What are you doing the day after Christmas?

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Ok...so I don't *do* Christmas. We still invited a bunch of friends over for a big first night of Chanukah bash. What am I doing today? I have to take my son on some errands, buy a new coffee maker (the old one died this morning) and clean up the place from last night. What is everyone else doing today?

 

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Nursing a bad head and playing Playmobil with my son...

 

Well, i didn't have much to drink because i have a bit of a cold They don't normally last long for me so i am sober on honey, lemon and paracetamol

 

I forgot to ask "how did the turkey on the bbq go"?

 

That was for Thanksgiving last month. Came out great as always. I've barbecued turkey for so many years now that I pretty much have the system down.

 

Oh, good, glad to hear it. How long would say a 12lb turkey take to bbq? Would'nt mind your method recipe

 

I use a standard Weber charcoal barbecue pictured here.



You prepare the bird just the same way you would if you were oven cooking it. Put whatever stuffing inside you'd like, put it into the aluminum pan and cover the pan with aluminum foil.

Of course, you take off the top grill (where you normally cook hamburgers and such) and leave the grill underneath in place (where the charcoals are usually placed).

I use a charcoal chimney to heat the coals but you could probably use the standard lighter fluid method.



Once the coals are hot, I place the turkey in the barbecue and pour the hot coals on either side (this takes a bit of care so as to not burn yourself and not accidentally pour hot coals directly onto the foil).

I use a pair of tongs to make sure the hot coals are evenly distributed on either side of the pan. Then I put the lid on and wait an hour. At this point, I take the lid off the barbecue and peel back the foil. I pour in some chicken broth to keep the bird moist. Replacing the foil (again...be careful...it's hot in there), I add some charcoal since the originals are burning down by now. Be careful not to put in too many coals. One time I made the fire too hot and actually scorched the bird.

Then I repeat the above every 30 to 45 minutes. I use a turkey baster to collect the juices from the bottom of the pan and baste the bird. I also renew the charcoal supply inside the barbecue.

Barbecuing a turkey takes pretty much the same amount of time as baking one...the formula is to cook the bird 20 minutes for each pound. For a 12 pound turkey, that's about 4 hours.

I use a meat thermometer to check and see if it's really done. This isn't an exact science since the outside temperature has an effect on cooking time. Once sign that the bird is done or nearly done is when you can gently pull on a drum stick and it easily peels away from the body.

When it's almost done, I dispose of the foil to let the skin brown. I have to use pot holders to grab the pan when I'm ready to take it inside. Make sure you put the pan on a surface that won't be burned since the pan will be quite hot.

After that, put the bird on a cutting board and carve it for serving. It turns out great.

 

Well I really pushed the boat out...didnt got to bed until 8am this morning nope I wasnt partying or anything...in fact I spent the whole day reinstalling XP on my machine and u know what? I cant believe how much space I actually have on this thing depsite the fact all the data I backed up (7 DVDs worth!!!) I put all back on and its still like there is hardly anything on it...anyway...woke up at just after 1pm...my flatmate leaves the house and just as the door closes the electricity goes off!! so I get out the house (pouring with rain by the way!!) go to the off licence and put money on electricity key...and my flatmate will get a grilling when he gets home cos he was meant to put money on over the weekend!!! So after all that I am now just chilling altho I need to get some washing done as I am back at on Wed shocking if u ask me...but other than that I might just go to bed again!

 

Snap! Same BBQ as me! Thanks for the recipe . I will have to try it hear in the summer, what we have of one

Noel- you need an early night then? Or are you a bit of a night owl?

 

Boyce I think I am a bit of both...I can stay up if I aint working the next day...and if I am well I am normally in bed by about 2 or 3am.......

 

Yay!
Me too!

this is the first year for ages that I haven't cooked the turkey on the BBQ. We bought a new double oven a while back so you can fit everything in it now, but it's not the same.

I've only got the 47 weber, so it can be a bit tough getting the lid on if you've got a really big turkey. And it can get a bit cold out there.

