Believe it or not, for those of us in the United States, Thanksgiving is just a couple of weeks away. Thankfulness right now is probably a tough subject for a little under half the people in the US who just watched a convicted felon and sexual predator get elected to the highest office in the country. While it's easy to be thankful to live in a country that still offers opportunity and freedom (on some level), it's hard to be happy about the obvious fact that there is still so much hate and apathy within our states and hometowns.
A week or two ago @diamonddave invited @mrsbozz and I to a dinner to show appreciation to his wife who has been really living up to her marriage vows taking care of him while he is recovering from a multitude of surgeries and health issues. I remember sitting in the hospital with her when she was trying to decide if she should take him off life support or wait a little longer. I can't even imagine.
The fact that he is still with us and thriving on many levels is a miracle. Sometimes miracles come with a cost, and like I said, "in sickness and in health" has become a very real thing for this family.
We went to a a local steakhouse called Lucky's that @mrsbozz and I have visited on several occasions. I typically try to avoid getting steak at places like this because I am always disappointed versus what I can grill myself at home. On this day, I decided to take a different approach and I got a dish I have never ordered before. It was called the "Bourbon Steak" and it consisted of New York Strip tips in a bourbon sauce with mushrooms over garlic mashed potatoes.
It was absolutely fantastic and might just be a new favorite for me. The potatoes were silky smooth, when I offered some to @mrsbozz she asked if they were as good as hers. I fumbled through some kind of "of course not honey" reply, then she took a bite and exclaimed "oh, those are good". The bourbon sauce was a little sweet, but also rich. Just ask @slobberchops how important a good sauce is. This dish was absolute perfection!
I paired it with a side of brussels sprouts with bacon, cheese, and a balsamic vinegar glaze. They were pretty amazing, but not quite as good as my wife's sprouts that she sautes in honey and spicy brown mustard.
I ended up eating about half of each dish and then I took the rest home to have as leftovers for lunch at work. It was a pretty amazing meal.
Earlier in the week, I got to play with a new toy I picked up. Back on Father's Day, @mrsbozz had her mom and dad over to celebrate her father. I think one of her brothers and his family came too, but everyone else was busy. It was a small gathering, so I threw a boneless skinless turkey breast on the grill and cooked it with some apple and hickory smoke for about two hours.
Everyone raved about the turkey and how good it was. I call it smoked turkey, but as I said, I don't cook it low and slow like you would with real smoked meat. Instead, I kind of bake it hot and fast by moving the coals to one side of the grill and throwing the turkey on the other side.
For labor day they had me do three of them at a time to feed a larger group. I realized at that time, my old grilling thermometer wasn't cutting it, so at the recommendation of @themarkymark and a sweet Amazon Prime Day deal, I picked up the Chef IQ digital probe.
I used it for the first time last week when I did three more turkey breasts for the family and it work flawlessly. That's what you see in the opening photo.
The base station actually connects to the WiFi in your house and the probes communicate with the base station. Then there is an app you can install on your phone and it monitors the data coming in from the base station. With this setup I could literally start a cook and go down to the store and not worry about losing track of it. Assuming I trust my grill to hold temp while I am gone. If it doesn't, I will know that too and I can rush back.
Each probe has four sensors in it plus it measures the ambient temperature of the grill so you can see how hot your rig is running. Each of the three breasts turned out perfectly. One of them we kept for ourselves to have for dinner and lunches through the week. One of them we sent to @mrsbozz's mom and dad, and the third we dropped off to her brother.
They actually enjoy it so much that I have now been tasked with doing another batch of them for Thanksgiving dinner. Although I let them rest for quite a while after taking them off the grill, you can still see how juicy they were in the photo above.
Plus, just look at that smoke ring! It might be a little hard to see in the photo due to the lighting, but if you look closely, there is a nice pink circle on the outer edge. It's nothing too intense, as I said, just a couple of hickory and apple chunks at the beginning of the cook to impart some of that flavor. Sometimes people can go a bit overboard with the smoke flavor and it ends up leaving the meat acrid and off-putting. I've made that mistake myself in the past.
One day I'd like to try and do a full turkey on the grill. Until I get brave enough to do that, these small three pound breasts fit the bill. The only thing they are missing is dark meat if you are a dark meat lover.
I'm really looking forward to firing up the grill on Thanksgiving and spending some time with the family.
Sauce makes or breaks, they usually don't give you enough. I have had to ask for extra many times.
This one was a little on the lighter side, but I think they were trying to avoid having it be drowned in sauce and then making the potatoes runny.
It looks like it's pretty good. Best wishes for today and may the best be with you.
Thanks, to you as well!
You're welcome, friends
Oh F..K .... this food looks good 🫣😱😱 ... Hmmm, I have to wonder if I should try grilling meat in the winter time .... sausages are easy to grill, but larger meats may take time if the strong cold does not allow the grill to work properly. I try hold this idea in my head :)) But your food looks cool , cool food post ;)
I grill year round even if the temps are below freezing. You might not be able to do a long cook, but you can grill off chicken, burgers, steak, most other stuff pretty easy.
Looks awesome! The Chef IQ is a nice little gadget, I have one too. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of grilling for sure! Smoked turkey still tastes good even when cooked quickly apparently. I have a smoker which I love using, low and slow makes some really good meats. The problem is that I really don't use it as often as I should!
Looks great!
I have a Weber kettle and you can use that to do hot and fast and low and slow. That's part of the reason I went with it. I would like to have a stand alone smoker one day, but for now this does the trick! It's basically just like baking it in a 375 degree oven when you do it this way.
I am also looking forward to Thanksgiving! Even though my wife's brother (a dentist) is a Trump supporter we all get along during Thanksgiving and other holidays.
That's good to hear. Some of my inlaws are Trump supporters, but I doubt there will be much issue around the dinner table!
Yep, the election will make this Thanksgiving an interesting one.
But if we're honest, Thanksgiving for many people usually eventually turns into arguments about sports and then politics. Family, eh? You love them, but spend all day with them and you end up wanting to strangle them and never see them again. Well, maybe that's just a stereotype, but there definitely seems to be an element of that based on what I know of my friends and their families.
Yeah, that is very true. My wife's family occasionally goes on big family trips to different locations and usually by about the third day we are all ready to be back in our own space. It's likely because everyone knows how to push everyone else's buttons!
Grilling in Michigan in November! That is a hard core commitment to tasty Turkey. If you do the Turkey on the grill I guess it leaves room in the kitchen to make MORE yummy sides. 🤤
Yeah, they are actually going to do a small full turkey in the oven to satisfy the people who prefer dark meat. Even then I guarantee everyone will have some of my "smoked" turkey on their plates.
As for the first part, you have no idea!
I don't know what it is about new trends but turkey is now all the rage here and not just on special occasions. Boned and rolled. We do a full bird at Christmas but I am finding its on more menus these days.
Oh really? Maybe people are looking for more options outside of red meat and chicken. Also it could just be cheaper right now. That usually drives a lot of the dishes at restaurants.
Now i would love a taste of just turkeys
They are so juicy and delicious!
Maybe i will check out the fast food to see what I'll find,if its pleasing to my eyes will order some turkey
Nicely done.👍🏻
Thank you!
Looks good man I never was a turkey fan for thanksgiving. We are trying to figure out what we want to cook this year.
I hope you figure out something delicious. Pulled Pork is always good!