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For the past several years the Thanksgiving turkey is done to a turn on our Treager wood pellet grill. I ordered a fresh, twelve pound turkey from Publix. I cleaned and vacuumed the Treager and filled the hopper with a new charge of apple pellets. On Tuesday I picked up the turkey and prepared to brine it overnight. This year I had a super-sized ziplock bag in which to brine it. I brewed up the brine and put the turkey a-soak. You'll note that the brine did not initially cover the turkey.
By putting the bag in a large stockpot and wedging the bag together with a container of oatmeal and a similarly sized container of grits, the brine was squeezed together enough to completely cover the bird.
You'll note that the pot occupied most of the top shelf of the refrigerator. You'll also note that the six pack of Shiner Bock and a can of Guinness were not displaced. Actually, there were two cans of Guinness in the brine.
On Thanksgiving morning I removed the turkey and dumped out the brine. I rinsed and dried the bird, rubbed it with oil and then rubbed in a dry rub on the surface and interior of the turkey.
Then I went out to start the Treager. It is powered by a thermostatically controlled auger which adds pellets as needed. There is a fan blowing air over the pellets to improve combustion and an electric probe to ignite them. Guess what? I had a temperature readout. I had a fan and the auger was working, but there was no electric igniter. Oh, well;there's no harm in using the inside, 120VAC oven with no smoke.
For sides we had butternut squash (outstanding), boiled onions, green bean casserole (thanks Cindy), stuffing, and gravy. This was our first Thanksgiving without a bowl of mashed potatoes. For dessert Cindy made a buttermilk pie!
I did not take a picture of the finished turkey, but I would be remiss if I did not include an overhead shot of great-granddaughter, Brielle's, turkey. Back up in NH she made a veggie platter of a turkey that I think is extraordinary.
What do you think?
As is the case every year, the first few weeks back at home involves dozens of doctor's visits. Between us that is literally true. I'm wearing a heart monitor in order to rule out atrial fibrillation, and Durelle gets to make the acquaintance of my endodontist tomorrow. The heart monitor is a manageable nuisance EXCEPT...when the alarm goes of in the middle of the night and says, in effect, " We are trying to transmit data. Please move to where you have coverage. There are places in the house where Verizon's coverage is pretty marginal, and I guess the bedroom is one of them. The last time it happened I just shut it off. I think I have found a solution. A table in the front hall has a table in range of both Verizon and my wearable sensor. We'll see.
I thought I was going to be able to get a great eagle picture the other day, but he was facing away. So I only got a good picture.
I even had a chance to catch him in flight, but again, he was going away. Even in a mono-color profile the elegance is still there.
The best I could do for photo ops were a couple of sunsets. There'll be no photo ops unless I get over to the bus and retrieve the charger for my Leica battery and the spare battery. Here's a couple of sunsets.
All news is good; we are all well...including Mocha.
We've been "home" for a couple of weeks. It seems that most of the time has been spent catching up with medical appointments...five for me this week, and Durelle sees an endodontist tomorrow. I'm wearing a heart monitor for the next six weeks to see what we can see.
When I did the "safe arrival" blog, I described the trip south, but I didn't do justice to the meal that Tim and Wendy prepared the night before we left. Many of you have partaken of their cooking when mass-produced for several dozen. How would you like to watch Tim prepare grilled sirloin strip for four? Those two particular pieces of cow came from his favorite butcher, and were at least two inches thick.
That's a beautiful grill, by the way.
Here's the finished product.
This is also the time of year when I post a few "wildlife" pictures taken in the front yard.
We are hoping you are enjoying the season as much as we are.
