Early Thanksgiving Dinner

Since I have to work a double on Thanksgiving we had ours on Friday.
I started out with some bacon wrapped meatballs with a bourbon barbecue sauce.

These were store bought meatballs with a half piece of bacon pinned with a toothpick.
They got thrown on an indirect grill at about 350.

When the bacon was just about crispy I dipped them into the barbecue sauce and put them back on the grill for about ten minutes.
They were an easy outstanding appetizer.

Then I took a cast iron bread pan and mixed up a green bean casserole. This went on the 26" indirect 350 grill for about an hour.


Along with that I made my world famous Scalloped Potatoes.

This cooked on the 26" covered for an hour before I uncovered it, tossed it on the 21" and cooked it for another fifteen minutes.

I also mixed up a quick beer cheese bread and tossed it on for about 45 minutes.


For the main event I smoked spiral ham on the 18" smoker running at 225 for about two hours or so with just a couple of Pecan chunks. I gave it a rum glaze about half way in, and then again half an hour after that.


Then just to prove that the 26" grill is by far the best grill in my arsenal I baked a Fireball whiskey apple pie for desert.
It was by far the best apple pie I've ever made.


So all in all our early Thanksgiving rolled out without a hitch, and I hope all of yours goes the same.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Very nice, Mark! How many people were you feeding?

Looks like you ran a little short on the Durkee onions for the GBC. Did you eat too many of them before you were done making it?

Well, you killed it for Thanksgiving. What a terrific looking mean from the ABT's to that wonderful pie. The potatoes and the ham are a great combo. Well done Mark.

Brad
There's still a lot of onions left in the can. The wife told me that was enough, and since it was Thanksgiving I listened to her.
There was just four of us for dinner that night. I sent a lot home with my brother, and we froze a bunch of ham.

Cliff
Thanks for the kind words. It's not often that I bang out a spread like that.

Very nice spread Mark, that had to be a great Thanksgiving feast.

WOW!!! Mark you nailed that one. Everything looks so delicious, I'd be happy to take some of each. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Mark,

Is there a recipe floating around for those world famous potatoes?

James Bea said:

Mark,

Is there a recipe floating around for those world famous potatoes?

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They are easy as it gets.

You're going to need the following
10 Inch Cast Iron Skillet
4 or 5 Idaho potatoes
1 can of Cream Of Celery soup
1/2 pint of heavy cream
1 large sweet onion
1/2 package Kraft Mexican Blend shredded cheese
1/2 package Kraft Sharp shredded cheese
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper (or more if you like it more peppery)
Aluminum foil

Set up your grill for indirect cooking at 350 degrees.

Microwave the potatoes for about 5 minutes or so to just start softening them so it doesn't take all night to cook (Don't forget to poke them a few times with a fork)
While the potatoes are microwaving chop the onion medium fine
Mix the cream of celery and the cream and black pepper
Now you just heard the microwave ding, so pull the potatoes out and cool them a little in cold water (This is just to hurry things up a bit)
Slice the potatoes about 3/16ths of an inch thick leaving the skins on.
Put a layer of potatoes in the CI skillet
Follow that up by thinly spreading the cream mix over the potatoes (This is going to fill all the gaps between the potatoes)
Now spread out a good handful of both cheeses
Repeat this 3 or so times to fill the skillet.
I always have a little extra cream mix and I use a little more than half a bag each of the cheeses.
Cover the skillet with aluminum foil and toss it on an indirect grill running about 350.
Cook for about 45 minutes turning the skillet a few times so the edges don't burn.
Now uncover and cook for about 15 minutes more (I've gone up to a half hour for this and it's been ok)
Serve right out of the CI skillet.

If you want, you can do all the prep and assembly the day before. Just toss it covered in the fridge overnight. The next day you'll want to pull it out of the fridge a few hours early so it can warm up before you toss it on the grill.

Thanks Mark, recipe looks excellent! Very kind of you to share it! I might do that later, too much on the menu now for Thursday!

Timothy F. Lewis said:

Thanks Mark, recipe looks excellent! Very kind of you to share it! I might do that later, too much on the menu now for Thursday!

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You're going to love it.