The Turdoinkling: My Thanksgiving Contribution This Year

Here at She-Smoke headquarters, I typically do a whole Thanksgiving thang about brines, turkey prep, smoking turkeys, or grilling a bacon-wrapped turkey breast, and even posts about soup to make with left overs, but this year I put all my eggs in one basket. Correction, I put everything they had in the store in one bird.

Let me introduce you to...the Turkdoinkling.

It's a time honored tradition to stuff turkeys with all sorts of other beasts, and I make no claim to be original. This is simply my nod to the genre. The Turducken went viral for awhile, and there are hundreds of you tube videos and variations (even a vegetarian version called, aptly, a Tofucken), should you be curious, but the poor schmucks over at Dunkin' Donuts who came up with the Turdunkin', and then tried to make it look like an amateur came up with it (I'm on to you DD), made a truly foul version (pun intended). I am curious about the dessert version of the Turducken: The Pumpecapple.

I'd wish for my Turdoinkling to go viral, but that sounds icky when talking about food. I don't want any of my recipes to be...viral.

So what is it? It's a TURkey stuffed with Duck breasts, stuffed with pork (OINK) dumpLINGs. I did this post for some Turkey Day fun for Char-Broil. You can read the step-by-step recipe here, but in a nutshell, this is what you do:

Turkey Posts Round-up: Tips, recipes and links to all you need for the cooking on Thanksgiving

Here are posts I've done on turkey over the years and other great post by friends of mine. These are in addition to posts from this month, to help you search for answers and ideas in one place. We are up to our necks in turkey necks at Smokin' Pete's BBQ, so if you have an emergency turkey question, Butterball's got a Turkey Hot Line. Here are links to the following articles.

How to Brine a Turkey
About salt and how brines work
Feeding a Crowd: Math equations for food quantities
Tips on Smoking Turkey with BBQ Pitmaster and BBQ Crawl Host Diva Q
Recipe: Smoked Turkey with Sage Rub and Maple Butter Glaze
Recipe for cooking a turkey on the Char-broil oil-less fryer
Tea Smoked Chicken (for smaller feasts)
Links to other sites I like about turkey
A great post by Live Fire about Thanksgiving Dinner
A Big Easy Turkey recipe by Grillin' Fools
Turkey Breast recipe with Pomegranate Glaze by The Heritage Cook
Fabulous Grilled Carrots with Jack Daniel's Glaze by The South in my Mouth
Chef Christo's post about How to Carve a Turkey
Recipe: Chutney Lentils
Cowgirl Jeanie's Wild Rice Stuffing Recipe
Recipe: Huckleberry Pie
Recipe: To die-for Grilled Flourless & Cayenne Cake by A Bachelor and his Grill

And finally a post to remind ourselves, what it's all about.

Cool Infographic on How to Carve a Turkey

There is a reason why you haven't heard the story of the first Pilgrim who carved the first Thanksgiving turkey. He completely botched it and everyone at the table said a Pilgrim's prayer of thanks that cameras and Pinterest weren't yet invented.

Carving a turkey has been the source of stress since the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth. Char-broil has put together an awesome info-graphic on how to carve a turkey. You can download the pdf, prop up your tablet right on the Thanksgiving table, and carve with confidence.

Click here for Six Steps To Carve a Perfect Turkey. There are also tons of Thanksgiving recipes on the site to give you inspiration, including Chef Cristo's post about carving a turkey for even more help on the subject.

Killing Two Birds With One Smoked Turkey On An Egg

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and what better time than to practice cooking a turkey...and to clean out the fridge. It is time, sister, to clean that thing out.

Think of all the people without kids who are coming over to your house in two weeks, looking for ice for their drink. I realize that they should be looking in the freezer, not the fridge, but go with me.

You know the kind of people I'm talking about - they have time to work out and clean their refrigerator on a regular basis. But they can't cook worth a bean so the task falls upon you, like you are some sort of expert on cooking the big American heritage meal just because you nursed your children. A little too long, in their opinion, but that is another story.

Here's a recipe that helps you clean out the refrigerator weeks before Thanksgiving and will give you a practice run so you can take Martha Stuart down on the day. I cooked this turkey on my Big Green Egg, but any smoker will do, though I do love the irony of cooking poultry in an egg.

