Turkey Fry of 2007

Didn't go home (New Orleans) for family time for Christmas this year. My trip has been "postponed" to a couple weeks later (to be near the Superdome when LSU plays for the BCS NC). My family, all hardcore LSU fans, understand. Instead we decided to fry a turkey on Christmas Eve. My company gives every employee (all 40,000!) a turkey for Christmas. I usually just donate mine (some bowl with it the weekend later), but I took it for some reason this time. I got the wild hair to attempt to fry my turkey in the middle of Theatre Square (downtown Louisville) on Christmas Eve. There was some daunting seconds during the drop, but other than that it went smoothly. We also had trouble getting the oil up over 300 degrees (we guess it was the fact that it was 30 degrees outside!) We added some extra time in hopes it would come out well... and very surprisingly, it was superb. Either we had beginners' luck or there's quite a margin of error of wiggle room when the ultimate outcome is judged against the traditionally baked version. The risk is definitely worth the reward - and it's quite a spectacle if you build a turkey fry derrick like we did. The entire credit for our success on our virgin endeavor goes to Alton Brown's episode on Good Eats (Food Network), which we found available on YouTube. There were multiple possibilities for disaster which we never never would have thought. What brought us home was our commitment by refusing to skimp on his easy, cheap, and safe instruction.