The Four Days of Frying, part 2

Alright, after all the comments that my last blog generated I know that everyone is on the edge of their seats waiting to hear about the remainder of the Fry Festival. First off, we drove my kids nuts by declaring it was Fryday for four straight days.

On the second Fryday (Thursday) we fried two 14 lbs turkeys that had both been injected with massive amounts of creole butter. they took about 50 minutes each and I swear they were freaking spectacular. This is how the Almighty wants us to eat turkey. Period.

After the Thanksgiving feast, when the guests had left and the gin was flowing we brought out the cookie dough that had been frozen overnight. Into the oil it went and it quickly turned into an oozing pile of oily goo. Strike two.

On the third Fryday we made crab rangoon, french fries, breaded cocktail onions and Thanksgiving eggrolls. The eggrolls were a damned good idea if I do say so myself. I took diced turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing and some shredded cheese and rolled them in eggroll wrappers. They fried up beautifully and it was a nice way to use up some leftovers. My nephew was getting into the frying spirit and took on the cookie dough challenge. He had been helping me make eggrolls and decided to wrap the cookie dough into a leftover eggroll wrapper. The kid has promise. It fried up beautifully. The cookie dough center was gooey and still "doughy" but highly edible. We have some ideas on how to improve on this next time. At this point lunch was over and we took naps.

Later in the evening we fried fresh Gulf shrimp and speckled trout. I had a complete failure when I tried to convert leftover sweet potato casserole into hush puppies. They dissolved into the same oozing balls of gunk that the cookie dough did. They can't all be winners.

And that brings us to the fourth Fryday, this morning. I woke up with a head full of juniper berries and a family that was ready to hit the road and get back to Texas. I was prepared...the fourth day could not pass without a fry session. And so I made up my batter and heated up the oil. After three cups of coffee the oil was ready and I had the kids gather round as I deep fried a platter of Twinkies. God help me but they were delicious.