Third Sunday Dinner Report March 2014

March is the perfect Month in Mesa Az.  The weather is perfect, with orange blossoms in bloom and flower everywhere.  I love March.

It just happened that I had three turkeys in my freezer that a good friend had donated in December.  So I thought it would be the perfect meal.  I decided to smoke them and do smoked turkey tacos.  Amazing.  Smoking meat is the best way.  I love my Traeger Smoker.  It is amazing and in my smoker I can fit three large turkeys.

My method for smoking turkeys is as follows.  I brine them in buckets of water.  I put in 1 cup of kosher salt and 2 cups of sugar.  I add Seasoning also.   When I am smoking meats,  I like to add mesquite seasoning.  They have a really good one at Costco.  Cover the turkeys in the brine and place in the cooler and brine overnight.  I remove them from the brine and rinse them well  These I stuffed with lemons,  I have a lot this time of year, and fresh herbs from my garden..  I warm up the smoker according to instructions and place the turkeys on the rack.  Now I have to say I don't do the quick method,  that would be smoke for a couple of hours and raise the temp and roast.  I do a long smoke,  about 14 hours.  It is worth the wait.  With this smoker, you just add the pellets and set the temp and leave it alone.  That is why I love my Traeger smoker.  I smoked them before them on Friday all day and placed them in the frig to cool.  I had my helpers on Sunday remove all the meat from the bones and we chopped it up small and placed the pans in the oven to warm.  Amazing is all I can say. We served about 300 tacos.

About that,  flour tortillas are great, but to make that many would be a nightmare and to buy them is out of the question.  So I opted for corn tortillas.  In Mesa we have some really great places to buy tortillas. Cheap and wonderful.  We cooked them on a cast iron griddle with a small amount of oil. The end result,  wonderful tacos that were inexpensive to make.

Third Sunday Dinners are a joy,  some work, but the joy always outweighs the amount of effort.  Here is a picture review of the day.  It is hard to take pictures some days because we are so busy with everything going on, but you will get the idea.  Enjoy.  Chef Brad~America's Grain Guy

The back yard is set ready to go.

The boys.  They come early to help set up and do whatever
I need.  They are amazing and I think this experience will
have a life long impact on them. 

 For a side dish I place black beans and pearled barley in my large roaster to cook all day.   I seasoned them like Cuban Black Beans and let them cook.  They were great with the tacos.

This is Micah and William,  cooking tortillas.

Thomas cooking tortillas.  

Fresh baked gluten free cookie bars.

I love it when desserts like this show up.

The line up for dinner.

Look at all the great food.

Now that's a happy face.

 This picture is priceless to me.  This is my dearest friend Gail.  She is responsible for my grain adventure.   She got me hired years ago in a food storage place in Mesa Az.  That is where my love for grains started.  And I adore this woman.  She is a wonderful friend and I was so thrilled when she just showed up for Dinner.  You never know who will be coming to dinner.  That is the fun of it.

Happy faces eating and enjoying each other.

More happy faces.

I love the back yard filled with so many.  This is Rainy passing
out dessert.  

This is Jay,  another dear friend.  We became close at
Third Sunday Dinners.  He is an amazing man.

My newest adopted Grand baby.  Wow.

When the tables fill up they line up.  

Third Sunday Dinner is an amazing event.  Through it I have learned to love more and I have learned that when you open up your home great things happen,  no, not great things,  Miracles.