Wedding brings joy, leftovers
By Sheila Donnelly/Austin Daily Herald

Well, my daughter Mary is married. The wedding that we spent so much time on raising the chickens and finally butchering them last week is over with.

It was a great wedding and now we have a lots to clean up, lots of stories to tell and our pocketbooks are empty. But as my brother-in-law Adrian said, we are full in spirit.

We butchered 55 of the chickens Aug. 28 for the wedding. My neighbors lent me their electric chicken plucker to remove the feathers and that went well. Mary the bride, my brother Dan, his wife Peggy, their two sons, Devon and Brady and my neighbor John and his sister Virginia helped us with the chickens. It was a warm day and a big job and we were happy when it was over with. We cut up the chickens and marinated them in herbs, garlic, lemons and olive oil and froze them. I took the chickens out of the freezer on Sunday morning, the day of the wedding and set them in coolers to thaw.

Unfortunately, the caterers didn't check on the chickens in the coolers when they arrived to and two hours later when it was time to grill, the chickens were still frozen. It was a scramble pouring cold water over them to thaw them out. We had to keep the chicken in the plastic bags because of the marinade. Dinner was late because of this but we had lots of hors d'oeuvres and plenty of refreshments. We also had fish as an entr/e. But because the chickens were frozen, they didn't cook up as nice on the grill as they should have. The chicken tasted OK, but not the way I had planned.

Toward the end of the night the chicken was thawing out quicker and it cooked up better. But of course now I have lots of left over cooked chicken that that tastes better than any that was served at the wedding. I will have to make sure that I enjoy it when we eat every day for the next week. I did learn from the all the mistakes from this wedding. One big thing I learned is that I do not ever want to butcher chickens for a wedding again.

A highlight of the wedding was seeing my husband Tom in a tuxedo for the very first time. He had balked about wearing a tuxedo, but because he is so little we couldn't buy a suit for him. But when he put the tuxedo on for the wedding it fit him like a glove. He looked great in it and he had the biggest grin on his face all night. He even danced with his daughters and me. My friend Heidi said that Tom became a dapper gentleman in the tux.

I guess this proves that the suit really does make the man. Timmy made a little brother speech to Mary and her new husband Dave and told everyone that it was time to relax now that they were married. He did a very nice job and even had written the speech out on orange construction paper. I wish David and Mary best wishes in their new lives together and I am glad to have a new son-in-law.