Back from vacation and ready to cook- March 20th

We had a lovely trip abroad and here is a photo of my favorite cookie and sandwich shop in Amsterdam. I love their cookies and always bring some home. After good food in all of the places we visited I was ready to cook. The butternut squash at HomeGrown Foods looked wonderful so I got it hoping to replicate what we had had in Ireland. It was actually pretty close. Baked the squash for over an hour in the oven then pulled it out and blended it with onions, potatoes and carrots along with 6 cups of chicken broth. Not sure which website I got the recipe on but you get the idea. Very tasty!

A break in the weather

We had a nice last weekend in January so I cleaned out the BGE to prepare for cooking some things for the next week. Snow was predicted. The egg was almost out of charcoal which might have been part of the reason that the Christmas turkey cooking was completed. Nothing original just what I know and that was Hormel pork tenderloin with honey mustard, boneless Honeysuckle boneless turkey breat and Honeysuckle ground turkey breast. I added pecan chips to smoke and everything had wonderful flavors! One of my best. As a side note I had purchased some black lentils from Mamma Jeans and found a wonderful recipe in Food and Wine for an indian Black Lentil soup by Rajat Parr. Google it if you are interested. Really nice, different flavors.

Christmas continued

According to my notes at 7:30am the temp was 285 degrees and I had the top and the bottom wide open. At 7:45am I put the cap with holes on since it was spitting snow but by 7:50am the temp had dropped from 300 to 250 so I took the cap off. At 9:15am it was still 250 degrees. 10:00am 250 :(. By 11:00am it was 150 so we took the turkey off and put it in the oven at 350. By now it was snowing quite alot. The turkey breast temp was 140. The pumpkin and pecan pies were done, thank goodness. We took the turkey out at 12:30pm and it was done. This turkey was larger than the one at Thanksgiving and although it was good it was not as moist at the earlier turkey.

Merry Christmas

Merry Merry! It is Christmas morning and we used the Fire and Flavor Turkey brine on the turkey with the turkey in the cooler in ice/water over night. We got up at 5:30am(not an easy task for me) and began preparations. Gary got the turkey inside and put it in a foil pan. I lit the grill at 5:55am. It was cold as you can see by the temp with a snowy mix. I used olive oil instead of butter on the turkey and used the reserve herbs from the brine on top. While filling the turkey and foil pan, I placed a bag of ice on the turkey's breast. I put 1/2 lime, 3 garlic cloves, a jalepeno pepper, an orange, apple, 1/2 onion, and a bunch of sage and thyme from my garden inside the turkey. I place all of the above less the herbs in a foil pan along with a carton of vegetable broth, carton of water and 1 celery and a carrot. Pecan chips had been soaked in water over night so we were ready to quickly load the grill. We opened the lid, Gary added the upside down plate setter, full foil pan, grate then the turkey. The temp was up to 550 when we opened the lid then it went down to 250 at 6:45am. Temp had been hovering around 280 and I put the open cap on. That lowered the temp to 250 so I took it off. Now at 8:30 we are at 265 and praying it will hold.

As the morning went on...

We got the bird on at 6:50 am. Chuck had suggested I make notes so here they are. As Thanksgiving day went on, the temperature outside and in the grill started going down. It had been 550 until we opened and loaded the grill. It got up to 225 and we picked up Jeff and went to Starbucks. Follow my notes for the morning schedule. Here is the view from the kitchen table but the bad news was the weather kept deteriorating. Pies were made by Jeff and I and baked and around 10:30am the temp was 190 degrees and we had more rain/sleet. We decided that it would be best to take the turkey off and put it in the oven. It looked and smelled great. You can see by my notes that them temperature kept rising and we took the turkey out of the oven at 12:45pm. Although I was disappointed that I didn't get it ALL cooked in the BGE I consider it a success since everyone said it was the best turkey they had ever had. It was incredibly moist and tasted great today on sandwiches we shared today with 3 generations of family and friends:) I look forward to the Christmas challenge!!

Thanksgiving 2010 or Turkey 101 on the BGE

Gary got me up at 6:15am and I dashed downstairs to light the grill. It was misting and cold outside. I took the turkey out of pot and scooped off alot of the herbs to mix with 1 & 1/2 sticks of softened butter. I applied that to the bird but I need someone to tell me how to apply the butter consistently. Mine was in lumps and did not smooth out very well. Mad Max suggested that you fill a pan with water so I used part of the brined mixture along with an apple, a lemon, an orange, 2 onions, 2 sticks of celery and 2 carrots to keep moisture in the grill. We could also use this for gravy or for a turkey broth to use for a leftover recipe. I put the items in a foil pan but as I was getting ready to put it on the plate setter I discovered it would not fit. I ran for the green egg pan and Gary helped me transfer the pan items so we could get everything in the BGE quickly. Gary placed the turkey directly on the grill grates.

Thanksgiving Eve and preparing my first Thanksgiving dinner

My feelings were excitement and nervousness as I approached Thanksgiving and cooking it for my family for the first time. This was my first whole turkey and in addition cooking with the challenge of the BGE! I got lots of advice and read alot on the Internet. The decision to brine or not brine was made when Josh brought be the Fire and Flavor Turkey Perfect Herb brine. We also consulted on how we were approaching our preparation. We also shared a link I found on the nakedwhiz.com which was Mad Max's Turkey and Gravy. Alot of good tips. Tuesday at lunch I purchased my fresh turkey at Dillons, a Honeysuckley White weighing in at 13.43 lb and on sale for .99 per lb. So Thanksgiving Eve night I followed the Turkey Perfect instructions by removing the neck and giblets from inside the turkey, boiling water and the brine mix then adding sugar and vinegar before cooling off the mixture with more water and ice. I had a pot that I put the mixture in but also was able to put the turkey in it after it cooled off. The pot went in the fridge for the night. Josh also gave me a handful of pecan chips which I soaked over night.