the cook needs to pay attention ~

Recipes ~ gotta love 'em!  I just love flipping through cookbooks and cooking websites and watching food shows on tv checking out new recipes.  I get tons of info and ideas; but rarely do I actually follow a recipe to the T.  I'm always discombobulating it and rearranging this and adjusting that until I've come up with something totally unique and on it's own, a completely new recipe. 

Sometimes this works ... and sometimes not :(

Take my cornish game hens that I deep fried last night ~
The recipe said EXACTLY 15 minutes in the fryer ... not a minute less, not a minute more.

B E A U T I F U L

It was crispy skinned, 

the meat was so tender and juicy. 

Delicious with a capital D.

In goes the second hen ...

I'm setting the table ... 

mashing potatoes and making a gravy.  

I'm watching the clock.

I think I'll grab my camera and maybe post about this tomorrow.  Okay, keep an eye on the clock I have 10 more minutes of frying time.  I'm outside on my deck using my turkey fryer to make these birds.  I go into the house to finish up setting the table.  I tell Dear Hubby, let's dig in and start eating.  We'll share the first bird; because I don't intend on eating a whole cornish hen myself and he doesn't need it either.  Dear Hubby asks why I'm cooking the second bird in the first place.  I proceed to tell him that I plan on it for lunch tomorrow.  We'll be out in the woods making firewood, and it'll be a quick meal for lunch time. 

Dang... I look outside and the fryer seems to be smoking.  I look at the clock ... Double Dang ... it's now been 17 minutes.  Two whole minutes over the EXACTLY 15 minute time period.  Oh what can 2 minutes extra really do?

It was not only burnt ... it was absolutely disgusting.  

The burn flavor was all the way through the meat. 

It really was inedible.  

Yuck with a capital Y.

So what's for lunch today???

Until next time ...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel