The hottest Thanksgiving on record

My Guyanese Thanksgiving started out not as I had anticipated and/or hoped. I had intended to get up early and knock out a 10 mile run. Alarm went off, Tony’s sausage fingers hit ‘off’ instead of ‘snooze.’ I awoke 45 minutes after I intended, cursing my Homer Simpson-esque dexterity. The sun was well on its way above the horizon, guaranteeing that my exercise session will be comparable to taking a run in a pizza oven. Which, in retrospect, better prepared me for the sophomore voyage of El Grill. (Only did 6 miles, for those who care.)

This is El Grill. We had a mechanic that lives down the street weld it together for us. I realize that the multicolored conglomeration pictured above looks like an aborted Fantasia character, but El gets the job done. So efficient is El at his specific purpose, he managed to roast (to perfection I might add!) a 12 lb. Turkey in 3.5 hours. Of course, the mountain of charcoal and liter of kerosene were the true players behind the scene, but overall it was a team effort.

The Cast:

Chelsea: Official in charge of turkey

Tim: Chelsea’s husband and official photojournalist of all events and happenings/ bartender for the day

Sara: Surrogate family provider and Stuffing maker extraordinaire!

Tony: Resident mashed potato and gravy master/Fireball maker with kerosene!

Becky: Volunteer from Region 3 who is an honorary member of Linden Crew for the weekend, and bringer of pumpkin pie!

Sara’s Family: Played the role of surrogate family, gift providers, and just all around exceptional people!

Lisa: My Guyanese mother and all around super lady!

The ceremonial lighting of El Grill commenced promptly around 9ish. We wanted to start the coals going around 7, but instead of letting the kerosene soak into the charcoal, Chelsea and I debated the various methods and idiosyncrasies of getting these amorphous blocks of charcoal to stay lit. I made fireballs, hoping to win the mental game against the coals, frightening them into submission. It was a fruitless effort, but my juvenile person was still satisfied with my spirited endeavors. Once lit, however, El Grill did a fantastic impersonation of the surface of the sun.

The preparation for this day was weeks in the making. We utilized all our various resources to get everything we wanted and needed. The first task was to convince the mechanic down the street to build El Grill for us. Turns out dollars are an acceptable incentive for a mechanic to do our bidding. Who knew!??! I had first approached him back in October about the possibility of locating all the necessary parts for El Grill, and then assembling them. He happily complied. Last weekend, El Grill was taken on the inaugural test run. We grilled an entire turkey, an assortment of chicken wings, some brazilian sausage, some chicken sausage, and a pizza, just in case. All accounts and opinions deemed the trial run to be successful. We spent the rest of the week mentally preparing for the big day.

That’s not entirely true. We all knew what our respective jobs were, and since there were no expectations, it was and extremely relaxing holiday. In all truth and honesty, I think we all secretly thought everything was going to crash and burn, and we’d have just one more crazy tale to go along with our lives here. The final spread was extremely impressive, and extremely delicious.

The turkey before:

And after:

The whole spread: several angles were necessary to fully capture the awesomeness.

After dinner, Lisa and her dad came and picked up the whole gang, and we drove out to an old mined out section of Linden, and admired the view and the glorious sunsets of Guyana.

The hottest Thanksgiving on record was a wild success, exceeding (I think) everyone’s expectations. It was surely one that I’ll never forget. If I somehow DO forget this Thanksgiving, my sweat stained clothing will serve as a tangible memento of the glory of El Grill, and the difficulties of cooking on the surface of the Sun.