Thanksgiving post-mortem

Well, Thanksgiving was pretty crazy. I ended up getting started a bit late because the kitchen was occupied by a cooking roommate until about noon, and I didn't get around to making the sweet potatoes early as I had planned. Then the whole turkey smoking thing was kind of a fiasco.

First, we had to stop by the grocery store and pick up a pan to catch the drippings and hold the wine, onion & celery. So we do that and I realize I forgot to bring charcoal and matches, but figure that Tyler's left some charcoal in the shed along with the wood chips, so I just need a lighter. Which takes me forever to find and I end up causing a scene with me holding up a line on Thanksgiving and then having to chase down the checkout guy to tell him I already found it.

Then we go down to the in-laws' house, I almost slip and fall on the icy street, and get the extra thingies and frighten Tyler's mother-in-law in the process. She's lovely though so it was all good.

We get to the house and hey, the shed is locked. No charcoal, no wood chips. Sam calls, comes over with charcoal and we realize we have no idea how much charcoal to put in. We start the fire, go back to the same store and pick up more charcoal and woodchips, and Sam buys about $80 worth of beer. Of course.

Now the smoker's going fine, we put the turkey in... turkey is too tall. We have to flip all sorts of things over, which have now been roasting in a 800 degree smoker for 30 minutes. We have no tools or gloves. Eventually we find a random metal pipe and maneuver things. Turkey is still too tall, but the turkey neck fits in the smoker neck and maybe it'll work except now it's 250 degrees, instead of the 350 we were aiming for.

We head home and watch a few instructional youtube videos about how to use the Green Egg and I start cooking like a madwoman, leaving Sam & Matt to figure out the turkey business. Turns out, though needed more charcoal, that we did everything right. Also, not using match-light charcoal is best for taste reasons but apparently it came out okay, though worryingly pink because smoked turkey is always pink? Well the USDA said it, good enough for me. Everyone was a bit unsure at the dinner, I found out later.

I'll summarize the craze of cooking, but everything turned out... okay. Not great because I was just doing too much, even with help, and unless I had 2 ovens it's really hard to cook everything and keep it warm for the table. Brussels sprouts ended up overdone so it wasn't as tasty as Evangeline's and I think I put too much something in the dressing. Stuffing was dry, mashed potatoes were a bit dry, gravy was lumpy (no idea how the turkey gravy tasted). Sweet potatoes awesome as always, love that recipe. Pumpkin pie turned out great.

Well anyway we had a shit-ton of food, and leftovers lasted a good few days anyway. Damn it, that's what counts!