November 25, 2025 • 20 mins
The primary focus of our discourse centers upon the essential considerations and traditional practices associated with Thanksgiving preparations, as articulated by our distinguished guest, Meathead from AmazingRibs.com. We delve into a variety of topics, including the nuances of selecting an appropriately sized turkey—an aspect often overlooked by many—and the indispensable practice of utilizing a meat thermometer to ensure optimal cooking results. Additionally, we explore the significance of preserving culinary traditions, which enhance the communal experience of the holiday. Our conversation also encompasses the importance of effective meal planning, allowing for a seamless and enjoyable dining experience. Through this episode, we aim to impart valuable insights and techniques that can elevate your Thanksgiving gathering to an extraordinary occasion.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- AmazingRibs.com
- Galloping Gourmet Graham Kerr
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Barbecue Nationwith JT and Leanne After Hours, the
conversation that continuedafter the show was done.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to After Hours here onthe Nation.
That's Barbecue Nation.
I'm JT.
Today we've got MeatheadGoldwyn from AmazingRibs.com or as
he likes to go by, Meatheadfrom AmazingRibs.com and of course,
(00:20):
Leanne is with us today,freshly back from the Middle east,
doing a lot of cooking andsome diplomatic work over there showing
people that.
Did you, did you do a lot ofbeef while you were there or did
you do beef and pork?
I'm curious.
Pork.
(00:40):
Pork, no.
Pork, yes.
I didn't think so.
So I actually did.
For my demos, I did do aspatchcock turkey brined and smoked,
and I did rack of lamb and Idid leg of lamb.
So we were told to stay awayfrom pork products.
(01:01):
And of course, Myron did brisket.
Go figure.
And Tuffy did.
He did poultry.
And I forget what the otherthing was, but yeah, pork is not.
You have to have a speciallicense to actually serve pork in
the restaurants there.
So I thought that wasinteresting information.
Yep.
(01:21):
So we just didn't go there.
I don't do demos anymore.
I'm asked to speak at eventsand of course, on a book tour.
I do a lot of.
I do a presentation.
I just share information andtechniques and facts.
I've gotten to the point whereI think demos just are.
They're distracting to me.
(01:42):
I'm too busy cooking to really communicate.
And they're all over YouTube,they're all over all the social media.
And people want to demo, theycan get it elsewhere.
And, you know, if you'rewatching it on YouTube, you can replay
it and freeze frame and everything.
So I don't do demos anymore.
I do.
(02:03):
I do a slideshow.
I show lots of pictures.
Well, we did more of like ahands on masterclass.
So even though we had, youknow, the stage, everybody had their
own personal grill to cook on.
So we were talking about, youknow, how to manage your fire.
So it was actually hands onwith people prepping, dry, rubbing
(02:24):
their meats and actuallyputting their meat on the grills
and cooking it.
So it wasn't necessarily an infront demo.
It was more of a classroom type.
So I guess the big questionis, Leanne, did they have M and M
peanuts for you?
No, they did not.
You can get them there.
You should put it in your contract.
Yeah.
Okay, a couple of quickquestions here for after hours.
(02:47):
This is start with Meatheadcouple of oddball Ones, as usual.
But when you get in the car,what is the first song you'd like
to hear on the radio?
Oh, well, that's a tough one.
(03:09):
By Thanksgiving, I'm alreadygetting tired of the Christmas music.
I, I, you know, WyntonMarsalis and George Winston and a
few others have some lovelymusical stuff.
Vivaldi's Four Seasons.
(03:31):
I'm not a big Christmas musicfan, Leanne.
I thought you were talkingabout songs in general, so I was
going to say the danger zone,but, yeah, whatever you want.
Yeah, that, that gets yougoing and gets you writing.
So no Christmas music to speak of.
I thought it was funny when Iwas in Abu Dhabi in Dubai, that that
(03:54):
is where I heard my firstChristmas song this year.
I thought it was strange to bethere and hear the first Christmas
song.
As long as nobody ever answersMariah Carey, All I Want for Christmas,
right, then I'm good witheverybody's answer.
I'm fond of the one song thatI like that they tried to ban is
the Baby, It's Cold Outside Yeas the duet.
(04:18):
They have, they have.
Somebody has interpreted thatto be.
It's a seduction, but they,they, they, they take it to mean
that it's a, a violation.
I, I don't get that.
