Survived the weekend outdoors nicely, thanks.
The campout went really well, much fun was had by all. I got to cook me some turkeys over coals, deep-fried, and even one hanging inside a foil "box oven" (Yea, let's have the vegetarian cook the birds. Make sense, right?) It was a lot of fun though. Had to get creative with one of the birds I was supposed to fry. It was still frozen so that was not a viable option. (word of warning: NEVER try to deep fry a frozen bird, the oil will explode everywhere!) So we created a new category of bird called "Deconstructed Turkey". This entailed, hacking the bird into component pieces (legs, thighs, wings & splitting the breast) We wrapped each of these in foil, along with some onions and spices, threw them on the hot coals for about an hour and THEN took them out and moved them to the fryer for 20 or so minutes to finish them off. They were a really big hit. Folks loved the taste. (who knew?) The absolute, without question, unanimously elected, most marvelously wonderful, super-extra delicious treat of the whole day however: was our deep-fried tater skins. What is this you ask? Read and learn, my friends!
When you peel the potatoes this Thursday for your feast, do not throw them away! Instead, peel directly onto a good size sheet of foil, then dice up an onion (or two if you've a lage pile of skins) finely, and mix them in with the potato peelings. Toss on a touch of pepper and mix it all by hand. Fold up the foil and put the whole thing to the side for a few hours to meld the flavors. If you're deep frying the birds, then after they're done, take the skins and drop them (two hands full at a time - no more!) into the remaining grease. They cook up crispy in about 10 seconds and you remove them with a slotted spoon onto a cardboard box lined with newspapaer (or, ya' know: a plate with paper towels if you're not a savage like us!) Sprinkle HEAVILY with salt and repeat, tossing each layer of skins on top of the previous and dousing HEAVILY with the salt. When they're all cooked, dig in! For those of you not frying the bird, you could do this in a skillet with a few inches of oil -or an interior french frying thingy- just make sure it's super hot (400+ deg.) before you add in the skins. We use this as our treat for the "cooks". We don't share this with the guests, and we devour them as quickly as possible! We scarfed thirty pounds of skins in under five minutes. I'm telling ya: greatest snack on the planet! Think potato chips x 10, on the flavor scale!
In the end, we made seven birds, potatoes, yams, stuffing, veggies, corn bread, cranberry dressing, gravy, pies, cakes, cookies, hot apple cider and a few other odds and ends - in the woods, from scratch (mostly), and served over 100 people. The food was piping hot, tasted great, and afterward the boys put on a campfire and show for the guests as they enjoyed dessert. The boys done real good, didn't they Fred?
No writing this weekend at all. I WAS feeling pretty crappy by the time we got back on Sunday so I crashed that night, and last night as well. I'll catch up with a few big days though. That graph up top is DEFINITELY wrong! I am way the hell behind and I'm gonna have to really bust my hump to catch up if I wana finish my 50k this year. Wish me luck! Anyway, I'm off to write . . .
Later!
1 comment:
I'm glad that cold didn't crash your weekend. Potato skins? That actually sounds good! Good luck in the story, Jim, though I doubt you need luck. What would you need with such when you have talent and skill, hmm?
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