Deformed Turkey Treats

I originally saw this turkey years ago when my son was just a little thing and I thought he’d get a kick out of it if we made some.  The first problem I ran into is the recipe says to spread peanut butter on the turkey and sprinkle more Cocoa Krispies® on top for “feathers”.  Yeah, that just didn’t sound good, so I didn’t do that.  Then I discovered what a little bitch it is to get the pretzels pushed in for tail feathers without breaking them.  Only three turkeys got tail feathers before I gave up. So for Thanksgiving we had featherless turkeys. 

The next year I didn’t even think about attempting that fiasco, but I had forgotten the kid factor.  “Mom, are we going to make those turkeys again?” 

I once read in one of those ‘So You’ve Got a Baby, But You Haven’t Got a Clue’ books, that advised to “Start as you mean to go on.”  I took it to mean don’t get into any habits you’ll regret later, with a habit being something you have to do repetitively or at least more than once. I didn’t think it literally meant don’t ever start anything you don’t ever want to do again, and maybe it didn’t, but maybe it did.  Because while my kids have to be reminded daily that they have to pick up their things, do their homework and brush their teeth, it seems if I make a few lousy deformed turkeys one time, and never speak of it again, a full year later they will not only remember those turkeys, but they will expect them every year from then on.  There are quite a few things I’ve done over the years, because I thought it would be fun to try once.  Around here we end up calling those things traditions. 

So following our new tradition I made the turkeys again, without feathers.  My husband and I agreed that the Cocoa Krispies® of the previous year were kind of disgusting, so I used regular Rice Krispies®.  Also, even though the legs weren’t difficult to poke in like the tail feathers, we don’t really eat a lot of pretzels and it didn’t seem worth it to get a whole bag just to make a few stick legs, so I left those off.  I guess I should also admit that my turkey’s had more of a deformed circus peanut shape, than the one in the picture.  That seemingly simple pear shape still eludes me to this day.  I don’t know why.  So for Thanksgiving we had featherless, legless, deformed, albino turkeys. 

And so we went as we meant to go on.

This year I got a little fancy and coated their chubby little turkey bellies with chocolate.  Some in white and some in dark.  I don’t like milk chocolate, and while I’m slowly bringing my children over to the dark side, they’ll balk at dark dark chocolate.  Lindt makes a wonderful sweet dark that’s the perfect happy medium for everyone.  

Nice, but what do turkeys have to with Halloween crafts? Into everything a little Halloween must shine, so I give you turkey zombies.  Decorating with frosting isn’t one of my strong suits, but you get the point and maybe someone with more talent will see this and take it to the next level.  I think I might have liked the richer color of candy melts, but I didn’t have any. 

No actual turkeys were harmed in the creation of this post, but a few Rice Krispies Treats® were horribly brutalized before they met their untimely deaths.