Please don't limit yourself to the ingredient list below - that's what came out of my fridge. And no, I'm not showing you a photo of all the crap I threw out. Jonathan Bloom over at Wasted Food would have my head if he saw that shot. Hopefully this post will balance the scales so to speak. As long as you have the three flavor profiles of sweet, hot and zing, then you can add other bits in your collection of condiments that need to be used up and out.

While you are at it, you might want to take the refrigerator drawers out and clean underneath them. Yeah, those.

Incidentally if you have any spices that are older than ten years, throw them out. Or make a big pot of chili and use them, for gawd sake. I recently found some chili powder in my mom's house that was date stamped 1972. I was four when she bought it for some chili recipe that apparently has never been tried again. The cloves from 1978 were surprisingly still aromatic so she put them back in the drawer. Oi.

Recipe: Condiment Turkey

Ingredients
Some of these could be place in multiple categories, but you get the idea. The intention is not for you to use all of the items listed, but examples of what you could use.

SWEET: Teriyaki, Thai chili sauce, ketchup, roasted pepper soup, honey, jams
HOT: Hot sauces, salsa, wasabi paste (sparingly!)
ZING: Mustard, all varieties, barbecue sauce, tangy marinades, pickled beet juice

One turkey, 10-12 lbs, pre-brined. For info on thawing and brining, look at the blog post directly under this one.

Olive oil, canola or any vinaigrette salad dressing

Salt, pepper

Directions
1) Clean out the fridge. Throw away the nasty bits, but any ingredient that isn't growing new life forms or smells putrid can be set aside for your marinade. Use the dregs, the weird buys that you soon regretted, and the duplicate purchases. Be sure you have at least one from every category: SWEET, HOT and ZING.

2) Mix your condiment soup and set aside.

As you can see, before you mix the condiments, you can make a swirly art project first.

3) Rub turkey like a boxer after a match with oil or vinaigrette.
4) Slather on the condiment soup and let the birdy sit in her condiment spa while you make your fire.

5) Make an indirect fire with room for a drip pan in the middle or to one side. Make fire for a hot smoke of about 325 degrees.

6) For the egg, place the indirect plate upside down and place a drip pan inside it\. Once it reaches 325 degrees, place turkey sitting up on grates and put down lid. Leave it. The Egg will do the rest.

7) While the turkey smokes, finish cleaning your refrigerator thoroughly. Pull everything out, get in the nooks and crannies. That way you will only need to give it a quickie clean before Thanksgiving. Aren't you glad we're friends?

8) Also, make stock while the turkey smokes. Use any "fresh" herbs that have cold-dried in your refrigerator or are still miraculously alive in your garden. Save the stock for the soup you will make with the turkey carcass because Martha Stuart can kiss your ass, thank you very much, and you can bring home the bacon and serve up homemade soups without ever having to wear prison orange. Even if it's the new black.

9) Smoke the turkey for approximately three and a half hours until the internal temperature reaches about 155 degrees in the thigh. It will reach the proper 165 degrees while it rests. Let turkey rest for approximately 20 minutes before slicing, because we want to let all those juices hovering at the edges to flow back into the meat.

While the turkey rests, give yourself a pat on the back. No one else is going to, right? Except me. Good job! What used to be all you were supposed to do for your job, cleaning and cooking and taking care of the kids, is now what you do around your money making job, your shift at your daughter's preschool and volunteer days at your son's school. You go to bed at midnight and hit snooze three times on the 6 am alarm.Yep, we've come a long way, baby.

But for now, at this moment, let your family ooh and aah. Enjoy what you've made. When dinner's over, place the leftovers in your sparkly clean fridge. You can make soup tomorrow.

Ain't she a beauty!

We always send out some early orders for smoked turkeys. Here's one that went out on Saturday that was so *purty*, I just had to take a photo. Weighing in at 14 lbs, this beauty came from a local Northwest farm, free of hormones and other icky stuff. She was brined for 24 hours prior to smoking slow and low in our Freidrich smokers with a mix of hickory, cherry, and a little oak for good measure.

Though we are sold out of the small turkeys (10-12 lbs), we still have a good amount of the the larger 14-16 lb turkeys to sell. Besides smoked turkey and complete dinners, we also have some lovely Hempler hams to sell. Our bone-in, smoked-on-site hams are only $4.98/lb. Spiral hams are $9.50/lb, and Prime Rib is $22/lb.

