Turkey Day...Early Morning...Los Angeles

Not to be outdone by Robin, Deb and the gang, here are some pics from Turkey Day LA. This is the strawberry rhubarb pie for tonight (mom's recipe, to follow) that I made Tuesday night. 'Cause I'm on top of it like that.
Isn't it pretty in close up? It's my favorite pie in the world (Pumpkin? Pass). They only had rhubarb a few times at the Farmers Market this year, so I snatched some up and froze it when I saw it, in preparation for this day. Literally today, as I knew I wanted a strawberry rhubarb pie on Thanksgiving the minute last year's dinner ended. Yeah, man, it's that good.
And this is our smoker, smoking away on the turkey, a 20 lb. beast that we barely squeezed into the tiny barrel. Trust me, I had words with the lady when I picked it up yesterday at the Santa Monica Farmers Market (I'd ordered a 16 lb. one). Luckily it fit, otherwise our smoked turkey would have come in two pieces.

My dad's made smoked turkey for Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember, it's the only way I can eat turkey today (and my mom and sister have promised to post pics from their T-Day smoking extravaganza as well). We brine ours, using Alton Brown's recipe which is crazy easy and really good. So not only is it moist due to smoking and brining, but it's got a nice sweetness to it as well. Anyway, when I married Noah I made him take over the smoking duties for our Thanksgivings down in LA. He's pretty darn good at it, too.

And did I mention we've both been up since 5:20 am working on the turkey, starting the Almost No Knead Bread, and, of course, putting up this post. We'll try and check in throughout the day, so y'all can see what we're up to.