After years and years, we’ve upgraded our grill (but more about that in another entry…). Our new charcoal grill has a rotisserie attachment, and I’ve been eager to experiment with it. We have never cooked this way before, so it’s a new thing!

Doesn’t this turkey look pretty? Doesn’t it look perfect? Doesn’t it look like it is going turn out wonderfully, solidifying a new reputation as rotisserie griller extraordinaire?

Right.

An hour later I walked out on the back deck and heard *thud* *thud* *thud* coming from the grill. I lifted the cover and saw my previously perfectly trussed turkey mutilated by the rotisserie prongs and falling apart at the leg joints. It also was so off balance that it stopped “rotisserie-ing”. It just hung there dangling like a horribly deformed fowl.

I would have taken pictures to show you, but Greg seemed to be in no mood to document this defining moment in our lives, so you’ll just have to trust me. The carnage wasn’t pretty.

So, we took it off the rotisserie and put it on a rack. It turned out great. Go figure.

Greg may have had more of a sense of humor if we had not just spent significant time in the backyard wrestling with our new upside down tomato planter! He’ll appreciate that struggle in August, I am confident.

The Turkey!

---

This year we prepared a 28 pound fresh turkey. I rubbed it with Penzey’s Galena Chicken and Rib rub, then added some garlic and onion for good measure. I popped it into the oven, put the oven on Convection Bake at 300, and let it go for 5 hours. There is no comparison between fresh and frozen turkeys. This turkey was juicy, tender and flavorful. At least I think it was. By the time the turkey was served things had gotten quite hectic, so I didn’t eat that much of it…. and there weren’t really any leftovers!

Anyone who says that a six burner stove is excessive does not cook for 25 people! This was our first Thanksgiving in our new house. We had designed both the kitchen and the dining room to be able to host the family gatherings. We used every burner of the 6 burner stove, and we had both ovens going full speed for most of the day. I don’t know how we would have done this without the kitchen layout. We had mixed veggies, cheese sauce, gravy, peas with pancetta and pearl onions, mashed potatoes and blackeyed peas.

And of course, as usual, there was too much dessert, but most of it went. There was pumpkin pie, pecan pie, raspberry pie, applie pie, blueberry pie and raspberry cheesecake.

All in all, another good Thanksgiving.

Now the plans for Christmas start! In one month we need to do this all over again! I’m torn between tenderloin and prime rib. I’d love to make something a bit more elegant than mashed potatoes, but I’d have a revolt on my hands if we dared to skip those!