Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope your day is filled with food, football, and good company. For those reasons, this has become one of my favorite holidays.

Christmas music may commence tomorrow.

THE MENU

I’m a pretty big fan of Steven Raichlen, and that may have started a few years ago when we cut cable for a while forcing me to become familiar with PBS programming. I made this smoked turkey recipe last year on my old charcoal/gas combo that wasn’t really a smoker, and it still turned out great. You brine it with salt, peppercorns, onion, clove, bay leaves, maple syrup, and bourbon. One tip that he left out of the online recipe that he mentioned on his show was to inject the bird with melted butter. I’m looking forward to seeing how it’ll go on the Traeger.

Since I follow Raichlen on social media, he’s always posting recipes. This one for smoked pecans caught my eye, so I’m going to give it a go.

As for the rest of the menu, we’re covered on several fronts thanks to my wife and my mom: dressing, mashed potatoes, broccoli rice & cheese casserole, pumpkin pie, homemade cranberry sauce, and chocolate chess pie.

What’s on your menu for the big day?

THE HIGHLIGHTS

A few of the upcoming Lubbock happenings (see calendar for more):

• Things are a little quiet around here with the holiday, but stay tuned for a jam-packed next few weeks
• Run off some of that pie at the Turkey Trot
• Texas Tech Men’s and Women’s Basketball are in action this weekend
• Tired of leftovers and washing dishes? Watch the TTU football game at Alamo Drafthouse Friday night
• Lubbock Moonlight Musicals continues its performances of Miracle on 34th Street