PRE-Turkey Day Tradition

Well, for the last 5 years or so, a tradition of ours has been to head up to Ft. Davis Mts. State Park with the 5th Wheels and stay there till about Wednesday and head back home to do Thanksgiving with the families. While we are up there(usually 3 families in total), we do a Pre-Turkey Day dinner. I usually smoke a turkey or a ham or both. We have all the fixings and eat outdoors under an EZ-Up and a couple outdoor heaters. Before we know it, the javelinas are walking up and down the arroyos waiting for a handout, the deer come up too. (We shouldn't feed the animals........but oh, well!) Sadly, the park is closed this year up till February or so. They are upgrading the park with roads, electrical and adding more hiking trails among other things.

I'll be honest! I'm glad to be here at home. Before we started doing the trek up to Ft. Davis, my wife and I had a little tradition of doing a small turkey feast just for us and my son at that time here at home. We disconnect. Cell phones off. Land line gets pulled. We have also NOT answered the door bell at one time!:becky: We get up and have some breakfast and just cook all day long. We get some music going and once "beer thirty" comes around, we indulge in that too! Now that the kids are older, we are getting them involved. Lil Robert is making the green bean casserole and Bri is helping mom make the sweet potato pie. I'll be tossing a 15lb bird into the PBC. We will also be doing some cornbread stuffing, gravy, quinoa(cause I want some!), bisquits, etc. Not really stuff from scratch, but good food still. Also, gonna have some mashed taters and chile con queso. Overall, just hang out, listen to music, and be Thankful for Our Family, Health, and just Life and the Enjoyment of it! :thumb:
Already oven roasted/softened the sweet taters for the pie this evening.

Got the coffee pot is loaded and the timer set. Wife and kids will get up when they get up and we go from there. No time schedule set. I'll update with pron tomorrow!:thumb:

Bob

Pron a coming!

Started here last night. Put a few sweet taters in the oven to soften up. Once they cooled, I tossed em in a zip with the skin on and into the fridge they went. These are for my world famous sweet tater pie............that I made for the first time ever, today! More pics, later.

The honored guest. She weighed in a 15 lbs. Stuffed her with some orange wedges, onion, and green apple wedges and some rosemary from the garden. I made a oil drizzle with some lemon evoo, rosemary, orange zest, Kosher salt and pepper.
Put most of it under the skin.

Day started out a bit cool and cloudy with a slight breeze.

Might as well get a lil bon fire going!

PBC is humming along now. It's ready to rock some bird!

Sleep tight!

Pie filling. Hit it with some nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, and a little egg nog and evap milk to thin it out. Also added some honey.

An hour or so in..........

Son on mashed tater duty!

Daughter on Chile con Queso duty!

At this point, hit it with some glaze. Butter, rub, honey and a little bit of the turkey drippings.

Full breast shot!

Gravy. Packet stuff that I doctored up with more drippings, and chopped up shrooms, and the giblets and turkey neck meat. Kids wanted seconds of the gravy!:becky:

Taters.

Part two in progress!

Bob

Start of the dressing. Celery, olives, and artichoke hearts and about 3/4 stick of butter. From here in went into some of the box type corn bread stuffing.

Out of the PBC and resting a bit.

Sexy!

Breast and thigh were probing at 180. No injecting etc and still very moist and no pink!
Green bean casserole.

Stuffing!

Gravy shot!

Love that oil slick from the drippings on it!:becky:
Quick bisquits. From a tube. :heh:

We had a thread about turkey tails.......some tail! :shocked:

The citrus evoo rub/slather/whatever was awesome!

Rest of the bird.

From here I removed the wings and the carcass went into a big ole pot of water along with the onions and apples to make some turkey stock for tamales next month. The stock is still boiling away. House smells incredible!

Bottom view. I used a very shallow pan and put the thing on the PBC grate. While the drippings bubbled, it never burned the bottom of the bird.

Pulled of lots of little samples. My ideal plate would be the carcass and the carcass only. I'd pick the farker clean!

My plate. I'm kinda fond of the jellied cranberries in a can! :laugh: No really, I am!

Close up!

Seconds.............turkey and gravy! The boy has developed quite an appetite lately. Most times he'll have a second helping.

The Stock------------boiling away. Still on the stove boiling as I type.

Lastly, my sweet tater pie. Who says BobBrisket can't BAKE! I'm not great at it, but it didn't suck!:heh:


Thanks for looking!

Bob

Bonewagon said:

Great lookin' feast Bob! That bird looks stellar. :thumb:

I've been tempted to try hanging a turkey in the PBC this year, don't know if I will fark with it or not.

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I thought about it too. But with that much weight pulling down on it, you need to make sure you get a good hold with the hooks so it doesn't give way once it cooks and softens a bit. I will say this.........the PBC rocked this bird! :thumb:

Bob

Some details on the coal set up coming up.

I'm gonna get a wrath of chit for this, but oh well. It's all in the sprit of experimentation!

I used the dreaded...........lighter fluid! As Myron would say, "Ya'll can kiss my m**&%&*$#$ a#&!"

I had a reason for it. I loaded the basket to the rim with KF. I then tossed on some big lump chucks over the top of the coal basket handle. My reason for using it was to experiment and because of the breeze we had. I didn't want to dump a load of hot lump on the briqs and have the temp get away from me. So, I hit the larger pieces of lump with some fluid and lit em up while the basket was in the PBC. It burned off and allowed the coals to take off slowly, even with the breeze and wind. By the time I put the lid on, there was no fluid smell and I still let it go a while longer to stabilize. I didn't use any chunks. I didn't want a lot of smoke on the bird. All I used was the onion and apple peels and cores as smoke. There is a bit to the theory. Fluid will allow those coals that are hit to ignite only. Once it burns off, they take off slowly. With the UDS, I have a huge basket in the thing and I don't mind dumping a half lit chimney of coals and letting it go. This route worked better with the PBC so that I could catch the temp on the way up. When I pulled the bird off, There was over half of the coal left. I could have added a bit more briqs and tossed on another bird with not problem!

Okay, let the chitstorm begin!:-D

Bob

bbqbull said:

Outstanding looking meal. Thank goodness you have assistants who are learning from a master!
Great job Bob and family for that awesome pictorial pre holiday meal.

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Thanks, Bull! :thumb: When it's all said and done, I do it for them. When we said Grace, I teared up when I heard what my daughter was thankful for. She has no problem speaking her heart! :hug:Very eloquent for 6 yrs old and she had us captivated with her words and expression. That's my girl!:thumb:

Tonybel said:

Wow Bob what a feast....everything looks absolutely delicious.
Can I get more details on the queso con chile.

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It varies. Just the Velveeta bricks and from there it's up to you. We like to add some chopped up Hatch green chile. Or some of that El Pato green salsa. It's really a cheesy gravy that we put on the turkey, etc. It's a tradition with my Wife's family. They don't like my version because it has the works: cilantro, onion, tomato, and jalapeno with a little bit of garlic. They like it simple, with just a can of green salsa/hot sauce.

Tonybel said:

Wow Bob what a feast....everything looks absolutely delicious.
Can I get more details on the queso con chile.

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My personal preference is a rajas con queso. HEAVY on the rajas, onion, and tomato. From there, work in some muenster or asadero and let it get chunky, melty, and happy. Problem is that it's too hot for everyone. That is the real deal CHILE con queso!

bob