November 20, 2001

the 200000 meter turkey day

Hot. Cold. Chilled. And getting ready to deal with turkeys. That's my day. First I
erged for over half an hour, doing a workout that involved pulling as hard as I
could for a minute, then taking it easy for three. It's supposed to be a good
anaerobic workout, according to an exercise researcher who works with href="http://www.concept2.com">Concept II. He said to start with 2-4 reps and
build up to 10, but I figured that was meant for people who haven't erged much. I
did eight reps, because I wanted to make sure I finished over 6000 meters, just to
get ready to do that distance if I decide to do the href="http://dichroic.diaryland.com/dreamin.html">200000 meter Holiday
Challenge
. (Incidentally, I'd have linked to more info about all this, but
apparently Concept II doesn't put their newsletter on their web page. Silly
people.)

So first I rowed, getting hot and sweaty enough that I had
to take off my T-shirt. I was wearing a sports bra, just so no one gets unpleasant
images springing to mind, though I don't know why I bother, since I was doing this
at home. Then I hobbled downstairs to use the computer. After about 5 minutes
online, I realized I hadn't stretched out. This is where a laptop comes in handy;
I could move it to the floor and finish reading about href="http://marn.diaryland.com/stromatolit.html">kangaroos and stromatolites, a
la Marn
, while I stretched out. But now my butt is chilled, from sitting on
cold tile in thin tights. So I'm sitting at the computer wearing a fleece jacket
whose main virtue is that, unlike all my other warm stuff, it was
downstairs.

Once all this excitement wears off, the high point of my
day will consist of injecting some really smelly stuff into turkeys. No, I have
not become a veterinary volunteer. And, no, I am not attempting to spread anthrax
by way of Thanksgiving dinners. (Or even gonorrhea, though the href="http://shite.squirming.net/afflictiontest/">Horrible Affliction Test
says I could. But at Chez Dichroic, we generally deep-fry our turkeys, as a result
of having spent some years out near Cajun country. We considered just roasting one
this year, as it will just be the two of us, but when you're deep-frying turks,
it's just as easy to do several as one, so we generally ask around to see if
anyone else wants one done. Some friends took us up on the offer, and so we have
an excuse.

Deep-fried turkeys do not come out greasy. What happens
is that the whole thing cooks in no time (about 3 min/pound), and so it seals
quickly, leaving all the oil (peanut oil) on the outside only, and the turkey
juices sealed within. But the true Cajun touch is in the injection. We use a
recipe based on Paul Prudhomme's; it used to be easy to find on the Internet, but
now all I can find is his Terducken recipe, or weasly pages that purport to tell
you how to deep-fry a turkey with vague ingredients like "4 ounces of your
favorite liquid marinade". Pfui. It's possible that Prudhomme's recipe is
copyrighted and his people got it off all those sites, but that seems unlikely,
given the number of his other recipes available. I may have to post it myself, if
anyone is interested. So today I will chop onions and garlic, mix with spices and
sauces, puree the whole thing, and inject into several spots on the turkey,
getting it ready to provide us Turkey Nirvana on Thursday.

One note
to anyone else planning to fry a gobbler this year: do NOT try this indoors.
Houses in New Orleans have burned down because of this.

Posted by dichroic at November 20, 2001 07:13 AM
Comments
Post a comment









Remember personal info?