My cousins fried a turkey and it was the most delicious turkey I have ever tasted! Here is Miguel with the turkey. He did the frying under a beach umbrella, during a Florida downpour. MaConcha, who is the most amazing cook, injected the turkey with "Mojo", (Cuban marinade) I know that made it even more delicious.
I came home and told my family about it. Skyler immediately wanted to fry our Thanksgiving turkey. Missy found out where to get a fryer. Preston researched how to safely fry a turkey . Here they are drying the turkey with a hair dryer.
Sometimes I worry about Skyler's "reckless exhuberance", so I probably reminded him several times of the dangers of hot oil and the importance of lowering the turkey into it slowly. He built this contraption so as to be able to lower the turkey from a distance.
I was concerned that the stick would break, but it worked out perfectly, and since I had brought home some "Cuban Mojo" from Florida, the turkey was amazing!
I use Mojo to marinade pork and beef also. Since I can't find it in my area, I usually have to make my own. You can see the recipe on my Cuba blog:
I love Spring! The increasing light, the flowers and the expectancy of more warmth coming our way. Awakening....creating....
I realized the other day that we often assume stuff, about circumstances, about other people, and we are just guessing, making it up. So if I'm just making it up anyway, I might as well assume the best! Great things are coming my way, people have great intentions, etc.
I don't know what I want...Yep You don't Love me...Yep I'm pretty worthless...Uh Huh I fail because of what you did...Yes I'm hurt...Um Hmm I'm angry...OK I'll show you...Yep I'm worth more than this...Uh Huh I belong here too!...Yes You don't even know me...OK In fact, I'm a fabulous person...Yeppers I have good ideas and great Love to share...Um Hmm It doesn't even matter what you think...Yeppp I am a good person...Yes I have so much to be thankful for...Uh Huh Not matter what I say, you say Yes...Yep So it's just up to me then...Uh Huh.
My son Skyler has a lot of energy. He is taking 18 hours at BYU, plus he has several businesses he runs. His latest adventure is entering a contest for which he had to build a website. Here is what he has done, it brings most of his businesses together.
Right now he needs to get as many links on other blogs as possible, to progress in the contest. So if anyone can post about it and put it on their blog, it will be a great help. Thanks!
I love my children's spouses. I have often said that if I'd gone out to find more children to bring into our family, I would have choosen each of them. Here is a wonderful article by Daryl Hoole, on Meridian Magazine, that I want to remember:
I recently bought some Steve Madden boots. The first time I wore them the heel broke off. Normally I would have taken them back to the store for a refund or exchange, but I had bought the boots out of state, at a store we don’t have here.
I went on SteveMadden.com and contacted customer service. A very nice representative emailed back saying that unfortunately the boots I had bought were no longer in stock, but giving me a code for the amount I had spent and free shipping from their website.
They just made me a loyal customer with such great costumer service! 
I had a request on one of my YouTube videos for the recipe Jenny used on my TV show. Here it is, along with more info on Jenny and a link to her website.
Most people don't really hate cooking — they just hate the pressure and all the work of coming up with something for dinner every night of the week. Jenny Stanger's solution for the 5 p.m. 'What's for dinner?' panic is to spend spend two hours, every two weeks, preparing two recipes, with each recipe large enough to make three family-size dinners. You can build up a good supply of dinners in your freezer this way. She has a Web site, Freezerdinner.com where you can get more recipes.
Jenny says: "On the nights you feel like cooking, you can. But when you don't feel like it, use those 'frozen assets' in the freezer. Along with more family time, freezer meals also help you save $200-$300 a month. Freezer meals save you time, money and sanity."
Recipe:
Parmesan Crusted Chicken and Broccoli
Yield: 2 (9x13) dinners 6-8 servings each
2 lbs cooked chicken, chopped 2 lbs broccoli steamed (frozen bags usually cost less) 5 C cooked rice
Sauce:
4 cans cream of chicken soup 16 oz sour cream 1 t onion powder (or 1/2 onion chopped)
Topping Per Pan:
2 packages crushed Ritz crackers 4 T butter 4 t garlic salt 4 t parsley 3/4 C grated parmesan cheese
Directions:
1. Steam broccoli in microwave for 6 minutes, cube chicken (if chicken is uncooked, place in microwave for 6 minutes.) 2. Mix sauce together in a large bowl. Add rice, steamed broccoli and cooked chicken. 3. Spread mixture in bottom of each 9 x 13 aluminum foil pans. 4. Mix together topping in a ziptop bag and poor over the top of both casseroles. Wrap casseroles in plastic wrap and label (350 degrees for 30 minutes, or 1 hour frozen and freeze.
To serve: Bake a frozen casserole at 350 degrees for 1 hour or defrost casserole 24 hours in the refrigerator. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and then cook for 30 minutes, or until warmed all the way through .
My friend Whitney Johnson always makes me think with her Dare to Dream blog. In her latest post Bitter or Grateful , she writes of how difficult it is, sometimes, to be grateful. She says: "We need to ackowledge the loss...(experience it)... for a time. But then we choose".
The other day I was visiting with a friend who was feeling very down, acting upset, negative. He explained he'd had a lot of disappointments that week.
I wondered what it would feel like to focus on the disappointments in my life (there are disappointments in all our lives). As soon as I made the decision and changed my focus I was shocked by the way I felt. Life felt sad and dark and overwhelming. It was an immediate fall from Grace. I felt removed from Deity. I stayed in that desolate place until the next day, when I realized that if I could make the choice to focus on the disappointments, I could also make the opposite choice and focus on all the good in my life, once again. Like two hand rails on the stairs, I could choose which to hang on to.
This experience helped me see why God says we should give thanks in all things, it is for our sake. Feeling gratitude brings us to a place of grace, where the difficulties and disappointments still exist, but somehow things don't seem so overwhelming.
