And to make our first Thanksgiving memorable, we decided to make Jacque Pepin's steam powered turkey. With the promise of a moister and crispier bird than roasting alone can deliver, we steamed our 17 pound bird for about 40 minutes and then roasted her for about 2 1/2 hours.

Our ghostly bird steaming away

While I suspect Jacque's method is pretty sound, our results were mixed. We produced a golden bird with very moist breast meat, but the thighs weren't cooked through and the sauce was a little strange.

Steaming complete and into the oven

The final product minus the bloody thighs
we discovered minutes later

While I would like to say I'm going to get it right the next time, I think we'll be serving Thomason's barbequed ham at our next Thanksgiving.