Garbage Can Turkey

Today is a popular day in our family.

If my Grandmother were still alive, she’d be 101 years old today. My Grandmother was the greatest grandmother in the whole world. Even tho’ she passed away almost thirty years ago, I still miss her a lot. I talk to her often, and I really believe that she’s watching over me. Happy Birthday Grandma!


May 4th is also my parent’s wedding anniversary. If my Dad were still here, my parents would have been married for 47 years. That’s a looong time to be married to the same person!

And of course today is also my niece’s birthday – she is one year old today!

On Saturday we celebrated her birthday and couldn’t have asked for a better day – especially considering it was supposed to rain. We were all happy it didn’t - especially considering the experiment that I finally talked my sister and brother-in-law into trying: a Garbage Can Turkey
What? You’ve never heard of a Garbage Can Turkey?

Ummm, well neither did I, until last summer when I was invited to the picnic of some friends…

It is the coolest – and from what I understand, tastiest – way to cook a turkey. My friends had two of them at their picnic it went over great with all the people there. Being something new to me, I wanted to try it – but not being a meat-eater, it’s not like I would just go and cook a turkey like that. I had to find someone who was going to cook a turkey anyway and somehow convince them that cooking it in a garbage can was a really good idea… and I managed to do it

Basically you drive a stake in the ground and stick your turkey on it. Put some tin foil on the ground (because the meat gets so tender it just falls off). Cover it all up with a garbage can and keep hot coals on the top and around the bottom of it for a few hours – I think it was twenty minutes for every pound of bird…




























When time is up, remove the garbage can and voilà - Gourmet dinner! Now I don’t eat meat, but I still found this absolutely fascinating. It smells really good while cooking and everyone – and I mean everyone who tried it, raved at how good the meat tasted. My sister didn’t add any seasonings or anything to the bird and everyone said it tasted like she did…




Evidently this is the plan for Thanksgiving this year… I think it’s a great idea – and clean up is really a snap!

Grandma

So I spent yesterday evening at the funeral home. My brother-in-law's Grandmother had passed away.

Of course that got me reminiscing about my Grandmother. She passed away 27 years ago. She would have been 100 years old if she were still alive. No one could have had a better Grandma than me - she was the best. Growing up, she was the one that understood me when no one else did. I still talk to her often and I think that if we really do have Guardian Angels, she's the one watching over me.

I still remember being so disappointed when she died... Grandma didn't drive, so she relied mostly on my Uncle to take her places she needed to go. For some reason, he really didn't seem to like to take her grocery shopping. I couldn't wait to get my driver's license so that I would be able to take her grocery shopping or anywhere she wanted to go whenever she wanted. She passed away three months before I got my license.

I miss my Grandma.