Car accident and Smoked Turkey Breast!

We had a very exciting weekend. Saturday was Isabella's second birthday. We had a Sesame Street party at Stacy's parents house. A few family members came over. We decorated with some store bought Sesame Street plates,cups, banner, Elmo candle,and Elmo cupcake liners. Stacy made pom poms out of tissue paper that looked like Elmo and Cookie Monster. Elmo is Isabella's favorite character. We had a nice lunch and Isabella got lots of nice gifts.
   On the way home it was hovering around freezing. A car in front of us slowed down and our SUV slide off the road and into the median. We rolled about 5 times and ended up back on the highway right-side up. We were given a ambulance ride to the ER and checked out. Isabella who was properly secured in her car seat didn't have a scratch on her. Stacy got the worst of it with scratches on her head and arm. She also had several contusions on  her head, but no serious injuries. I had  a scratch on my head and some bruises. We all were wearing our seat belts and happy that it wasn't worse. Our car is totaled, but it did its job protecting us. Stacy and I have had to keep ice and heat on our wounds,but are feeling better every day.
   Sunday, I smoked a boneless turkey breast roast that we had been thawing in the fridge. This is an easy cut of meat to smoke because it is preseasoned.  I heated up some Kingsford hickory charcoal and added a few cherry chunks. Once the wood had started smoking, all I had to do was take the wrapper off the turkey, insert a remote thermometer probe, and put it on the grill between the coals above a pan of water. I also put 4 potatoes on my vegetable rack above the coals on one side. I smoked the potatoes for over an hour and the turkey for over 2 hours at 300 degrees. I took the turkey off when the internal temp was 155 and let it rest for a bit. I mashed the potatoes with butter, milk, salt and pepper. I call the potatoes smoked mashed potatoes and are one of my new favorites to do.

Smoked turkey and mashed potatoes!

  The turkey was very good and had a great smokiness. I love the mashed potatoes. They have a nice rustic flavor to them. Stacy isn't a big fan of the skin, so we peel the potatoes after I smoke them. I bet it would be really good with the skins too.
  I stayed home from work on Monday to take care of the family and rest. We picked up a package from Amazon that we had at the post office. I got my Lodge griddle that I ordered and we got most of the presents we were waiting on for Isabella. She got a drum and some finger paints. Isabella and I had a jam session later in the day. I played her harmonica that she also got for her birthday and she played the drum. Also we finger painted. She had lots of fun. For dinner, I made apple cinnamon pancakes on my new griddle. To the pancake mix, I added chopped apples, cinnamon, vanilla extract, and orange zest. The pancakes came out really good. I enjoyed my griddle and look forward to exploring all the uses for it. I will be using it on the grill soon I'm sure.

I love my paint!

This weekend will hopefully be pretty mellow. I plan on alder smoking some salmon and taking down the Christmas lights. I had left the lights up for Isabella's birthday, but now it is time to take them down. I hope everybody has a good week. Happy grillin'.

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