Aside from breakfasts (I made turkey hash last weekend with the left over braised turkey legs) I haven't had a meal that didn't involve turkey since Thursday. I mean, everything came out great so it wasn't horrible, but I miss variety.

So what's for dinner tonight? Smoked turkey legs (somehow those didn't go to the table... :)) with collard greens. But no mashed potatoes. No stuffing. No sweet potatoes. Just greens and smoked meat and some black eyed peas.

But what about the rest of the recipes for thanksgiving? Aside from the bread and the turkeys, I've already given you what I cooked; the rest came from my dad (green beans and brussel sprouts with pancetta) and Donna brought the pumpkin and apple pies.

The turkeys were simple: each got brined for 6 hours in the basic brine. The smoked one got put on the grill over indirect heat (see the coals on each side with a drip pan in the middle). I used soaked hickory wood chips along with hardwood charcoal (not briquettes). It got smoked for 4 hours, until it reached 170°F deep in the breast. I ended up using a bag of wood chips and a half bag of charcoal. The roasted turkey was stuffed with an orange, lemon, onion, celery, carrots, sage, thyme and rosemary and trussed. Then it was placed in a 500°F oven for 30 minutes, foil covered the breast and brought down to 350°F until it was 165°F (about 3 hours). The smoked bird got rested for 4 hours before carving (the night before), and the roasted one rested and hour.

The bread on the other hand is directly from Beard on Bread — the basic white bread recipe. The rolls were made by dropping small balls of dough (1.5 oz, 3 of them) in greased muffin tins, left to double (an hour or so) and cooked at the same temp as the loaf, but only for 20 minutes. You should buy a copy of that book if you're ever interested in making bread. The banana bread in there is the de facto standard to which all other banana breads should be judged.