Hi! I’m Andrew Fox and I’ll be contributing to the Shop Talk Blog as an occasional guest blogger, where I’ll be writing about parenting and family tips and advice from a dad’s point of view. For my first post, I show how dads can help out on Thanksgiving by cooking the turkey on the charcoal grill outdoors.

Ever thought about cooking the Thanksgiving turkey on a charcoal grill? If you haven’t, you should—it’s easy, the results are spectacular, and it frees up the oven for other important things like pie. Plus, it allows dads to indulge in the need to cook a bird over an open fire. Who are we, after all, if not keepers of the flame and masters of the grill? (Of course it helps if you live somewhere where you can fire up the grill in late November.)

I’ve been cooking our Thanksgiving turkey this way for years, and it’s really pretty foolproof. You just need to follow a few simple directions, which I am about to share. My technique is optimized for a Weber kettle grill. Other charcoal grills should work similarly, but those of you with gas grills are on your own.

Here’s what you’re going to need:

• A turkey, preferably 20 pounds or less (any bigger and you might not be able to fit the lid on your grill!)
• Olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Fresh herbs and aromatics like onions, lemons, and garlic
• Charcoal
• Wood smoking chips—apple, hickory, alder, mesquite, or whatever you like
• A medium-sized foil pan
• One bottle of white wine (I used sauvignon blanc; something cheap like “Two-buck Chuck” is fine)

Rinse off your turkey and dry it thoroughly inside and out. Make sure you remove the giblets in their bag (I forgot to do this once… yuck). Rub it all over with olive oil, and liberally season with salt and pepper. Stuff the cavity with the herbs, onion, and lemon.

Soak a cup of wood chips in water for 30 minutes. Build a medium sized charcoal fire, and when the coals are ready, divide them evenly into two piles on opposite sides of the grill. Scatter the wood chips over the coals. This will create the smoke that will give the turkey some great flavor.

Between the piles of coals place your foil pan, and pour in your bottle of wine. The wine will add flavor and moisture; you can substitute water or chicken broth if you want.

Put the grill grate on, making sure you position the handles over the piles of coals, as shown in the photo. Place your turkey on the grill, cover, and adjust the vents so they’re about half open—we want a fairly slow fire here.

Now go back in the house and watch football or something. You’ll want to get up every half hour or so and check on your bird, adding two or three charcoal briquets to each side if needed.

Cook your turkey until the temperature in the thickest part of the breast reads 161ºF. Our 12-pound free-range bird took about 3 hours. Remove from the grill and let rest, tented with aluminum foil, for 30 minutes. Then bring to the table and get ready for the compliments!

We’re hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year, and the kids enjoy involving themselves in every aspect of the holiday. One thing they love to do is to get out their paper and crayons and scissors and create colorful crafts to help decorate the house.

My five-year-old daughter is into all things pumpkin this fall, so we recently created is this adorable turkey centerpiece for our Thanksgiving table. It’s made from a small “sugar pie” pumpkin (available at most grocery stores) and craft supplies that you probably have lying around the house already.

This is a fun autumn project that’s easy to make for children of all ages (with a parent’s help), and looks fanstastic on the dining table.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Heavyweight construction paper in rich fall colors (we used brown, orange, yellow, red, and black)
• Crayons or markers in similar colors
• Scissors
• A “sugar pie” pumpkin
• A glue stick or craft glue
• Foam mounting tape or double stick tape (the foam mounting tape squares available at craft stores do a really nice job)
• Turkey centerpiece template (download here)

Here’s how you make it:

1. Download and print out the template on plain paper and cut out each of the shapes. You’ll use these to create the parts of the turkey to attach to the pumpkin.
2. Trace around the feather template to create nine tail feathers. We made three of each in brown, orange, and yellow. Kids can use their crayons or markers to draw a feather-like pattern on each one.
3. Arrange the tail feathers in alternating colors and fan them out into a semi-circle. Use the double-stick mounting tape to hold the feathers together at the bottom. This tape will also hold the feathers to the pumpkin, so make sure you use enough here. You’ll also want to tape each feather to the one next to it about midway along, which helps keep them in place.
4. Peel the backing from the tape at the bottom of the feathers and adhere it to the back of the pumpkin, with the pumpkin sitting upright.
5. Now trace and cut out the head and the face parts (the beak, wattle, and eyes). Use the glue stick to glue the face parts to the head, using the template as a guide.
6. With the double-stick tape, adhere the head to the pumpkin, with the bottom of the neck about halfway down and the middle of the head resting on the pumpkin stem. Tape it down in both spots.
7. Trace and cut out the wings—you can draw some feathers on them if you like—and tape them to the sides of the pumpkin.

That’s all there is to it. Place your turkey at the center of your Thanksgiving table and get ready for the feast!