Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday, period.

Who can’t warm-up to a holiday where we stuff food inside of food and celebrate? Even the bird gets fat before you consume it. This year we decided to put pig inside of pig as a light appetizer and drop a 13 pound bird into 4 gallons of peanut oil (for a crispy outside and tender loving goodness inside) as our main course accompanied by the usual suspects, mashers, sour-apple stuffing, cranberry sauce, and lots of friends. Big shout to all those who joined, we love having you at the Mesa (and Al you are always welcome to crash on the couch).

Inspired by some great American BBQ’ers over at BBQ addicts, I had to build my own Bacon Explosion. Besides, how does one top the BFTE? Last year’s pulled pork followed by a Turducken by Dominic and Joao was a two-day event complete with Dr. Furia’s from scratch Sweet Potato (“This must be where pies go when they die”) Pie, Dr. Hofheinz’s supra-dense sour dough bread, and an engagement announcement from our favorite expatriates Markus and Katya (now helping McKinsey take over the world and educating all those Germans on American Real Estate).

The Bacon Blast

I started in on the bacon lattice with some quality pig, 4 pounds (2lbs per Blast) of black forest bacon, then spread my favorite dry-rub spices (New Mexico red chile, garlic powder, S &P, brown sugar, cayenne pepper…) and topped all that with just over 3 pounds (1.5 per) of mild Italian sausage (ground by the butcher). Check out the weave!

After adding some crispy chunks of fried bacon, and pouring some spicy BBQ sauce it was time for the roll. Be sure to pay attention and keep the seam facing down so the bacon doesn’t blast out.

I pulled out the ruler to get some idea of how long to cook these duders…the BBQ addicts suggest 1 hour per inch (to reach an internal temp of 165 F).

After preparing two of these I had to go for run. My timing worked out well; I got back just as the Gents were assembling the Turkey Fryer and performing their volume and flame check.

With both bacon blasts on the grill (low indirect heat) Joao shot the turkey full of seasonings, coated with a an egg batter for some tasty crispy skin later, and slowly submerged it in 350 deg. F oil.

An hour later (excuse me, 45.5 minutes later -Thanks Joao for the arithmetic lesson 3.5 minutes per pound at 13 pounds is 45.5 minutes) we pulled the Turkey out of the liquid oven and gave the bacon blasts their final Maple Syrup glaze.

I lost count officially, but I think 17 err, maybe 18 of us managed to consume about 10 pounds of Turkey and 7 pounds of pig. Thanks everybody for a great time. Any ideas for next year?