Happy Thanksgiving

It's that time of year again; the official beginning of the holiday season. Yep! It's Thanksgiving Day. What does Thanksgiving mean to you? For me, Thanksgiving is the first day when a special feeling comes over my heart. You see, I absolutely love the Christmas season, and Thanksgiving Day represents the beginning of the Christmas season. I will admit, I am a hopeless romantic. No matter what is going on in the world, this season always reaffirms my belief that anything is possible.

For the past four years, Thanksgiving has actually started a few days early for me. My son, Joseph, is in the Boy Scouts. Every year, his troop holds a family campout at Camp Yocona, in Randolph, MS. It is during this campout that the first glimmer of the Thanksgiving holiday begins. What is Thanksgiving? It is a chance for family and friends to come together and give thanks for all we have been given, and fellowship together. There's nothing quite like feeding a Thanksgiving feast for upwards of 70 smiling faces. I think that qualifies as fellowship. I was blessed to be one of the head cooks this year. Every bone and joint in my body was screaming in pain by bedtime on Saturday night, but the pictures below show why every pain was 100% worthwhile.

Food! Marvelous Food!

Please, Sir! May I have some more?

Smiling faces, and stuffed tummies!

The menu consisted of corn casserole, two types of green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole (are you seeing a theme here?), broccoli and cheese casserole, green beans, corn, potatoes, roles, two hams, and five turkies. All of this was completed with a propane powered oven, a cinder block oven, propane turkey friers, and two turkies suspended from a tripod. It is a true wonder to see a huge feast like this come together in the middle of the woods. It is even more of a wonder to see how quickly this stuff was devoured.

Just a few days later, and it was Turkey Day. Down here in the South, we like to fry things. On this day, there are thousands upon thousands of deep fried turkeys being voraciously torn into. Our family does not fry turkies. We might roast them in the oven every once in a while (maybe once a year). However, on Thanksgiving Day, it is our tradition to smoke our turkey. Okay, enough with the "smoking turkey" jokes. No, I don't hold the turkey up to my mouth and puff smoke through the butt, like a massive cigar. No, my friends. This is no joke. Smoking turkies is something best left to us professionals.

Iron Chef Jim Reporting For Duty

This year I found a 14lb turkey named Tom. That brings up an interesting question. Are turkies really so uncreative that they have to name every male, Tom? What's wrong with Hank, or Frank, or John, or Jim? Just how do they distinguish one Tom from another? Also, if all the boys are named Tom, what are the girls' names? Anyway, I digress.

Hello! My name is Tom. I'd like you to meet my brother...Tom.

I took Tom, soaked him overnight in a brine solution made up of salt, brown sugar, molasses, and black peppercorns. This morning, I slapped that sucker on my trusty Chargriller Pro, and then the miracle started. This year, the wood of choice was a combination of apple wood and oak. After just a couple of hours, Ol' Tom was sporting a tan better than anything that can be achieved in a tanning bed.

Eat your heart out, George Hamilton!

Finally! four and a half hours later perfection is pulled off of the grill. Beneath a rich mahogany skin is a plethora of juicy turkey meat full of the smokey goodness that only comes from the right blend of wood. The sweetness from the applewood and richness from the oak just can't be beat.

Oooo, Mama! It's feasting time!

Once the turkey was ready, we packed it up along with a scrumptious dish of dressing, and some green beans, and it was off to Memaw's house. Oh yeah! My daughter, Christina had a wild hair. Sometimes her wild hairs result it some delectable treats. This was definitely one of those times.

I think I will have to perform some quality testing here!

Anyway, I would like to close this entry by thanking all of my family, friends, and co-workers, for everything you have done for me. Finally, I would like to thank God for all of you.

God Bless & Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!