I did turkey breasts and thighs one year. Only way to have a turkey and a half. :) They were great. Even when it's a gorgeous whole bird, we carve in the kitchen, so there's none of that presentation like in the movies. I haven't done a bird over stuffing, but I often roast a splayed chicken right on top of vegetables. It's glorious. The main thing is to get any large fat deposits out (great big lumps). It helps that yours is a farm raised bird. Some fat is good and necessary for keeping the meat moist and making the "inny" texture, but too much just makes for nasty slime. Most stuffing recipes call for some kind of fat and other liquid. I'd leave that out for your method, and try to keep all the stuffing under the bird. I hope you'll report back about how it goes.

I've been packing for our big move (which happens tomorrow!)into our new house and labeling EVERYTHING. Seriously, the sides of my boxes have labels detailing almost everything in it. I'm hoping to place an order for my cabinets in a few days and once those arrive in a few weeks, our kitchen will be gone. I have no idea when I will be able to see my cooking and bakingware again, thus the obsessive labeling. These posts are getting me excited about what's to come... our new kitchen will have so many more drawers and cabinets as well as a dedicated coffee/wine space and walk-in pantry. I have no idea how I'm going to reorganize myself, but I suppose that is part of the fun! (2 "homes" for scissors... what a brilliant idea!) BTW, I'm originally from NY (therefore, I'm a total bagel-snob) and have yet to find any bagels elsewhere that compare. On my list, however, is homemade bagels to satisfy those cravings... now if I could just find some lox around here... Oh, and I, too, am totally confounded about men... my husband's excuse for never unloading the dishwasher is that he can't figure out where things go. After all these years... the hilarity of this is that by the time my daughter was 15mos old, SHE was telling HIM where to put the colander, measuring spoons, etc.

D'oh, I should have checked Cooking Forum, too! Oh, well, I'll remember next time. Thanks to Sophie's tip, I was able to crack the breast bone and get the bird to lay flat and symmetrical. It looked great going in and coming out. But ... eh, don't think I'll try that again. Contrary to everything I've read about the benefits of spatchcocking, it did not cook evenly. We checked temps in a few places and got readings that were at least 10 deg - and often more - apart. No idea what I did wrong. Instead of eating at 2:30, we sat down at nearly 4pm. It looked gorgeous and tasted good but it really messed with my T-day timeline. Thankfully, our good friends (more like family) were really good-natured about the delay (we'll just drink more wine!). Never did get any KAW pics, I was in crazy prep mode the whole time and forgot until we sat down to eat (finally!) and I didn't feel like getting up to take pics. Anyhoo, I'm going back to the way I used to make turkey using Emeril's Brined Turkey recipe. It's a bit of a pain to haul a big bird out of the brine and rinse it but it came out juicy and delicious every time. And on time! Oh, but the kitchen worked great! Love having an island with nothing but counter for prep and staging between oven and DR, etc.

There is heat loss but not much. The Weber has a thermometer on top and while I realize the very top of the inside, when the lid is closed, is the hottest point and is decidedly not where the cooking food is located, I think it goes up to something like 600F. Which was why I said earlier that food in a gas grill when closed is roasting/baking as much as being grilled from below. With mine, the hood needs to be closed to produce enough heat to cook because the gas elements below do not get as hot as a charcoal fire does. WIth my charcoal Weber, with the lid off and just a moderate charcoal load, the direct heat from below is mucho hot. So much so, I need to use a cooking glove or long handled tools to move or remover the food. Not so with the gas grill.