Yeah, I think that's part ofthe woke stuff that fell off.
Yeah.
You know, especially when DinaMartin, and they dubbed her in, singing
(04:43):
with her dad, Dean Martin,that song, it was a beautiful rendition
of that song.
No, I can see, I can see wherethis is going.
No, I didn't, I've never heard that.
Oh, no, but it's, it's a good,it's good.
And people lost their mindsover it.
Anyway.
What's your favorite color?
Lifesaver.
Meathead.
(05:03):
God, I haven't had Lifesaversin a long time.
Just a block and a half frommy house, a candy shop has opened,
and they're chocolatiers.
They make beautiful chocolates there.
But they carry all the candiesfrom my youth.
And I was in there recently,and I got Chuckles.
(05:24):
You remember?
Oh, yeah.
I haven't had those in 40years or more.
I can't remember last time Ihad Lifesaver.
I think cherry might be myfavorite, but I got Chuckles.
Oh, boy.
I love those things, Leanne.
Well, I know it doesn't comein the roll, but I like the butterscotch
ones.
But.
Yeah, but out of thetraditional roll, Cherry.
(05:48):
I'm a, I'm the green one.
I like green.
Yeah.
And I like cherry.
We could be friends and wecould share a roll like this.
Yeah.
Because the green ones are thelast ones.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can do that.
I don't like the kind ofopaque white.
What?
I. I don't know if that'scoconut or what the hell it is, but
those are my least favorites.
But a lot of.
I'll eat the green and redones together.
(06:10):
I'm fond of Werther's originals.
They're not lifesavers, butthey're suckers and they're butterscotchy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm in with butterscotch orcaramels or anything like that.
That's true.
So here, meathead, this isgoing to make you think a little
bit.
If I gave you a box.
Now, Leanne has alreadyanswered this question once or twice,
(06:34):
so this is all on you.
If I gave you a box witheverything you'd lost in your life,
what would be the first thingyou reach for?
Oh, well, first of all, itbetter be a big box, because there's
gonna be a lot of socks in there.
Oh, my God.
I do.
I do all my own laundry.
I'm not allowed to touch mywife's clothes, but she doesn't do
(06:55):
mine.
So, you know, these socks,what's the first thing I reach for
that I've lost in there?
Gosh.
Now I've all of a sudden justtripped on regrets.
You know, my.
It's not going to be in thebox, but it's a regret.
I have no musical talent.
(07:17):
I took violin and piano for alittle while when I was young, and
I gave them up for sports, andI played a lot of sports, and I wish
I had musical talent.
I wish I could play the pianoor the violin or something.
So what would be lost would bemusical talent.
Yeah, yeah.
(07:38):
And I think, Leanne, you weregoing to reach for a watch or a cross
or something.
Oh, yeah.
My dad's watch.
When we were getting out of the.
We had a Chris Craft on ourlake, where we grew up, and we were
at the docks, and my dad handme his prized Mickey Mouse watch
that he would actually wear inthe cockpit, which, as a joke, but
(07:58):
he wore it, and he handed itto me and said, take care of this,
and there it went right in the water.
And they even took, like, ametal detector thing.
They sunk down there to getit, and we never got that watch.
So I would like to have hiswatch back.
Oh, I bet that haunts you tothis day.
It does.
It does.
I think about it because Iknow how close you were to your dad.
Yeah.
(08:19):
As you know, I knew your dad peripherally.
We were not intimate, but thevery first competition I judged,
he was the table captain.
And, yeah, he taught me a few things.
And we.
We dined together, and he wasa very cool guy.
And he's the guy that inventedpig powder.
That's correct.
It is his.
(08:39):
So that.
That must.
That must hurt.
Yeah.
What's something that youthink that.
And I'm talking about what'son the table.
I'm not talkingphilosophically now, but what's on
the table?
What's something that peopletend to overlook for Thanksgiving
dinner?
(09:02):
Tend to overlook it, like,forget to.
Put on the dinner.
They just don't.
They don't even consider it.
And maybe it was a tradition along time ago, or maybe it's something
that got lost in the.
In the family lineage.
Well, it's not on the table.
That's because it's lost.
But mincemeat pie used to be tradition.
(09:25):
And goose, Christmas.
Goose, mincemeat pie.
Some of those old traditionaldishes from the dickens days, they
don't show up on the table anymore.
But I like mincemeat pie.
