File this under "Careful What You Wish For"

I noted with some excitement this week that a relative of Colonel Harland Sanders, of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame has revealed the secret "11 herbs and spices" that make up KFC's secret recipe. It had apparently been on a handwritten note and slipped into an old scrapbook where it was found. Now being a Kentucky boy by birth and remembering my Mamaw's fried chicken I have always been a fan of the stuff and the Colonel's is hard to beat. When I heard about this recipe release fiasco (KFC denies that this is the recipe, of course), I had to try it out, the greasy frying in my kitchen aside. I thought that if I could organize an electric skillet, I could do this experiment out on the deck

A great spot for getting stuff for free

saving myself the cleanup. As I am a little on the frugal side and not wanting to buy one, even though they are pretty cheap ($24 at K-Mart) I figured I'd advertise where I've had the most luck, FreeCycle Cape Cod. I  posted my ad, embellishing it with a sympathy ploy to get some action, and waited for a reply. 

Very shortly thereafter I received a note from a woman who said that she had an electric skillet that had never been used and was glad someone would find some use for it. I sent her a note back saying that I would be happy to meet her at any location and time to pick it up. I was thrilled! She wasn't too good about answering emails and after a few days of trying to get her to respond she finally did and said she would meet me in Hyannis, quite near where I work. I described myself as I thought she doesn't know me and I was going to be standing outside looking like a well dressed panhandler waiting for a payoff, she should know how to recognize me. 

At the appointed time she pulls up and pops out of her SUV and says "Are you Daniel?" "Yes" I replied and she stuck her head in the back seat window of her car and pulled out a tiny electric skillet maybe only 8" x 8" in size. She seemed so thrilled to be able to give this thing to someone who wanted it I simply said "Thank you so much" and "it's perfect" before heading off back to my office. This thing is so small you really couldn't put two chicken thighs and enough oil to fry them in it. I suppose I should've been more specific in my request, but there it is. I am going to take this thing to a thrift store and donate it because I can't really see what good it would be to me and I really don't have the space to store it.

You could, maybe, fry two
eggs in this thing...

If any of you folks out there want it, it's yours. Locally you can just pick it up or if you live out of town, contact me in the comments section (it's moderated so you can leave me a private message before it is posted to the comments) and we can make arrangements. 

Anyway I've decided to make the fried chicken recipe anyway in my dutch oven and I will be posting the results here later so stay tuned!

Toodles!