I caught COVID at the tail end of last week, which turned what was going to be a 9-day trip back home for the holiday into a 3-day trip with about 14 hours of it spent on the road, but I'll be damned if I wasn't gonna cook my first complete Thanksgiving dinner. We'd gotten smoked turkey from a guy who ran a smokeshop for as long as I could remember, but he retired this year, so this was my first year cooking the turkey. I'd meant to get one a few weeks ago for a trial run, as I'd never smoked turkey before, but that didn't happen. So I had to wing it, and I'm thrilled with the results (ignore the splotchy appearance on the skin; the last basting was when most of the butter was gone and some of the seasoning in the butter started clumping up a little, but it didn't make a noticeable impact on the flavor). Super smokey flavor, but still plenty juicy (I rubbed some compound butter under the skin on the breasts, then basted with compound butter every hour for about four hours). But the gravy I was able to make from the drippings might have been even better. The potatoes, green bean casserole and dressing are things I was already making in years past, but now I can handle the entire meal with no problem, which is kind of fun.