Cast Iron Chaos: 2011-10-15

I consider cooking to be an important part of my magic – in fact, it's why I decided to try magic in the first place. Last night was fried turkey: no, not the incredibly dangerous whole turkey deep-fry method everyone here knows about, and some have accomplished; just a couple of turkey drumsticks fried in the Griswold skillet. These were not frozen drumsticks; I'd purchased them tonight at Price Chopper. (There are two other pairs of turkey drumsticks in the freezer, and I will be certain to defrost them in the fridge for a good day and a half, at least, before cooking them. I had a 12-inch iron cover on hand, as the photo shows, along with a box of baking soda and a fire extinguisher.) I heated about 1/2 inch of oil to 360 degrees, brushed peanut oil onto the drumsticks, and coated them with salt, pepper, and "generic Italian seasoning." I carefully placed the turkey legs in the hot oil, kept my distance, and kept the splatter screen on for the entire fry. Even so, it was a good thing I kept the splatter screen on and kept my distance. Beginning about eight minutes into the frying, the oil started some major splattering, presumably due to internal moisture from the meat hitting the oil. I turned the drumsticks over after 11 minutes, and immediately after I turned over the second one, there was a HUGE spurt out of the pan that would have given a really nasty burn if it had hit me. Fortunately, I was doing this at arm's length and holding the splatter screen as a shield.

: Once the turkey was out and draining on the cooling rack, I wanted to have some frying fun. So I put some dried shittake mushrooms in the hot oil and watched them bubble and float.

: The next time I fry turkey legs on the stovetop, I'll be laying newspaper on the floor in front of the stove. This fry did some major splattage.

I designed another sigil and kept it with me as I cooked, ate, and went to bed last night. This morning I'll burn the sigil once again, before I head out for the day.
I'll be doing one of the methods outlined in Grant Morrison's popular essay Pop Magic!, specifically this passage: "…go for a walk and interpret everything you see on the way as a message from the Infinite to you. Watch for patterns in the flight of birds. Make oracular sentences from the letters on car number plates. Look at the way buildings move against the skyline. Pay attention to noises on the streets, graffiti sigils, voices cut into rapid, almost subliminal commands and pleas. Listen between the lines. Walk as far and for as long as you feel comfortable in this open state. The more aimless, the more you walk for pleasure of pure experience, the further into magical consciousness you will be immersed." I like doing this anyway, so this won't be especially different from my usual wanderings. I'll just be keeping my mind open, and seeing who I end up meeting.
My Web site seems to be averaging about 300 hits per day, mostly due to the popularity of the other sections here – the Scientology section, the 2001 - A Space Odyssey section, and especially the bad erotica cliches page. There are a few hits that come in from people looking for the Bulldada Newsblog, but not many. I'm not surprised.