I would say fine chinabecause, you know, I used to break
(09:45):
out the fine china for my, youknow, traditional holiday meals.
And I. I just know my daughterdoesn't have a set.
I've offered her a set,doesn't want it.
They, you know, it's likeCrate and Barrel this, that, and
the other.
But I miss the fine china andthe sterling silver and the crystal
glasses.
I'm with you.
(10:06):
We.
My mom had this rather largeset of china, and my daughter has
it now.
But that was the deal.
Easter, Thanksgiving,Christmas, you break it out.
You break it out.
It had its own settings.
We had little place cards thatsaid, uncle Bob sits here.
(10:28):
My father sat here.
My mother sat at this end ofthe table, whatever, you know, like
that.
And they were gold and pearls,and it was really a.
If you allow me this.
It was a classy look to the table.
And.
No.
And not just your every daystuff off the shelf, like I said.
(10:51):
And it said very loudly butsubliminally, this is a special meal.
Yeah, Right.
Yeah.
And everything had to be handwashed at the end of it.
Oh, yeah.
Everybody knew is the word.
It was worth it.
Yeah.
Now, if anybody out thereneeds some china, we bought a set.
Or we were given a set when wewere first married, 51 years ago.
(11:14):
And when her mom died, we got hers.
And when Aunt Ruth died, wegot hers.
When my mom died, we got hers.
So we're swimming in Chinadown here if anybody needs them.
Okay.
Meatheads China shop rightthere on the corner.
Yeah, I, I think that's true, Leanne.
(11:34):
And I think the.
We had special water glasses,like you said, crystal like that.
We had salad plates, we hadbread plates.
The whole table was full of stuff.
Yeah.
And we had butter plates thatmatch the china, you know, like that.
And we would put at least twobutter plates on the main table.
(11:55):
You know, you mentioned butterplates, and that just brought to
mind something we didn't getto talk about in the earlier segment,
and that is biscuits.
I, you know, I know there'smashed potatoes and yams and all
that stuff, but biscuits, yougot to have biscuits slathered in
(12:18):
butter.
Oh, yeah.
And that was the time, too, toalways break out.
Of course, my mom canned a lotof stuff, Right.
So we would have homemadeBlackBerry jam or strawberry jam
or, you know, some raspberry,whatever, because she made all types.
And.
And we didn't, you know, go tothe dollar store and just buy something
(12:44):
that they had there.
This stuff actually had real flavor.
It was always very sweet, verytasty, but you could taste the fruit
in it also.
I miss those things.
Oregon has the best blackberries.
I've.
My first visit to Oregon, Iwas in the wine business at the time,
and I was visiting wineriesback in the day when Oregon was not
known to be a wine producing region.
(13:05):
Right.
There are only maybe three orfour wineries over there out there.
David Lett and a few of the others.
And I knew David.
And I was out walking throughthe vineyards with one winemaker,
and there was a BlackBerrypatch, and they're wild blackberries.
And I asked if I could havesome, and he said, sure, go ahead.
(13:26):
And I wandered back in there.
I must have been back in therefor a half hour.
I just stuffed my face to myhands and my lips were black.
And they are so I can tastethem right now.
They were the best.
They were my favorites.
Yeah.
My favorite is Black Caps,which is a black raspberry.
Ooh.
(13:46):
And Black Caps, for those ofyou who don't know, this was where
they got the dye for blue jeans.
Huh?
No.
Yeah.
And they don't grow them muchanymore because everything's chemically
made and all that.
But Black caps, I have acouple of black cap plants, and they're
(14:12):
wonderful.
I love raspberries, too.
I love strawberries.
I, you know, all that stuff.
But Black Caps is.
If you ever see a jar, you canfind it on Amazon.
There's a place I get it on Amazon.
It's from the Amish, but it'sa black raspberry jam or jelly and
it's really, really, really good.
(14:33):
So that's.
Those are the things I kind ofthink we overlook sometimes.
I do get a.
At least one or I get a jar,if you will, for the table.
We don't put it in the jar onthe table and I get a Jeff jar that
stays in the back of thefridge of the.
The black cap next to yourpecan pie.
Next to the turkey legs next to.
(14:54):
Yeah, yeah.
Next to your M M's.
That goes on the sandwich on Friday.
Yeah, it does.
It does like that.
So I think I'm with you, meathead.
That I think.
I love traditions.
My friend Lyle and I, as Icall him Mongo, we have a tradition.
