The Great Monsturkey!

I must say first of all that I am thankful that husband bought the Big Green Egg and that I never complained about how much it cost. That being said I will now sing the ballad of the Carroll Thanksgiving.

aahh hemm (throat clearing)



Okay maybe not sing.. maybe I'll just write it.


I baked Wednesday night until about 1am. Apple Cake from a New York Times recipe. A pecan pie from Southern Living cookbook. Pecan pies make me nervous because my mom always made them so well. My first pecan pie ended up a huge mess in the oven because it had not cooked all the way and I took it out too quickly. SLOSH a sugary mess all over the hot oven. I have gotten better since. One year I made a chocolate pecan pie that was very sinful. But Wednesday night, I just made a down and dirty quick, normal pecan pie.

I woke husband up at 1am when I was finished so he could light the smoker and dress the turkey. All 27 pounds of it.

Since I am going to get teased for years about the size of this, I should explain that when I went to pick up my organic, newly dead, medium sized turkey last Saturday, the farm had run out of mediums. I told them I would be happy to settle for a small. We could fill up on sides. No smalls left. OH-KAY? Kim Alexander, in his matter of fact way, talked me into at large. He assured me it would fit in the smoker. He weighed it - 27.2 pounds. Kiddo weights 12 more pounds than the turkey.

Husband got the turkey on at 4am and went back to sleep. I woke up at 6:30 am, checked the smoker temp, got kiddo some milk and went back to bed. Husband was not in bed. He had gotten up to also check on the monsturkey.

I went for a walk, then he went for a run. While he was gone I put together the stuffing, while I was gone, he put together the sweet potatoes. By 12:30 we were ready to simply pop the food in the oven and go.

Then the power went out. We called the neighbors who were coming to eat with us. Their power was out as well but she had made her sides already (mostly). My other neighbor called. Her turkey was in the oven. She was drinking wine, waiting for the power to come back on. I invited her over if we didn't get power, figuring our monsturkey could feed the neighborhood.


About 2:15 the lights popped on. I turned on the oven. Threw in the stuffing and the sweet potatoes and got the water boiling for mashed potatoes. We were in business. I had secretly been hoping the power would not go on because I had visions of just noshing on turkey, bean salad from the neighbors and desserts.

Everyone came over. We prepared the rest of the dinner together. That was fun. Everyone had a job to do and we laughed and talked just like family. Kiddo had to use 2 hands to pick up his drumstick. We laughed quite a bit at that. We all ate way too much and had no room for dessert. We ate that later. We had a nice day and thanks to the Big Green Egg, a wonderful turkey. Anyone for leftovers? We'll be eating it until Christmas.