Call Smokin' Pete's BBQ today at (206) 783-0454 to place your order!

7 Do's/Don'ts When Smoking Turkey

Turkey time is a favorite part of the year for me. For one, Thanksgiving dinner is my favorite meal. When asked what I'd choose if stranded on a deserted island, with only one food choice, I say Thanksgiving dinner. Then I'm told that's not fair, I must choose one food, like a mango, to which I reply, that's ridiculous, no one could live off one food, nutritionally, and I stick to my guns. Definitely Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, and gravy...lots and lots of gravy.

I love the hustle and bustle of this week at the restaurant, and I know all of you are making plans, calling relatives and friends, and divvying up the menu. Are you are asked each year to bring a special dish that everyone loves? Is there a dish someone always brings that, oh god, makes everyone silently groan?

If you are on turkey duty, here are some tips for smoking your turkey.

#1 DO start with, if possible, a fresh bird. Fresh birds were slaughtered this season. When you buy a frozen bird, it could very well have been left over from the year before.

#2 DO buy a natural turkey that has not been pumped with any solution. You are going to brine your turkey, so you'll want your turkey free of additives.

#3 DO brine your turkey before smoking. Give at minimum of one hour of brine per pound of your turkey. Usually one day in the brine is best. This will keep your bird juicy during the smoking process. See my post above all about brines.

#4 DON'T get too fancy with your brine. Strong brines, like beer or wine brines, are best for red meat. I find a simple salt brine or citrus brine is best for turkey.

#5 DO rub turkey with olive oil or butter before you add a spice rub. This will help combat the somewhat rubbery skin that can occur from slow and low cooking.

#6 DON'T stuff your smoked turkey. Stuffing lowers the center temperature of the turkey. Because of the low temps for smoking (180-220), stuffing won't allow the bird to get up to a proper safe internal temperature. I'll discuss the stuffing conundrum in my next post.

#7 DO remind your guests, in particular your mother, that smoking causes the meat to turn pink. It's a different pink than a turkey that is undercooked. Undercooked turkeys are pink in the center, closest to the bone. Smoked turkeys are pink throughout.

Those are just a few tips dealing with the very beginning and the very end of smoking one's turkey. I'll discuss the middle part, the cooking part, in my next posts this week.

Brining the Bird 101 (Repost)

This is a repost from a Thanksgiving series I did in 2009. I won't repost the entire series, but brining your turkey before smoking is both essential and simple. Without further ado....
For Turkey Week today the Barbecue 101 class is about BRINES.

What is brine? It is a combination of water or other liquids, with salt and often sugar. Brines add flavor and more importantly, moisture to the meat.

How does it work? For a brine to do it's magic, it must a) fully cover the meat and b) be saltier than the meat itself. The meat draws in the salt, and the liquid with it, to equalize the salt ratio. It makes sense, when you think about it. There aren't "salty spots" in an ocean, or "almost fresh water" areas. Salt water is salt water. I know there is a scientific answer for this, but it's late while I'm writing and I don't want to get on an oceanography google fest tangent. If any of you want to chime in, please do.

What goes into a brine? Water and salt are all you really need, but it's fun to add other flavors. A large turkey isn't going to take on much flavor inside the meat from a rub. That will remain on the skin, or just under as we will discuss in the Thursday recipe. A brine is an excellent way to infuse other flavors into your turkey. Sugar and vinegars are popular. So is beer or other alcohols. I like these on large cuts of pork or beef, but find they overpower turkey.

I get surprisingly traditional at holiday time. I just can't teriyaki my turkey. I love the simple flavors of citrus, garlic, and herbs. Below is a variation of the Citrus and Clove Brine featured in She-Smoke (pg. 63). For examples of other brine recipes, click here. My turkey was pretty big for smoking (14lbs), and I used a 5-gallon bucket so I made a brine batch and a half. If you fill a large plastic bag with your brine and turkey, you can make less brine solution.

