll start participating next week when we will have a relatively clean slate to start from—unless we decide to clean out the pantry.

I guess FrugalGirl might be onto something. I don't know if the embarrassment factor is going to get us to waste less food or just hide, but it did get us an organized, clean refrigerator. Thanks to her for that.

Hat Tip: A Place to Reside

A Second Look at Irises 5-26-11

A Second Look around the yard this week found me focusing on the different irises that were in bloom. Because I don't know much about them, I did a bit of reading. I found out that no matter what they're called, most iris are some form of the bearded iris. After that, I got confused with the details. Therefore, I'm naming them by color as you will see. The one thing I do know, is that the word "iris" is used a lot in crossword puzzles (in my experience, anyway) because all of the letters used to spell it are very common.

Pale yellow iris

Yellow-veined iris

Lavender iris

Salmon colored iris

Two-tone purple iris

White iris

Siberian iris