(15:14):
The weekend beforeThanksgiving we go shopping together.
We do all the food shopping.
Mongo and I do.
He likes to do it because helikes to contribute to the meal so
he pays for part of it and all that.
But I love.
Sometimes they're silly like that.
But we have a lot of fun shopping.
The gals in Safeway andWalmart and Fred Meyers aren't always
(15:38):
happy to see us when we comein the store, but we have a great
time and I'm big on traditions.
Comments?
Not particularly about our shopping.
Not much to comment on.
That's pretty much been thetheme of our conversation today is
what the traditions we love.
Because this is, you know, Iwaxed poetically earlier about this
(16:02):
being a food holiday and afamily holiday and all across the
yada, yada, yada.
But it's traditional andthat's a big part of it.
It's, it's a connection withthe past.
Not just across the countrythat we're all eating the same meal,
but over the years.
I mean, my parents did andtheir parents did.
Yep.
(16:23):
Okay, last thing here.
Two items, two tips, if youwill, that you want people who are
listening to the show to walkaway with when preparing their Thanksgiving
meal.
We'll start with Meathead.
Use a thermometer on your turkey.
(16:46):
Get rid of the little pop up job.
Yeah, get rid of the pop up.
It doesn't work.
It's inaccurate.
Use your thermometer.
I think 170 for the legs is myfavorite temperature.
160 for the breasts.
USDA says 165, but if you takethem off at 160, they'll go up to
165.
And there's a big differencebetween the two temperatures.
(17:09):
And texture.
And the other one is, is, please.
We talked about this earlierin my technique for the gravy.
It's just, it takes it overthe top.
Everybody, millions of peoplehave been using this recipe off of
my website for years.
Truly millions.
I mean, that page is.
That webpage gets a lot oftraffic, and I get a lot of email
(17:33):
from people saying, I did yourgravy, and it's unbelievable.
Makes all the difference.
Try it.
Very good, Leanne.
Buy the right size turkey.
So a lot of people think thata 12 pound turkey is going to feed,
you know, 25 people because itlooks like a big turkey, but there's
(17:53):
some shrinkage there and a lotof bone involved.
So make sure you do yourhomework on getting the right size
turkey.
And we talked about make sureyou buy it early enough so it thaws
out on time.
And another thing that helpsme is when I'm cooking a big meal
is whether it be mashed potatoes.
I'll do a sweet potatocasserole, green beans.
I try to make all those sideswhile the turkey's in the oven and
(18:15):
put them already in, like acasserole dish, the serving dish
itself.
And then I just pop it in themicrowave to give it a little blast
of heat before it hits the table.
And then I will do my pans andclean up that, you know, ahead of
time.
So I'm not dealing with thatat the end of the dinner.
Yep.
I do the same thing.
I do, like I told you how I do my.
(18:36):
My yams, half and half and all that.
They're in a 9 by 13 orwhatever baking dish.
They're ready to go.
They just need to be warmed upa little bit.
Same thing.
And we have a procession hereas Meathead was talking about with
the pies.
Once we get to this point,there's people have different job
(18:58):
assignments, and I let myfriend Ron carve the turkey.
He's a restaurateur, retired,but he loves to do that.
I got no problem with that.
Cut up the turkey, present it.
You know, make sure yourcarving knife is nice and sharp.
Yep.
Yeah, good point.
Absolutely.
Okay, we're gonna get out of here.
(19:21):
Go ahead.
Leanne said something that gotme tripped.
A couple of brain cells.
Buy the right size turkey.
No, buy a bigger one than youthink is the right size because you.
Want to send home leftovers.
Leftovers.
That's half the battle is getand have a roll of tinfoil on hand
because you want to slice upthe turkey and the drumsticks and
(19:44):
send it home.
With your guests.
Well, Jeff goes out and buys Tupperware.
Go to the dollar Tree and buy.
That's right.
I remember him.
Tupperware.
And then he's got those tothrow all the food into for takeaway.
Yep, I do.
That is clever.
Best $10 you ever spent.
Trust me.
Yeah, that's really clever, Jeff.
Anyway, thank you, Meathead.
(20:05):
I hope you and Lou have awonderful Thanksgiving.
We will.
And Leanne, I hope you and thefamily and John and everybody has
a great Thanksgiving.
We're gonna have a good one.
And for everybody listening,bless you all, and I hope you all
have a wonderful holiday.
