Frying Up Some Thanks

I sort of lucked out with this week's starter topic: Thanksgiving Break. For a lot of people Thanksgiving is synonymous with turkey, mashed potatoes, naps on the couch and football. In my family - not so much. Growing up, holidays tended to be a bit more formal for us. Dresses with tights kind of formal. ...and no football - which is pretty much sacrilege in Dallas since I'm pretty sure the Cowboys patented the Thanksgiving Day game.

So, now that I have my own little family I'm excited to start a few of our own traditions. The first being Thanksgiving dinner at our sweet little house in the O.C.  Potatoes will be mashed. Football will definitely be watched. Turkey might even be fried.

I'm also excited about making the house a little more festive for the occasion. This caught my eye earlier today from At Second Street:

image source: At Second Street

I love the fact that we have a mantle and I really haven't dressed it up for anything as of yet. This banner (instructions here) seems like a nice touch and should (fingers crossed) detract from the 52" flat screen looming above it. Though a few pumpkins, pilgrims and leaves might help.

Oh - and about the turkey. Word on the street is that frying is not as much of a hazard as I once thought. [Of course Diet Coke and Mentos once seemed pretty innocuous, too.] So it looks like the fam and I will be off to purchase a turkey frying kit at some point tomorrow. Or maybe we go with this guy from Amazon:

Bayou Classic Turkey Frying Kit

If we do go the frying route, we are definitely getting one of these, below. Moving forward, I will demand that all of my meals be injected with flavor.

Is it wrong to inject the turkey with bacon flavor?

Maybe it might be best to buy a spare turkey? A test bird, if you will. We shall see how this all unfolds.