Smokin'

Decided I wanted to try and smoke something on my grill, so thawed out a 8 pound turkey breast beginning Friday night and asked Jake and Carla over for Sunday dinner.

Saturday, made the brine (apple juice, brown sugar, salt, three oranges, quartered, whole cloves, garlic cloves, bay leaves, and fresh cracked pepper) and put it in a stock pot with the turkey breast and refrigerated it for 24 hours.

Today, I built a fire with "Cowboy charcoal" at the end opposite the chimney, When it was going good, I put wet hickory chips on top. The turkey breast was at the other end, sitting over an aluminum foil drip pan. Monitored it for the next four hours, adding more hickory chips when the smoke was dying. I also had to add more charcoal three times. Took it off when the internal temperature reached 165 degrees F.

Served it with twice-baked potatoes and (as a surprise treat for poor Carla) collard greens made with ham hocks.

I was a little bummed about how it looked. Most of the cooking cycle, it was a nice golden brown. But, by the time it was ready, the skin had blackened and split.

But, it tasted GREAT!!!

I was also bummed when I came in LAST at Scrabble...