On December 5th Daybreak participated in the Kris Kringle Parade in downtown Frederick. We carried an 8’ banner and handed out cards inviting the community to our Gingerbread House Building Family Fun Morning. We handed out between 800 to 1000 cards (way to go Daybreak!)

Even though I did it last year, I was still amazed at how the Gingerbread suit just makes people smile (especially kids). I had to constantly watch and move slowly because kids would run up to me and hug me and if I wasn’t careful I would knock them down. Once we started down the course I began to run from one side of the street to other shaking hands, giving “high 5’s”, and just having fun.

By 1/3 into the course I was covered with sweat. It dripped into my eyes so that I was slightly blinded, and condensation built up on the inside of the mask. The eye holes were covered with a black mesh which was covered with a layer of moisture again adding to the difficulty in seeing where I was going. Several times Caleb would run up and want to run with me on the route, but I told him to “stay behind the banner” because I was afraid I would run over him. To say I was sweaty would be an understatement, and I don’t want to think about the active Gingerbread men before me.

The smiles on the crowd make it all worth it.

Our season of swim lessons is drawing to a close. This coming Saturday is the last of the lessons and we will miss it because of an event at our church. Kimberly came to take pictures and video. Every time Isaac saw the camera or video he would scream and want to see the digital display (i.e. “dada”). We finally figured out how to have a combination of floats so he could float on his own (a little one his chest, a big one on his back, and two floaties on his arms). If it were up to him to would float all day long, you may even see him yawn in the video.

After our session we go to one of the changing rooms where I shower the chlorine off, dry him off and then get him dressed. The only problem is that when he is fully dry, clean and ready to go, I’m still in my wet bathing suit. So then I get to change while keeping his hands out of the toilet (which doesn’t have a cover), and keeping out of the water that is all over the floor from the shower and our coming into the room from the pool. When it’s all over, I’m half dry and he’s half wet.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I finally fried our turkey. It was a 15 lb. turkey from Sam’s and it was delicious. I got a little nervous when I put it in because I didn’t have enough oil in the pot. It was six inches too short from covering the backend of the bird. So when I added the extra oil, the temperature dropped to close to 200 degrees. I pumped up the heat (it looked like the back end of a fighter jet) which took about ten minutes to get it back to 300 degrees. The oil began to rumble and there was a little bubbling over the edge of the pot as the oil shot out the end of the bird like a poultry volcano. I cooked it for 55 minutes, and it came out a nice golden brown. This was definitely a cool way to cook something!

I had a ladder set up over the pot and rigged it to a pulley so that I could pull it out in case of emergency (along with a fire extinguisher close by) and so that it could drain into the pot.

This was also the first time I carved an entire turkey. I used and electric knife (of course), and separated the white meat from the dark. The hardest part was keeping Hannah-Grace out of it long enough to finish.

We ended the meal by throwing a nerf football around in the backyard and somehow I fell asleep on our living room floor (how or when I don’t remember).

Long story short – our house is still in one piece – no fire, fun with family, and one delicious turkey.

Oh, the bottom picture is deep fried oreos — yum! And did you notice the name of my blog is something to chew on? When I named it that a year ago, I really didn’t think it would have anything to do with cooking. Such is life.

This past Sunday our small group had it’s last get-together of the cycle so I wanted us to just have some fun. So we had our first annual “Will it Fry?” Everyone was to bring anything they wanted to try fried. I set up some halogen lights, had a fire extinguisher on hand, and set up a table with all the needed instruments.

Kimberly and I had two chickens, someone else brought potato wedges, and then there were many other things to be tried and fried. Here’s the list:
oreos (chocolate and vanilla)
fudge brownies
3 Musketeers
Snickers
Rice Crispy Treats
bananas
apples

Everything we tried came out delicious except for the Rice Crispy Treat. It wouldn’t sink, so before it could fry it soaked up the oil like a sponge (yuck).

It was a great night, and I have a feeling there will be a second annual “Will It Fry?”