Father's Day 2012

Father's Day is kind of a bittersweet holiday for me.  Dad has been gone for 22 years, Grandpa, 7 years...my one Uncle and my Godfather have been gone a handful of years as well.  On the other hand we celebrate with Chris, the kids and his brothers.  I roasted a turkey on the grill today and it didn't flash roast like last year.

I started with a turkey that was just shy of 12lbs.  I put some fresh herbs and two lemons inside the cavity and then put a BBQ rub on the outside.  I added some butter in the crevices of the turkey body and fired up the grill.  I am an amazing fire starter...had no problem getting a fire to 450 degrees in about 15 minutes.

Chris had gotten a smoking box for his birthday so we soaked some cabernet chips and put that on the grill with the turkey in a roasting pan.  It took about 2 1/4 hours to get to 165 to 170 (internal temp) on the bird.  It was yummy!  Check out the finished product.

I also made stuffing which is just simply a bag of Pepperidge Farm onion and sage stuffing cubes with onion and celery sauteed until tender, some fresh herbs from my garden; specifically tarragon, sage and thyme.  Then I boiled some chicken broth and butter using that mixture to moisten the stuffing cubes.  Bake covered at 350 degrees or until some cubes are tender and some are crunchy.   The photo directly below is the cubes with the herbs.

 This is after the onion and celery has been added but before the brother/butter mixture.