I'm confused as to the US way of doing things.
What is the difference between thanksgiving and Christmas and what do you traditionally do on each?
I know I could Google it, but I prefer the personal approach.

 

We eat!

Well...as I'm sure you know...the US Thanksgiving is supposed to celebrate the Pilgrims and the American Indians getting together for a really big barbecue. . We make a turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy and assorted veggies and eat until we can't move. Many also watch (American) football that day as well while trying to digest.

I imagine Christmas here is pretty much the way it's celebrated in the UK. Christians say it's a celebration of the birthday of Jesus and everyone else just has a few days off. We put up and decorate Christmas trees...often people will put lights and decorations on and around their house. Traditionally, we spend ourselves into mindless debt buying gifts for our family and friends. For most families, we open the gifts on Christmas morning. The meal portion is similar minus the cranberry sauce. Kids are initially thrilled to get whatever toy or game they've been begging for these past months and the next day get bored with the thing and start playing with the box it came in.

My wife and kids haven't celebrated Christmas in quite a few years which is why we don't do a turkey on December 25th. The missus is Jewish so we do a Hannukah thing. Since Jewish holidays follow a lunar calendar, they aren't on the same day every year. This year the first night of Hannukah (there are eight) occured on December 25th for the first time since 1959.

We had a bunch of friends over. Everyone brought a dish. Traditionally, we eat potato latkes (pancakes) on Hannukah. Before the meal, we lit the first candle on the menorah (actually, we're using an oil menorah this year so no candles) and said the blessings (thankfully...my daughter can read hebrew, otherwise the whole affair would have been in English).

After eating, people broke up into different groups. Some talked...some played board games and of course there was playing dreidel among the little ones. The "prize" in that game is "gelt" which are chocolate coins wrapped in gold colored foil

Yes, I know...this is more than you wanted to know...sorry, got carried away.

 

I'm working......but at holiday pay rate, it's worth it.

 

Sounds like you all had a good time then Trip.

 

So basically you guys get Christmas twice in the space of a month?
Wow.
Not sure I could handle that.
Nice idea though.

It seems to me that you guys in the US are better at getting fired up and celebrating than we are in the UK. We're generally quite a miserable bunch. Apart from Christmas not a lot really gets us going. We've got Easter, and some people go nuts about that.
Generally though we just eat over-priced chocolate until we feel sick.
Our 'holidays' are just an extra day off work when we lie on the sofa or get bullied into mowing the lawn.

 

LOL. I guess I neglected to mention the lengthy "honey do" list my wife presented me with to get the house ready for the celebration.

 

I just went shopping, when i finally dragged myself out of bed. Picked myself up a new microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse (wanted either the one with the laser mouse, or the biometric fingerprint reader, but they were expensive, so in the end i plumped for the optical mouse kit - reduced from 79.99 to 29.99. not bad huh?). i wanted to pick up a decent KVM with an audio connection, but the only place which had any (PC World) had sold out.

After that, it was more shopping for DVD's etc, then home again. nothing special really.

 

As for me, I was playing my beautiful new 6-string acoustic guitar(and eating turkey ).

 

Well, I repeated the whole debauchery all over again yesterday with the other side of the family, so today we went shopping and I'm now sitting being blown away by the new Foo Fighters CD as I chill in readiness for a short return to work tomorrow (only till the weekend, tho' - bring on Hogmanay )

 

I basically just goofed off yesterday. The missus and my son David had to work but my other two kids and I had leisure time. I cleaned up the mess from the night before. Michael had a doctor's appointment I took him too. I had lunch and took a nap. Afterwards, we watched:

Office Space

and

The Family Guy movie

They were both funny but the second movie pretty regularly went over the top. My daughter couldn't sit through each movie in its entirity.

We put on:

Star Trek: First Contact

just to be watching something PC when the missus got home. All in all, a very relaxing day. Back at work today but not much happening. I only have to work today and tomorrow then have a five-day weekend.