Smoking a turkey for Thanksgiving!

It was an early start to the day this morning getting the smoker prepped for the turkey!  My first time smoking a Thanksgiving turkey.

Something to be excited about!

It will just be me and Bailey (my Lab) for Thanksgiving Day.  There will be a delayed Thanksgiving dinner with my son and daughter-in-law and family after Thanksgiving.

Every year I keep saying I'm going to smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving.  But when the snow flies and the thermometer plummets, I lose interest in firing up the smoker.  NOT THIS YEAR!!!  I bought a small turkey and the weather doesn't look too bad (for this time of year).

Before daylight this Thursday morning I will begin the preparation for my first smoked turkey!  It's a 12 pounder so no need to start the night before like you would with a much larger turkey.

Mmmm!  I can just taste it now!

The Barefoot Contessa

I have long been a fan of Ina Garten and own some of her wonderful cookbooks.  Recently I read her newly published memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens.  This woman is phenomenal!

From what little I knew about her, I assumed she lived a charmed life.  Wrong!  She grew up in a home with strict, authoritarian parents.  She was in a dead end job in the government in Washington, DC that brought her no joy.  But she had the tenacity to go after what she wanted in life, despite any risks along the way.  By chance, she saw an ad for a small bakery for sale in Long Island, the Barefoot Contessa.  In a leap of faith, she bought the business and overcame multiple obstacles to grow it into a big success.

You don't have to be a passionate cook and baker to appreciate this book.  It is a story that speaks to all of us.  Early in their life together, she and her husband, Jeffrey, traveled to Europe "on five dollars a day!"  They dreamed of someday coming back to Paris and that someday came years later when they bought an apartment there.  

If you are looking for a feel good, inspiring book to read, this is the one!