Meathead will be back to do aChristmas show with us in a couple
weeks, so don't miss that.
And we've got Gallopy GourmetGraham Kerr coming up to tell us
(20:28):
Christmas stories in that in acouple of weeks.
So until then, go out, havesome fun, have some great food at
Thanksgiving.
Be kind.
Take care, everybody.
Bye.
Bye, everyone.
Bye.
Welcome to Barbecue Nationwith JT and Leanne After Hours, the
conversation that continuedafter the show was done.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to After Hours here onthe Nation.
That's Barbecue Nation.
I'm JT.
Today we've got MeatheadGoldwyn from AmazingRibs.com or as
he likes to go by, Meatheadfrom AmazingRibs.com and of course,
(00:20):
Leanne is with us today,freshly back from the Middle east,
doing a lot of cooking andsome diplomatic work over there showing
people that.
Did you, did you do a lot ofbeef while you were there or did
you do beef and pork?
I'm curious.
Pork.
(00:40):
Pork, no.
Pork, yes.
I didn't think so.
So I actually did.
For my demos, I did do aspatchcock turkey brined and smoked,
and I did rack of lamb and Idid leg of lamb.
So we were told to stay awayfrom pork products.
(01:01):
And of course, Myron did brisket.
Go figure.
And Tuffy did.
He did poultry.
And I forget what the otherthing was, but yeah, pork is not.
You have to have a speciallicense to actually serve pork in
the restaurants there.
So I thought that wasinteresting information.
Yep.
(01:21):
So we just didn't go there.
I don't do demos anymore.
I'm asked to speak at eventsand of course, on a book tour.
I do a lot of.
I do a presentation.
I just share information andtechniques and facts.
I've gotten to the point whereI think demos just are.
They're distracting to me.
(01:42):
I'm too busy cooking to really communicate.
And they're all over YouTube,they're all over all the social media.
And people want to demo, theycan get it elsewhere.
And, you know, if you'rewatching it on YouTube, you can replay
it and freeze frame and everything.
So I don't do demos anymore.
I do.
(02:03):
I do a slideshow.
I show lots of pictures.
Well, we did more of like ahands on masterclass.
So even though we had, youknow, the stage, everybody had their
own personal grill to cook on.
So we were talking about, youknow, how to manage your fire.
So it was actually hands onwith people prepping, dry, rubbing
(02:24):
their meats and actuallyputting their meat on the grills
and cooking it.
So it wasn't necessarily an infront demo.
It was more of a classroom type.
So I guess the big questionis, Leanne, did they have M and M
peanuts for you?
No, they did not.
You can get them there.
You should put it in your contract.
Yeah.
Okay, a couple of quickquestions here for after hours.
(02:47):
This is start with Meatheadcouple of oddball Ones, as usual.
But when you get in the car,what is the first song you'd like
to hear on the radio?
Oh, well, that's a tough one.
(03:09):
By Thanksgiving, I'm alreadygetting tired of the Christmas music.
I, I, you know, WyntonMarsalis and George Winston and a
few others have some lovelymusical stuff.
Vivaldi's Four Seasons.
(03:31):
I'm not a big Christmas musicfan, Leanne.
I thought you were talkingabout songs in general, so I was
going to say the danger zone,but, yeah, whatever you want.
Yeah, that, that gets yougoing and gets you writing.
So no Christmas music to speak of.
I thought it was funny when Iwas in Abu Dhabi in Dubai, that that
(03:54):
is where I heard my firstChristmas song this year.
I thought it was strange to bethere and hear the first Christmas
song.
As long as nobody ever answersMariah Carey, All I Want for Christmas,
right, then I'm good witheverybody's answer.
I'm fond of the one song thatI like that they tried to ban is
the Baby, It's Cold Outside Yeas the duet.
(04:18):
They have, they have.
Somebody has interpreted thatto be.
It's a seduction, but they,they, they, they take it to mean
that it's a, a violation.
I, I don't get that.
Yeah, I think that's part ofthe woke stuff that fell off.
Yeah.
You know, especially when DinaMartin, and they dubbed her in, singing
(04:43):
with her dad, Dean Martin,that song, it was a beautiful rendition
of that song.
No, I can see, I can see wherethis is going.
No, I didn't, I've never heard that.
Oh, no, but it's, it's a good,it's good.
And people lost their mindsover it.
Anyway.
