Planksgiving is easily my favorite holiday. It’s everything a good holiday should be- gathering together with good friends and family as the weather begins to get chilly to over-eat in lumpy, ill-fitting sweaters.   Planksgiving is, in a word, festive.

For those of you not familiar with this holiday, Planksgiving® is an annual celebration created by us here at Outdoor Gourmet to get the holiday eating regimen off to an early start. We host this event the weekend before Thanksgiving. And this year, we planked a Turducken! And ribs!

Turducken Defined: It's a Turkey! It's a Duck! It's a Chicken! All rolled, or rather stuffed, into one.

The night before, trying out the new turkey injector.

The bird(s) just added to the planks.

Two turkey-sized planks, just to add to the excess.

Getting golden!

Ready to serve.

The Beergloo

This morning, I drained off the aforementioned brine water, patted my bird dry, stuffed it with as many Walla Walla sweet onions and fresh herbs as it's cavity would hold, then got to work with the herb butter.

This wasn't just any herb butter... this was hand-rolled Amish butter, with fresh thyme, sage, an entire bulb of organic brown tempest garlic, celtic sea salt, and rosemary from my Momma's garden. I'd have been happy with just a smear of this and hunk of bread, but I had 14 hungry people headed my way, so the herb butter was carefully placed under the turkey's skin and a light coating was rubbed on the outside. Now the bird was ready.

My turkey spent the first several hours of cooking time in the oven at 350°, then was transferred out to the grill on a burly one-inch-thick cedar turkey plank, made especially for this occasion.

Once added to the Outdoor Gourmet cedar grilling plank, the bird took on a great redish-brown color from the mix of cedar plank and hickory smoking chunks.

The ribs hit the gas grill around the same time as the turkey, but they were on a rough-cut piece of hickory and was served with ginger orange zest cranberry sauce.

We pulled the bird when the thermometer read an internal temp of 140° and foiled for a resting period of 15-ish minutes. The ribs- honestly, I was running around mashing potatoes and filling ramekins with Amish butter, so they just got pulled when they looked done.

Along with our meaty entrées, we served brussel sprouts with shallots in white wine sauce, fruit and nut stuffing, chilled barley and broccoli salad with feta, grilled sweet potatoes, and of course, mashed potatoes with brine dripping gravy.

Friends brought homemade bread, pies, babies, wine, and dogs along for the feast, which was held in the wood stove-heated garage with a couch, four chairs, and five coolers as seating.

When it came time for pie and fresh whipped nutmeg cream, we were out of plates, so Styrofoam cups made for a classy, yet ergonomic vessel.

Dishes- done. Turkey carcass- simmering into stock. Now I need to go sleep off this food and wine induced comma. Happy Planksgiving to one and all!!

Welcome to your Planksgiving weekend! -KB

I unwrapped my turkey, looked it square in the gizzard and said "I'm not scared of you!" It's important to establish dominance right off the bat. As Cesar Millan would say- "be the pack leader." Or in this case, the flock leader? Well, whatevs, I just need to plank this bird for the first annual Planksgiving© (copyright symbol- this mean, y'all F&F-ers!) which is tomorrow and we are already having some logistical problems.

The bird has been thawing for three days and it's still pretty frozen and this thing needs to hit the heat in t-minus 20 hours. A quick trip to wikihow's HOW TO DEFROST A TURKEY taught me...

As a rule of thumb, you'll need 24 hours for every five pounds of bird, so a 20-pound bird will require four full days of defrosting time. As I am 24 hours behind the curve, I am going with an alternative. Overnight brining.

Here's how I made my brine...

I grabbed whatever homemade stock I had in the freezer, some coarse sea salt, a couple bay leaves, fresh thyme, cracked black pepper, and a PBR for good measure. Cooked it all together and then plopped the bird in the largest pot I could find- it was a tight fit. Then I covered the bird and brine with cold water and put the whole unit back in the fridge.

Ok, turkey is brining, now for the ribs. We're going to go for a traditional Thanksgiving dry-rubbed short rib, just like the pilgrims shared with Squanto that first Thanksgiving.

* 1/2 cup brown sugar

* 1/4 cup paprika

* 1 tablespoon black pepper

* 1 tablespoon Johnny's Sea Salt

* 1 tablespoon chili powder

* 1 tablespoon garlic powder

* 1 tablespoon onion powder

* 1 teaspoon cayenne

Combine all these in a bowl, mix 'em together, then rub your ribs. Wrap your ribs in foil and they take a spot in the quickly dwindling refrigeration space as well.

Tomorrow, we will be planking these two main attractions, but for an extra smoky kick, the gas/charcoal will be forgone in favor of Hickory smoking chunks.

Now I'm off to chop some veggies and make some pies, but the bird and ribs are prepped for the big day. Stay tuned for more Planksgiving fare.

Welcome to your Planksgiving weekend! -KB