Tis the Holiday Season

Now that everyone is a year older and family situations change as youngsters leave the nest and taste and other things change... how do you think your holiday celebrations and menus might change. What type of things do you look forward to this year... What do you hope for...

Let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy holiday season full of joy and fun.

Tim

We'll be going to the home of some friends who are having ~15 people over. Some friends, some family, etc. It will be an interesting meal as the hostess is gluten intolerant but creative and a good eater. Her hubby will be providing a smoked turkey and she'll be making a couple of Caribbean and African dishes to go along. We were told we could bring either traditional holiday fare or go the Afro-Caribbean route.

Haven't even begun to figure out which way to go yet, but it should be fun.

We will have fifteen or sixteen for Thanksgiving counting us. Since the kids still insist on coming here instead of treating us, we have reduced it to the simplest level. We simply put and cleaned and dried completely unseasoned turkey in the smoker with apple chips and take it out five hours lately. We make pumpkin and apple pies, cornbread for stuffing, the night before; and get the candied sweet potatoes ready to go into the oven while we are at it. On turkey day in addition to the bird we roast veggies so everyone can pick there own out, make the cornbread stuffing and bake it with sweet potatoes. That's it. Bring on the Zin.

Our only child graduated from the university and moved out of state (thankfully, for a job). We haven't been out to San Juan Islands since we sold our boat almost 2 years ago. This year we will spend a couple of days at Roche Harbor and eat our Thanksgiving dinner in a restaurant for only the second time in my life. I am looking forward to a quiet and very easy Thanksgiving. Christmas, son will be home, if only for a few days, and we will have houseguests for New Year. I will save my energy for then.

The Peterson Family will be following tradition, I predict. Turkey for Thanksgiving and standing Rib Roast for Christmas; both with everything one might expect. We are not quite ready to veer off that path yet. It will be out daughter's first Thanksgiving since going off to college and both boys are home, working, but home. I think tradition is called for.

We simply put and cleaned and dried completely unseasoned turkey in the smoker with apple chips and take it out five hours lately.

Hi Carl, hope all is well in New England. I'm surprised your turkey gets done in a smoker with only 5 hour of cooking. Is it a very small turkey that you do? I know I did one in our Big Green Egg one year, but I can't remember how long it took. Seemed like all day...