Holiday Turkey Brine

2 gallons water
2 cups kosher salt
3 tbls. pepper corns plus 1 tbls. ground pepper
1 red onion, cut into wedges
1 orange, cut into wedges
1/2 grapefruit, cut into wedges
1 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
5 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves

As a general rule, you need to submerge a turkey an hour for every pound, for a maximum of 48 hours. Too long in the brine and the meat can get mushy. Once brining is done, rinse the turkey and pat it dry with paper towels before adding your rub and cooking. The Thursday recipe will cover preparing and smoking a turkey.

Any questions, class? Please post them in the comments so that everyone can benefit from the discussion.

Stuffed Turkey Breast with Orange-Maple Glaze

Whether you want a new turkey breast recipe for a weekday dinner, or have a smaller gathering at Thanksgiving this year, here is a post I hope you'll like that I wrote for Char-broil Live.

The other day a friend of mine bemoaned the fact that she would be having a quiet Thanksgiving this year. She loves turkey dinner with all the trimmings but the thought of “all that work” just for two, and having to process most of the turkey for the freezer, was making her rethink the menu. She wasn’t fishing for an invite. In fact, she was looking forward to her first quiet Thanksgiving in her 42 years.


Read the rest of the post and recipe HERE!

I'll be posting more about turkey and some trimmings this month. If anyone has questions they'd like answered, please e-mail me at julierbq at q dot com and I'll put it on the list to discuss this month!

Thanksgiving Week, Day 4 (and 5, 6, 7): I Am Thankful for Family

Thanksgiving day at the Reinhardt's isn't what you would call normal. For one, we go to work. Eric started about 4:30am. I followed after dropping off the kids to our village - grandma and grandpa. Then we proceed to shell out turkeys and complete dinners to the masses.

The kids know the drill. They know we'll arrive about 3pm, laden with food to add to the feast already in progress. Our kids love their grandparents, and the rest of their village at Thanksgiving. Uncle Boone and Aunt Mimi were there early, cooking dinner as early as 6am. As soon as I told our baby girl she was going to see her uncle and aunt, she joyfully exclaimed,

"Me, up, weedoo, bo bo Boon!"

Literally translated, that means, "Me up (on) Uncle Boone's shoulders!"

Uncle Boone has big, broad shoulders. Baby girl rates every guy she meets based on how good his shoulders are. After Da Da, Uncle Boone, our neighbor across the street, and Grandpa are her favorites.

Before we showed up, my other local brother Mark arrived with his son, big kid cousin Zach, who played chase and picked up baby girl till she giggled, and blocked our son's Tae Kwon Do moves without complaint. Long time friends joined us, as did Aunt Mimi's parents. Everyone brought a dish and a smile. E-mails from Eric's family connected us from afar.

I am so thankful for our family. We couldn't do this without them, both literally (try finding a babysitter on Thanksgiving!), and emotionally, with their constant support and love and laughter.

Thank you family. I feel up high, right there on your big, broad Weedoos.

Thanksgiving Week, Day 3: I Am Thankful for Turkey!

What can I say? Thanksgiving dinner is my favorite meal. You would think that after managing over 100 turkey orders, many of which are complete dinners for 6-12, that I might be sick of turkey. I know Eric is. He eats steak on Thanksgiving. But I love turkey with all the trimmings.

I also am truly thankful that we have such wonderful customers that order turkeys from us. Otherwise November would be a bit of a bust. It's just not the month that screams "BARBECUE" to most folks, and without our Thanksgiving orders, we'd be better off staying at home.

So thank you. To all of you who ordered this year, or in past years.

We're smokin' in the snow for you.  Now cross your fingers it doesn't snow on Thanksgiving day.

Thanksgiving Week, Day 2: I Am Thankful For Neighbors (and their homemade chutney!)

I have some wonderful neighbors in our little hood. We have an interesting street. It's kind of the intersection of many parts of Fremont. Part arty/funky, part 20's somethings/apartment dwellers, part families with young kids, and part...downright sketchy.

It's the sketchy part that has brought the neighbors together. Banding against the crime literally happening in front of us, we've developed a pretty vigilant neighborhood watch without getting vigilante.

We've fought the crime around us by getting to know our law officers, speaking with city council members, and by banding together at barbecues.

Yep, I even fight crime with barbecue.

At the heart and soul of this group are two folks named Sally and Robert. They are our block watch captains, and two of the nicest people you could meet. While they keep us together by the e-mail loop, they create a sense of neighborhood just by walking their dog and saying hi.

