HOW TO GRILL A TURKEY.

I know what you're thinking, "that's impossible." That's what I thought too. Then the Dreger boys taught me otherwise. This is how you grill a turkey.

My stupid phone didn't record all of the photos, so you'll have to use your imagination on a couple.

Get a grill. Start the charcoal. When the charcoal is ready, divide the pile into two piles on the edge of the grill. Align the piles of charcoal directly underneath the handles of the above grill, cause you're going to have to add charcoal through the holes of the handles. The pan is to catch the drippings.


Soak hickory chips in water 30 minutes prior to cooking.


Stuff the turkey (pic not avalible).

Tie up the turkey so that the stuffing doesn't fall out.


Put the turkey on the grill directly above the pan.


Place a few soaked hickory chips on top of the hot charcoal. These chips will smoke, alot.


Do not eat hickory chips. They are not Cheks-Mex.


Close the lid of the grill and let the turkey sit for 20 - 30 minutes. There will be tons of smoke for the first 15 minutes.


After 20 minutes open the grill. Add charcoal as needed. Just before you close the lid again add more hickory chips.


Continue doing the same routine every 20 - 30 minutes to make sure the charcoals stay hot and the hickory is smoking. The total cook time should be between 2.5 and 3 hours. Check the doneness of the bird with a thermometer.

When the turkey is done take it off the grill (pic not available.) The turkey will be very dark, almost black.

Spoon the stuffing out of the bird. Stuffing is evil, and needs to be put into the oven for another 20 minutes @ 350 degrees.


Let the turkey rest on a counter top for at least 20 minutes before you carve. This helps the bird stay moist. (pic not available)

Carve the bird and serve.


Enjoy. (pic not available)

This turkey was by far the best turkey I've ever eaten (this includes fried). It was juicy and flavorful. The hickory chips added a smoked flavor that took it to the next level. I owe alot to Dreger brothers.

JUMP

Last week we shot some stuff on the trampoline for the Live Love conference. I compiled this montage of some of my favorites. Check it out.

Compassion International Video Teaser

I've been logging footage from the trip on and off for the last two days. I'm about 1/2 way through it all. Here's a short teaser I cut together of some of the footage. These kids are saying "I want to do something big" in Creole. Obviously this is a rough, just wanted to give the style we're going for a test drive. What do you think?

Compassion Haiti Teaser from Taylor Robinson on Vimeo.

Haiti.

We got back from our trip yesterday, and I've since been to church, unpacked my bags, started the laundry, blown the fall leaves off the drive way and back deck, changed the header of my blog, responded to some emails, messed around on Facebook/Twitter, and paid some bills.

I've been thinking about this post the whole time. Not really this post, but the trip. This post is just where I'm going to unload what I think you need to hear about the trip.

So hear it goes:

I don't know what to write.

We saw unbelievable things. We saw amazing things. We saw horrible things. We saw God in the face of the children. We saw hope. We saw despair. We saw alot of trash.

I rode in the back of a truck an entire day as we traveled, and we drove through an endless sea of people on the street who live with nothing, who's lives we're trashed and ripped apart by 4 consecutive hurricanes, who's children were dying, who's next meal isn't certain.

I ate goat, fish, shrimp, rice, rice, rice, soup, goat, rice, chicken, rice. Also, I got introduced to Fruit Champagne, a drink that taste exactly like cream-soda mixed with generic cherry cough syrup.

The trash was everywhere; mountains of it, rivers of it.

The children were beautiful.

I could go on and on and on about Compassion International. I am passionate about a few things, and Compassion is one of them. You know that. I've blogged about that before. Here's a link to a past post about Compassion. (That's my old blog).

I will, however reuse one thing:
Compassion is the real deal. If you don’t sponsor, you missing, losing, and failing all at the same time.

This post doesn't do justice to the things I learned. And I'm not too sure the English language can.

Holla. Here's a link to sponsor, if your interested.

Haiti Day 3

Haiti Day 2

Here's the pics from day 2. Today was a great day.

Haiti Day 1

We're in Haiti shooting for Compassion. Here's some of Eric's photos. It took forever for him to get me the pics and now I'm tired. So...to sleep...I'll say this: "The most important thing Tiff and I do with our money every month is sponsoring with Compassion. It's the real deal.



This kid is standing on top of the slab where his home was the day before Ike ripped through their neighborhood. Not only did the hurricane take his home, his one year old sister drowned in the river. Her name was Christian, add them to your prayer list.

Election 08

There are so many things that I want to say about this past election, and it has nothing to do with the outcome. But I have allowed my self to stay calm, not point fingers, and not attack people.

Just now, while collecting my thoughts about what to write, I realized that I probably shouldn't just go off. So instead I've decided to speak to everyone the way I want them to speak to me. So read carefully.
****
You are all very smart. I'm so glad you decided to get involved in this years historic election. If you voted for McCain - good for you - I'm sure your convictions and beliefs lead you to vote that way. If you voted for Obama - good for you - I'm sure your convictions and beliefs lead you to vote the way you did. I'm not going to assume why you voted the way you did, it's your right. There are alot of things out there in this world that are important to alot of people - I cannot expect for what's important to me to be as important to you. I congradulate Mr. Obama and his campaign team for a job well done - cause quite honestly they took it too McCain.
****
There I'm done....

But so help me - if I hear another McCain supporter say to vote for Obama is to betray the faith - or if I hear another Obama supporter say McCain supporters are bumbling-hill billy-idiots I'm gonna.......Calm...

People voted for who they thought would be best. Some of you cling to the abortion subject, some of you are intersted in the war, some of you gun control, some the economy, some foriegn policy, some race (I don't know). None the less, you've got your "thing."

My father used to always say, and I repeat "Don't ever assume." Please don't assume. McCain supporters are not necessarily money hungry racist who hate black people, AND Obama supporters aren't necessarily abortion supporting baby killers. Just be happy you got to vote. Be happy everybody got to vote.

It's over. Good-golly-watta-moskin.

Today we voted. You better have. If not, keep your lame opinion to yourself for the next 4 years.

I love how bent out of shape people get because of elections. "Obama's a terrorist." or "McCain wants to kill innocent Iraqis." Tomorrow all the fuss will be over, and normal life will set back in. I know that's easy for me to say, being a white, middle-class, married with no children male who's actually able to keep paying my mortgage, but nevertheless the cows will be out to pasture, and the waiting game will be over.

Even if either of these dudes getting elected brings down armegeddon, so be it. At least then will be now. Let's live in the now, now. We don't have to worry about then, because then is now, and we can begin dealing with the problems we have now. You might be asking yourself, "When will we get to worry about then again?" Soon. But for now, lets deal with now. Thanks Mel.

Any funny stories about voting? My experience was pretty un-eventful. I walked in, handed them my card, signed my name, sat down, tried to remember half the things I studied for, got up, and fed the sheet to the lame R2D2 looking robot, and left. I did go with my lady, and we got to eat lunch afterwards, which was wonderful.

Anyways. Reck'em Raiders.