Yes, the name of today's post is "Fried Friday". No, no fried anything, with the exception of my brain and my energy. Energy can be fried, I promise you. And it started frying about 11pm last night. I know, an hour before Friday, but hey, I can not help the "fall" back time clock in Ohio.
I am going to bore you with this little story, and at the end, I am going to share some pretty cool things happening in the blog world.
Wednesday, Vandy comes home with the biggest frozen turkey I have ever seen. Seriously, HUGE. And all I can think is, Martha Stewart JUST said, two small birds is better than a large bird. I already knew this, but Martha was my validator. So, I blinked my eyes and said, "Babe, I thought we decided on duck for Thanksgiving since there is just three of us." He says, "No. Turkey." and grins that impish boy grin that tells me he just told a tale. He has decided to do the turkey for the work Thanksgiving party on FRIDAY!
Yep, this is at 6:30 pm on WEDNESDAY.
FROZEN 26 pound turkey needed on FRIDAY. And how in the world do they get those birds so dang frozen anyway? My ice cream melts before I can get home, and a frozen turkey can barely thaw in 4 days, let alone 36 HOURS!
So, I'll speed it up here. Thursday night, yup last night, I am watching Private Practice (2 hour special, 9-11pm) and shopping on the internet and have several times said, "Babe, you need to work on that turkey." To which he replied, "Okay, in just a minute." At 11:00PM, the frozen bird is still frozen and he gets up only AFTER I said, that bird is still frozen. So, I walk out of the room to go get some cleaning stuff to clean out the sink to start a water bath and upon re-entering the kitchen apartment he has that FROZEN bird in the sink cutting away at the netting.
I scream.
Yup, SCREAMED.
Didn't he hear me say I was going to get some cleaning stuff to clean the sink out for the water bath for the FROZEN turkey. Oh, sorry, he says. So, I clean the sink. And then I tell him what to do before I return to the other kitchen to put away the cleaning supplies.
Upon returning to my husband and the FROZEN 26 pound turkey, I see steam. Guess what I do?
Yup. I SCREAM!
"What are you doing?"
He looks at me shocked. Shocked I tell you. He tells me he is thawing out the turkey. I inform him you can not run hot water on a turkey, you want everyone to get sick? And he looks at me like I have said the stupidest thing in the world. I said, "cold water bath". And I thought, "You are the smartest guy I know, where did your smarts go?!"
I told him to move. I would do it. Go on to bed. I had already made the stuffing that he HAD to have in the turkey for flavor, so I was just in a holding pattern. (Stuffing adds more cooking time, more cooking time to a 26 POUND FROZEN turkey) You can see it can't you? He says, ever so lovingly. " I'll get up to get it out of the oven."
I know. I know.
So, finally I loaded that giant bird into the bag, a feat all by itself and got it in the oven.
Yes. Stuffed.
I am a 10-14 pound turkey girl. A 26 pound turkey might as well be 50 pounds when you have to man handle the thing. In the oven it went. To bed I went at 12:30am. I woke up at 4:00 AM. I smelled the turkey. I heard the timer going off. My husband didn't stir.
Down the stairs.
Insert thermometer.
170.
UGH
Another thirty minutes. Finally, 180 after another additional 15 minutes.
I let it rest. I grab all the juices with a spoon because someone has misplaced my juice sucker. (Fried Friday, what's that things name again?)
Turkey rests.
I get all the stuffing out, way too moist. I stick it back in the oven to dry up a bit. I carve the turkey. The 26 POUND turkey. I try to be neat and pretty. I watched MS the other day on turkey carving. Yes, the same show where she said, 2 small birds.
I know. I know.
So anyway, at 6am when my husband finally stirs from his wonderful night's sleep, he comes down the stairs and says, "Hi babe, how's the turkey?" How's the turkey??????? Not fried!!!! So, now that all the work is done and he has his coffee, he is cleaning the bird. He likes this part of Thanksgiving. I do not.
Especially when I am fried.
Especially since I have to be ready for Breaking Dawn in 2 hours.
Especially since I have a photo shoot at 3 pm.
The end.
Now for four really cool things for you to do this weekend and it has nothing to do with a FROZEN turkey. You have to go check out my "Wine Not" giveaway HERE. And if you want to learn how to make them yourself, you have to go HERE.
Then my cousin Jenny, (I know you all want to have Jenny as your cousin, but I am don't share well under friedness) has this super cool giveaway HERE. I have already ordered my books from Miss Terra at Campbell Lawson. Jenny has never led me astray in the cool arena.
And then, on Donna's blog at Funky Junk Interiors, she is having this AWESOME giveaway and introduced me to Lori at Katies Rose Cottage Designs. I rarely win anything, but this one I WANT, NEED to win! Okay, okay, I want to win. I ordered one of the hat's that Donna is sporting because I, well just had to have it. Lori's stuff is right up my alley. LOVE LOVE LOVE her stuff. And, this is where I was shopping when my husband was ignoring me about that dern FROZEN 26 POUND turkey!
So you see, a fried Friday looks like this ^.