A few weeks back, Sally and Robert brought me over a jar of Robert's homemade chutney. Just 'cause. I've been meaning to post it as a recipe with lentils that I made with it, but thought I'd share the recipe today.

As we bustle around getting ready for Thanksgiving day, hopefully we'll all have the opportunity to stop and say hello to our neighbors, at the grocery store or on the street. I know these two have taught me that you can stop crime, and build incredible connections just by being neighborly.

Here is Robert's chutney recipe. He adapted it from a Mango Chutney recipe from their South Florida days, and believes the recipe is originally from the Beach County Extension Home Economics office in West Palm Beach.

MANGO CHUTNEY NO. 1


2 cups vinegar

5-1/2 cups sugar (Robert substituted brown sugar for half of this amount)

10 cups green mango slices (Robert substituted about 12 cups of green tomatoes figuring they're more watery than mangoes)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped green ginger root (Robert used regular ginger root)

1 clove garlic chopped fine (Robert added the equivalent of an extra 2 or more cloves)

3 cups seedless raisins

1 large onion sliced

1/4 cup fresh orange peel

2/3 cup blanched chopped almonds if desired (we did
4 red chili peppers w/ seeds removed -- Robert did *not* use chili peppers in his batch

This chutney is good by itself, but I used about half of a jar with lentils and it made a delicious and seasonal side dish.

Chutney Lentils
8oz fresh chutney (above)
1 cup lentils, rinsed
2 12 cups water
1 tsp. kosher salt

Put lentils and chutney in water and boil for 3 minutes. Turn down to simmer for about 45 minutes, or until lentils are soft.

(I added this after I first posted).

Incidentally, both Sally and Robert are journalists and free lance writers.

Robert writes for InvestigateWest (invw.org). His long bio is here: http://invw.org/team. You can follow him on Twitter: http://twitter.com/robertmcclure.

He is a "veteran journalist exploring new frontiers in investigative reporting, particularly on the environment. Board member, Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ)."

Sally is a freelance writer for numerous publications. Her AOL Green Police column is here: http://www.walletpop.com/blog/bloggers/sally-deneen, and she's on Twitter at twitter.com/sdeneen.

She also volunteers for a nonprofit news site started by laid-off staffers of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: http://www.seattlepostglobe.org/

Check out their work and say howdy to your neighbor. With the web, we're all neighbors now!


Thanksgiving Week, Day 1: I Am Thankful For Salt

I'm thankful for so much, that I thought I'd put a few of them down this week. To start, since we have vats of turkeys in the brine right now, I am thankful for salt.

It's just a little thing. I should put down family and love and all the big stuff. And I will. But tonight as I was putting the kids down to bed, this idea of salt popped into my mind. There are worlds crammed inside each little grain of salt.

Salt is pretty amazing when you think about it. It almost seems conscious the way it equalizes itself. That's why brines work. As long as your salt solution is saltier than the turkey or other meat is naturally, the meat will draw in the salt around it until it's all even Steven. The water and other liquids in your brine just piggy back on the salt.

Salt is essential for life on this planet, yet too much can kill ya. We all know that it's a pinch of salt, and a pound of prevention, right?

Humans have been using salt to preserve foods and mining salt as far back as 6000 BC. It's our first spice, our first flavor enhancer, and it indubitably has saved lives and helped civilization advance because of our ability to preserve of meats and other foods.

Salt water makes up over 97% of the earth's water. Less than 3% of the earth's water is drinkable. But that means 97% of the earth's water is perfect for brining Thanksgiving turkeys! OK, not really, but speaking of that....

If you are smoking your turkey, I highly recommend brining it first. The extra water will help the turkey stay moist during the smoking process. The salt will add flavor. Don't worry about adding a bunch of other ingredients to your brine. Too much fuss can spoil the broth. Keep it simple.

I'll leave this salt ramble with some quotes I found browsing the ol' internet. I've verified none of these, but even if they aren't totally correct, I like the sentiment.

I'll start with a quote from a very early cookbook, dated around 350 BC. Archestratus nailed it right here:

"Many are the ways and many the recipes for dressing hares; but this is the best of all, to place before a hungry set of guests a slice of roasted meat fresh from the spit, hot, season'd only with plain, simple salt....All other ways are quite superfluous, such as when cooks pour a lot of sticky, clammy sauce upon it." - Archestratus

So true, Archestratus. Here are a few more words from wise folks around the world.

"Salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea." Pythagoras

"The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea." Isak Dineson

"Don't slaughter more pigs than you can salt." French Proverb

"If there are two cooks in one house, the soup is either too salty or too cold." Iranian Proverb

"Bread and salt never quarrel." Russian Proverb

And finally, from the father of the American foodie himself,

"Where would we be without salt?"
James Beard

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving week at Smokin' Pete's means we are drowning in gravy and are up to our elbows in brining turkeys. I'm working on a post about turkey this year, but thought I'd stall a bit and share my posts from last year.

The first post is about Brining. I highly recommend brining your turkey, especially for smoked turkey.

Here is a Sage-Rubbed Smoked Turkey with a Maple Glaze recipe we did last year that was lick your fingers good.

This post is about how to plan for feeding a crowd. There is math in this post, but don't worry, I walk you through it.

I also talked turkey with Diva Q pitmaster Danielle Dimovski. That was before she became the superstar she is today, competing on the BBQ Pitmasters show among other TV appearances.

A final post last year was a list of further resources for preparing Thanksgiving dinner. Enjoy the posts. Since I covered a lot of bases last Thanksgiving, I may just mix it up a little this year.

Barbecue 101: Feeding a Crowd

We are swimming in gravy at Smokin' Pete's right now. About 37 gallons of it. That will accompany 101 turkeys, 140 pounds of garlic mashed potatoes, 130 pounds of stuffing, hams, ducks, and even a smoked goose.

Those numbers may seem staggering, but the math is no different from feeding, say, 10 people. A lot of you are orchestrating the largest feast at your households for the year. If you are anxious, maybe I can help with your shopping and prep lists and put you a little at ease.

#1. Make a menu list. Put your meats or main dishes as one heading, list your sides separately.

#2. Meats: People will eat more at Thanksgiving than other meals, plus everyone wants to take leftovers home. When purchasing your turkey, buy 1 pound of turkey per person to feed them, then add more for leftovers. If you are serving other meats or main dishes, factor 2-4 ounces per person in addition to the turkey.

#3. Side dishes. Generally people will not eat more than a total quantity of 1 pound of sides. Double that for lots of leftovers. That is a lot, but at Thanksgiving, we tend to overindulge. For our complete Thanksgiving dinners at Pete's, we give 8 ounces of the four side dishes they choose.

The more side dishes you serve, the less quantity per person you need to make. If you have six side dishes, you will need to make 4-6 ounces of each per person.

Here is a sample sides menu with quantities for a 10-person dinner.

1) Garlic mashed potatoes. This is going to be one of the most popular dishes. 8oz X 10 people = 80 oz. Divide by 16 = 5 pounds of garlic mashers. If you use a lot of cream and butter (and I bless you for that), remember they are part of the weight equation. If you cook 5 pounds of potatoes, you will end up with about 8 pounds of the good stuff.

2) Stuffing. Note that we have two kinds of stuffing. Split the quantity of the two, unless your family favors one more than the other. Skew accordingly. I suggest 4 oz X 10 people=40 ounces. Divide by 16=2.5 pounds. Split THAT number and get about 1.25 pounds of each kind of stuffing.

3) Oyster Stuffing

4) Sweet Potatoes or Yams. 4 ounces per person = 2.5 pounds.

5) Green Beans with Almonds. Green beans are a good example of when "weight" and "volume" is not the same. There is a lot of air in between those beans. I check sides by weighing one portion because when I'm calculating for 100 or 200 people, a miscalculation can get me in trouble. You don't need to do this. Figure 5-7 beans per person, then eyeball it in the store.

6) Spinach Salad. Obviously we are not going to make 4 ounces of spinach salad per person. That would be monstrous. Again, see what one hearty handful of spinach looks like, then eyeball it as you purchase.

7) Cranberry Sauce. 1-2 ounces per person is plenty.

Which brings us to the final and most important tip for this Turkey Day:

#4. You can never have too much gravy. Make a ton of it. No matter how much we make at Smokin' Pete's, we are always scraping the barrel at the end of Thanksgiving. God, I hope 37 gallons is enough this year.