What's your favorite color?
Lifesaver.
Meathead.
(05:03):
God, I haven't had Lifesaversin a long time.
Just a block and a half frommy house, a candy shop has opened,
and they're chocolatiers.
They make beautiful chocolates there.
But they carry all the candiesfrom my youth.
And I was in there recently,and I got Chuckles.
(05:24):
You remember?
Oh, yeah.
I haven't had those in 40years or more.
I can't remember last time Ihad Lifesaver.
I think cherry might be myfavorite, but I got Chuckles.
Oh, boy.
I love those things, Leanne.
Well, I know it doesn't comein the roll, but I like the butterscotch
ones.
But.
Yeah, but out of thetraditional roll, Cherry.
(05:48):
I'm a, I'm the green one.
I like green.
Yeah.
And I like cherry.
We could be friends and wecould share a roll like this.
Yeah.
Because the green ones are thelast ones.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can do that.
I don't like the kind ofopaque white.
What?
I. I don't know if that'scoconut or what the hell it is, but
those are my least favorites.
But a lot of.
I'll eat the green and redones together.
(06:10):
I'm fond of Werther's originals.
They're not lifesavers, butthey're suckers and they're butterscotchy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm in with butterscotch orcaramels or anything like that.
That's true.
So here, meathead, this isgoing to make you think a little
bit.
If I gave you a box.
Now, Leanne has alreadyanswered this question once or twice,
(06:34):
so this is all on you.
If I gave you a box witheverything you'd lost in your life,
what would be the first thingyou reach for?
Oh, well, first of all, itbetter be a big box, because there's
gonna be a lot of socks in there.
Oh, my God.
I do.
I do all my own laundry.
I'm not allowed to touch mywife's clothes, but she doesn't do
(06:55):
mine.
So, you know, these socks,what's the first thing I reach for
that I've lost in there?
Gosh.
Now I've all of a sudden justtripped on regrets.
You know, my.
It's not going to be in thebox, but it's a regret.
I have no musical talent.
(07:17):
I took violin and piano for alittle while when I was young, and
I gave them up for sports, andI played a lot of sports, and I wish
I had musical talent.
I wish I could play the pianoor the violin or something.
So what would be lost would bemusical talent.
Yeah, yeah.
(07:38):
And I think, Leanne, you weregoing to reach for a watch or a cross
or something.
Oh, yeah.
My dad's watch.
When we were getting out of the.
We had a Chris Craft on ourlake, where we grew up, and we were
at the docks, and my dad handme his prized Mickey Mouse watch
that he would actually wear inthe cockpit, which, as a joke, but
(07:58):
he wore it, and he handed itto me and said, take care of this,
and there it went right in the water.
And they even took, like, ametal detector thing.
They sunk down there to getit, and we never got that watch.
So I would like to have hiswatch back.
Oh, I bet that haunts you tothis day.
It does.
It does.
I think about it because Iknow how close you were to your dad.
Yeah.
(08:19):
As you know, I knew your dad peripherally.
We were not intimate, but thevery first competition I judged,
he was the table captain.
And, yeah, he taught me a few things.
And we.
We dined together, and he wasa very cool guy.
And he's the guy that inventedpig powder.
That's correct.
It is his.
(08:39):
So that.
That must.
That must hurt.
Yeah.
What's something that youthink that.
And I'm talking about what'son the table.
I'm not talkingphilosophically now, but what's on
the table?
What's something that peopletend to overlook for Thanksgiving
dinner?
(09:02):
Tend to overlook it, like,forget to.
Put on the dinner.
They just don't.
They don't even consider it.
And maybe it was a tradition along time ago, or maybe it's something
that got lost in the.
In the family lineage.
Well, it's not on the table.
That's because it's lost.
But mincemeat pie used to be tradition.
(09:25):
And goose, Christmas.
Goose, mincemeat pie.
Some of those old traditionaldishes from the dickens days, they
don't show up on the table anymore.
But I like mincemeat pie.
I would say fine chinabecause, you know, I used to break
(09:45):
out the fine china for my, youknow, traditional holiday meals.
And I. I just know my daughterdoesn't have a set.
I've offered her a set,doesn't want it.
They, you know, it's likeCrate and Barrel this, that, and
the other.
But I miss the fine china andthe sterling silver and the crystal
glasses.
I'm with you.
(10:06):
We.
My mom had this rather largeset of china, and my daughter has
it now.
