Hope everyone had a YUMMY Thanksgiving!

We celebrated turkey day last Saturday, so that Shane could have homemade food. Lucky me I then got to eat at both my dad's and mom's houses on Thursday (guess I better hit the hills!) Lucky for me every meal was vastly different. We had a low key, more traditional  meal with all of Shane's favorites. Included in that was our traditional smoked turkey. I am a turkey snob. This is the only way I will eat thanksgiving turkey. My Dad taught me how to make the brine but I have also added a little like fresh garlic and then we smoke/bbq the turkey on our Traeger. Lets just say yum!

Turkey Brine

1 bottle of sherry
1 bottle of white wine
1/2 c. salt
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
1/4 c. cumin
1 tbs garlic powder
3 cloves smashed garlic
2 bay leaves
maple extract or maple syrup
water to cover the turkey.

Mix all ingredients in a large bucket/container, put the turkey in the brine add enough water to cover the turkey and soak overnight- 24hours.

When ready to cook either use your smoker to smoke it or on our bbq which does both we cook on medium for about 2 hours switch to smoke for another 2 hours and then turn back up to med. until turkey is done. This is for a 12-14 lb. turkey otherwise cooking times can very. The result usually leaves us with a turkey that we can barely take off the bbq because it is falling into pieces, plus it always has great flavor because of the brine! I have tried some variations on the brine but this one with the sherry and wine seems to bring out the most flavor in my opinion. Plus the leftovers make great soup (usually mushroom barley here) and even better enchiladas. I really don't usually like turkey but I sometimes do another just to have the leftovers for other recipes.

Dad's Jalepeno Relish

I can not take credit for this recipe as it is my dads. He likes hot stuff! I guess I inherited that gene because I like spicy too and even have to be careful cooking for others because I like it so much I don't realize that everything I make is spicy! Obviously Shane likes it too!

While we have never actually tried canning a jar of this I don't think it would be hard to figure out, instead I just make it a batch at a time and keep it in the fridge.

Dad's Jalapeno Relish

1lb Jalapenos
3 large cloves of garlic
1/2 to 3/4 of a large onion
1/2 - 1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 tsp of cumin powder
 a swirl of oil
a couple glugs of cider vinegar

Put the Jalapeno, garlic and onion in a food processor and pulse until you have fine chunks. If you would like the relish to be less hot then remove the seeds and membrane of the peppers or some of them before putting them into the food processor. Put a swirl of oil in the pan and add the pepper mix put on medium to medium high heat to soften. Add salt and cumin and mix in well, once the peppers start softening add the cider vinegar.  Cool and store in the refrigerator in an airtight container, I like to use a mason jar or one of the new plastic ball jars.

You may ask what to use this on? Well I use it on anything and everything but my favorites are on morning eggs and potatoes and inside quesadillas. It is also good on soup. Beware though every batch has a different amount of heat due to the inconsistency of the peppers it can be quite hot and sometimes builds heat the longer it is in the refrigerator, so I suggest using it sparingly!

So I have a picture for this post but it wont upload! Guess I will try later!