Birch and pine tea light holders

This is my first attempt at making a Birch tea light holder.  I actually used 2 pieces of wood that were in the pile for the fireplace.  The third holder is not Birch, but rather pine.  It is the bottom 4 inches from our Christmas tree.

My son helped me sand the two ends of the holders.  I took the wood to a local wood hobby shop and used a drill press and a 1 1/2" wood bit to carve out the spot for the tea light.

These 3 were given to my wife as her Christmas present.  I hope to make a few more of these and then consign them at our local thrift shop.  I don't expect to make a lot of money with these, just a little extra for spending.  The wood was free and it cost me $10 for 2 hours of work at the wood hobby shop.  Now that I know what I am doing, more or less, I can knock out a few more even faster.

I'll try to get a better picture uploaded.

"You are a stay at home dad? So what do you do all day?"

Yes, this is a serious question I have been asked...more than once.  Well, has your spouse ever been an at-home-parent?  Then I am pretty sure I do just about the same thing they do/did.  You know, sit around in sweatpants, eating ice cream right from the container, watching daytime television while the kids run around the house in nothing but a diaper if they are not sitting in front of a television in another room watching the cartoons that play on it 24/7.  Right!?!  WRONG!

I make the majority of the 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks a day for all 5 of us.  And I typically am the one cleaning up all the dishes and pans following those meals.  I pack the one school lunch and snack.

I do some cleaning, not as much as my spouse would like or as much as she does, but I do some.  The iRobot vacuum runs every day and takes care of the major eyesore, all the dog hair.

I shop for the food that I cook, although my spouse is usually the one who comes up with our weekly meal plans (menus).  I take her clothes to the cleaners and can usually remember to pick them up in time for her next event that she must attend.  I try to do laundry, but I am very forgetful and it will sit for a day, or longer in the dryer.  If I do remember to get them out, fold them and into a laundry basked, I rarely put them away, she does that.

Then there is the never ending honey-do list and list of chores.  But there is also rough housing and playing, singing songs and dancing around, helping with homework, and reading books.  Once in a while we will do some crafts, but I'm not a craft guy, again, I leave that up to my wife.

Yes, sometimes I schluff off my chores and honey-do list to do a little bit of hunting or fishing, absolutely.  Do I take the kids with me, yes I do.  My 4 year old plays with a dead duck like it is a baby doll.

Sometimes, I can catch a break and get the kids into hourly drop in care at the child care center.  If that happens, I can usually get some of my bigger chores out of the way like changing out the snow tires and summer tires on both vehicles.  They don't like little kids being in the auto hobby shop for some reason.

I also do some volunteer work for a few organizations when I can.

Occasionally, the stars align and everyone is either napping or reading and I can pound out a quick blog post.  I should probably be taking a nap, too.  Yeah, I get to take a nap once in a while too, that is one of the other perks of this great job of being an at-home-parent.

#Dadsdontbabysit  It's called parenting!  http://athomedad.org

Fried Turkey at 20 Below!

I fried my first turkey and I did it in Alaska on Christmas Day when the temperature was 20 below 0.

Hardware:
1 full propane tank (and 1 for back-up)
fire extinguisher
Digital thermometer with "oven safe" wired probe
Turkey fryer:
 - Large pot with lid
 - Poultry rack or basket
 - Oil thermometer
 - Burner and stand
 - Gas line with control knob - I cover the gas line in foil to keep it from getting burnt with hot oil

4 gal. peanut oil for frying

Injection marinade:
Fresh rosemary
Fresh thyme
Fresh sage
course sea salt

1/2 C Broth
1/2 C White wine
1/2 C melted butter


Start with a clean fryer pot.  Place the turkey (with the giblets removed), neck down onto the poultry rack/basket.  Place rack and turkey into fryer.  Fill fryer with water until it just covers the turkey.  Remove turkey and allow to completely drain.  Mark the level of the water in the fryer.  This is how much oil you will need.  Drain the water and dry out the fryer pot.  Water and hot oil DO NOT MIX.

Put the herbs and sea salt in to a food processor or coffee mill and chop as much as possible.  Transfer to a bowl with wine and broth.  Use an immersion blender to grind herbs even finer.  You want the herbs small enough to fit through the injection needle.  Add melted butter to wine and broth mixture.  Inject marinade throughout the turkey.  If the herbs are still too course to fit through the needle, strain the marinade.  You can loosen the skin of the turkey and stuff the strained herbs between the meat and the skin.

Let the turkey sit at room temperature for for about 30 minutes or until your oil is ready for frying.  I kept the turkey on the poultry basket and placed the entire basket and turkey in a large pan.  This allowed the excess blood and water to drain and gave me something to carry the whole thing in without making a mess.

I began heating the oil inside the garage.  Once the oil reached 250 deg F., I turned off the propane and disconnected the tank.  Then I carefully moved the fryer and propane outside and continued heating the oil until it reached 350 deg F.  I used sections of cardboard to create a shelter for the fryer so I would not lose as much heat.  If I had some, I would have rather used plywood or something more sturdy.  When the oil reached 300 deg F., I removed the digital thermometer probe.  Then I inserted the probe into the breast of the turkey.

If the turkey skin is not dry by the time it is ready for frying, pat the skin and cavity dry with paper towels.  Again, water and hot oil DO NOT MIX.

Once the oil reached 350 deg F., I turned off the burner, just in case there was a boil-over.  Then I inserted the turkey into the oil using a large hook.  Once it was submerged, I removed the hook and lit the fryer again.  I kept the lid on the fryer to help retain the heat and still could not get the oil back up to 350 deg F. again.  The oil stayed between 275 and 300.

When the digital thermometer read 155 deg F., which was about 35 minutes into the cooking process, I turned off the gas and removed the turkey using the hook.  I placed the turkey and basked back on to the pan and immediately brought it into the kitchen and let it rest for at least 20 to 30 minutes.   Then I moved the turkey to a carving board and began serving.