But that was the deal.
Easter, Thanksgiving,Christmas, you break it out.
You break it out.
It had its own settings.
We had little place cards thatsaid, uncle Bob sits here.
(10:28):
My father sat here.
My mother sat at this end ofthe table, whatever, you know, like
that.
And they were gold and pearls,and it was really a.
If you allow me this.
It was a classy look to the table.
And.
No.
And not just your every daystuff off the shelf, like I said.
(10:51):
And it said very loudly butsubliminally, this is a special meal.
Yeah, Right.
Yeah.
And everything had to be handwashed at the end of it.
Oh, yeah.
Everybody knew is the word.
It was worth it.
Yeah.
Now, if anybody out thereneeds some china, we bought a set.
Or we were given a set when wewere first married, 51 years ago.
(11:14):
And when her mom died, we got hers.
And when Aunt Ruth died, wegot hers.
When my mom died, we got hers.
So we're swimming in Chinadown here if anybody needs them.
Okay.
Meatheads China shop rightthere on the corner.
Yeah, I, I think that's true, Leanne.
(11:34):
And I think the.
We had special water glasses,like you said, crystal like that.
We had salad plates, we hadbread plates.
The whole table was full of stuff.
Yeah.
And we had butter plates thatmatch the china, you know, like that.
And we would put at least twobutter plates on the main table.
(11:55):
You know, you mentioned butterplates, and that just brought to
mind something we didn't getto talk about in the earlier segment,
and that is biscuits.
I, you know, I know there'smashed potatoes and yams and all
that stuff, but biscuits, yougot to have biscuits slathered in
(12:18):
butter.
Oh, yeah.
And that was the time, too, toalways break out.
Of course, my mom canned a lotof stuff, Right.
So we would have homemadeBlackBerry jam or strawberry jam
or, you know, some raspberry,whatever, because she made all types.
And.
And we didn't, you know, go tothe dollar store and just buy something
(12:44):
that they had there.
This stuff actually had real flavor.
It was always very sweet, verytasty, but you could taste the fruit
in it also.
I miss those things.
Oregon has the best blackberries.
I've.
My first visit to Oregon, Iwas in the wine business at the time,
and I was visiting wineriesback in the day when Oregon was not
known to be a wine producing region.
(13:05):
Right.
There are only maybe three orfour wineries over there out there.
David Lett and a few of the others.
And I knew David.
And I was out walking throughthe vineyards with one winemaker,
and there was a BlackBerrypatch, and they're wild blackberries.
And I asked if I could havesome, and he said, sure, go ahead.
(13:26):
And I wandered back in there.
I must have been back in therefor a half hour.
I just stuffed my face to myhands and my lips were black.
And they are so I can tastethem right now.
They were the best.
They were my favorites.
Yeah.
My favorite is Black Caps,which is a black raspberry.
Ooh.
(13:46):
And Black Caps, for those ofyou who don't know, this was where
they got the dye for blue jeans.
Huh?
No.
Yeah.
And they don't grow them muchanymore because everything's chemically
made and all that.
But Black caps, I have acouple of black cap plants, and they're
(14:12):
wonderful.
I love raspberries, too.
I love strawberries.
I, you know, all that stuff.
But Black Caps is.
If you ever see a jar, you canfind it on Amazon.
There's a place I get it on Amazon.
It's from the Amish, but it'sa black raspberry jam or jelly and
it's really, really, really good.
(14:33):
So that's.
Those are the things I kind ofthink we overlook sometimes.
I do get a.
At least one or I get a jar,if you will, for the table.
We don't put it in the jar onthe table and I get a Jeff jar that
stays in the back of thefridge of the.
The black cap next to yourpecan pie.
Next to the turkey legs next to.
(14:54):
Yeah, yeah.
Next to your M M's.
That goes on the sandwich on Friday.
Yeah, it does.
It does like that.
So I think I'm with you, meathead.
That I think.
I love traditions.
My friend Lyle and I, as Icall him Mongo, we have a tradition.
(15:14):
The weekend beforeThanksgiving we go shopping together.
We do all the food shopping.
Mongo and I do.
He likes to do it because helikes to contribute to the meal so
he pays for part of it and all that.
But I love.
Sometimes they're silly like that.
But we have a lot of fun shopping.
The gals in Safeway andWalmart and Fred Meyers aren't always
(15:38):
happy to see us when we comein the store, but we have a great
time and I'm big on traditions.
Comments?
Not particularly about our shopping.
Not much to comment on.
That's pretty much been thetheme of our conversation today is
what the traditions we love.
Because this is, you know, Iwaxed poetically earlier about this
(16:02):
being a food holiday and afamily holiday and all across the
yada, yada, yada.
But it's traditional andthat's a big part of it.
It's, it's a connection withthe past.
Not just across the countrythat we're all eating the same meal,
but over the years.
I mean, my parents did andtheir parents did.
Yep.
(16:23):
Okay, last thing here.
Two items, two tips, if youwill, that you want people who are
listening to the show to walkaway with when preparing their Thanksgiving
meal.
We'll start with Meathead.
Use a thermometer on your turkey.
(16:46):
Get rid of the little pop up job.
Yeah, get rid of the pop up.
It doesn't work.
It's inaccurate.
Use your thermometer.
I think 170 for the legs is myfavorite temperature.
160 for the breasts.
USDA says 165, but if you takethem off at 160, they'll go up to
165.
And there's a big differencebetween the two temperatures.
(17:09):
And texture.
And the other one is, is, please.
We talked about this earlierin my technique for the gravy.
It's just, it takes it overthe top.
Everybody, millions of peoplehave been using this recipe off of
my website for years.
Truly millions.
I mean, that page is.
That webpage gets a lot oftraffic, and I get a lot of email
(17:33):
from people saying, I did yourgravy, and it's unbelievable.
Makes all the difference.
Try it.
Very good, Leanne.
Buy the right size turkey.
So a lot of people think thata 12 pound turkey is going to feed,
you know, 25 people because itlooks like a big turkey, but there's
(17:53):
some shrinkage there and a lotof bone involved.
So make sure you do yourhomework on getting the right size
turkey.
And we talked about make sureyou buy it early enough so it thaws
out on time.
And another thing that helpsme is when I'm cooking a big meal
is whether it be mashed potatoes.
I'll do a sweet potatocasserole, green beans.
I try to make all those sideswhile the turkey's in the oven and
(18:15):
put them already in, like acasserole dish, the serving dish
itself.
And then I just pop it in themicrowave to give it a little blast
of heat before it hits the table.
And then I will do my pans andclean up that, you know, ahead of
time.
So I'm not dealing with thatat the end of the dinner.
Yep.
I do the same thing.
I do, like I told you how I do my.
(18:36):
My yams, half and half and all that.
They're in a 9 by 13 orwhatever baking dish.
They're ready to go.
They just need to be warmed upa little bit.
Same thing.
And we have a procession hereas Meathead was talking about with
the pies.
Once we get to this point,there's people have different job
(18:58):
assignments, and I let myfriend Ron carve the turkey.
He's a restaurateur, retired,but he loves to do that.
I got no problem with that.
Cut up the turkey, present it.
You know, make sure yourcarving knife is nice and sharp.
Yep.
Yeah, good point.
Absolutely.
Okay, we're gonna get out of here.
(19:21):
Go ahead.
Leanne said something that gotme tripped.
A couple of brain cells.
Buy the right size turkey.
No, buy a bigger one than youthink is the right size because you.
Want to send home leftovers.
Leftovers.
That's half the battle is getand have a roll of tinfoil on hand
because you want to slice upthe turkey and the drumsticks and
(19:44):
send it home.
With your guests.
Well, Jeff goes out and buys Tupperware.
Go to the dollar Tree and buy.
That's right.
I remember him.
Tupperware.
And then he's got those tothrow all the food into for takeaway.
Yep, I do.
That is clever.
Best $10 you ever spent.
Trust me.
Yeah, that's really clever, Jeff.
Anyway, thank you, Meathead.
(20:05):
I hope you and Lou have awonderful Thanksgiving.
We will.
And Leanne, I hope you and thefamily and John and everybody has
a great Thanksgiving.
We're gonna have a good one.
And for everybody listening,bless you all, and I hope you all
have a wonderful holiday.
Meathead will be back to do aChristmas show with us in a couple
weeks, so don't miss that.
And we've got Gallopy GourmetGraham Kerr coming up to tell us
(20:28):
Christmas stories in that in acouple of weeks.
So until then, go out, havesome fun, have some great food at
Thanksgiving.
Be kind.
Take care, everybody.
Bye.
Bye, everyone.
Bye.
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