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🔥 Not enough oven space? Here’s the solution you’re missing…

Hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving! Full plates, good company, and maybe a nap or two. Now that the warmup round is behind us, it’s officially game time in the kitchen. The holidays are coming in hot, and this is where the real cooking magic happens. Let’s gear up, get organized, and make this season the smoothest (and tastiest) one yet.

Here’s the thing most people forget about holiday cooking: your BBQ can pull double duty as a perfectly capable outdoor oven. When the kitchen oven is packed with turkey, casseroles, and every side under the sun, the grill becomes valuable real estate. All you need is indirect heat. Burners or coals on one side, food on the opposite side, and a closed lid to trap and circulate heat. With a little patience and a steady temperature, you’ve essentially created a second oven without fighting for space inside.

Turning your BBQ into an outdoor oven comes down to one simple concept: indirect heat. Instead of placing food directly over open flames or hot coals, you create a zone where heat surrounds the food rather than blasts it from underneath, just like a traditional oven. On a gas grill, this means turning on the burners on one side (or both sides) and leaving the center burner off. On a charcoal grill, bank the coals to either side, leaving an empty space in the middle. That open center zone is your “oven,” and when you place the food there and close the lid, heat circulates around it, creating steady, even cooking without scorching the bottom.

Think of your lid as the oven door. It stays closed unless you’re checking doneness. Every time it opens, heat escapes and the cooking time climbs. Use a built-in grill thermometer or an oven-safe probe to keep the temperature between 325–400°F, adjusting the burners or vent openings as needed. Adding a drip pan under your food helps control flare-ups, stabilize heat, and keep the grill clean. Once it’s set, you can roast vegetables, cook stuffing, or even bake breads and desserts with surprising consistency. It’s a simple shift in setup that instantly expands your holiday cooking space and keeps the workflow smooth, organized, and a whole lot less stressful.

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If there’s one gadget that earns its keep during the holidays, it’s the MEATER wireless thermometer, because nothing says festive panic like opening the oven every five minutes to see if the bird is done yet. The MEATER takes all that stress off your plate and replaces it with actual confidence. It sits inside your turkey, roast, or ham, tracks both internal and ambient temps, and sends real-time updates straight to your phone. No wires, no hovering, no overcooked meat disguised under extra gravy. It basically turns you into the calm, collected holiday chef everyone thinks you are. And honestly? Once you’ve nailed a perfectly cooked turkey without even lifting the oven door, you’ll wonder how you ever survived December without it.

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🔥 If you’re hosting family or feeding a holiday crowd, this Beef Shakshuka is the move. It’s one of those dishes that looks impressive, feeds a ton of people at once, and comes straight to the table family-style, everyone dipping toast, scooping eggs, and going back for more. The rich tomato-beef base, soft peppers, runny eggs, and all those bright garnishes make it feel like a restaurant brunch without the reservation. It’s cozy, hearty, and high-protein, and it transforms even the most chaotic holiday morning into a warm, slow, everyone-gather-around kind of meal. Click here for the recipe and video!

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When the sirens fade and the smoke clears, it’s not always the loudest voices that get the job done, it’s the quiet, steady ones. In his article “The Invisible Mentor: How Silent Leadership Shapes Fireground Success”, Ken Fowler discusses the essence of silent leadership, the kind of leadership that doesn’t demand attention or accolades, but quietly shapes crews, decisions, and culture. On the fireground, the true difference-makers aren’t always the ones barking orders; they’re the ones calmly securing hose, calling out “easy, easy” when chaos threatens, or offering guidance without making it about themselves. Silent leaders don’t need a badge to lead. Their influence comes from daily actions: showing up early, training hard, attending to the small details that build trust, and modeling professionalism, even when no one’s watching. This kind of leadership builds ownership, not just compliance, and it empowers every firefighter to internalize standards rather than follow orders.

On the fireground, where seconds mean lives, the impact of silent leadership becomes crystal clear. When adrenaline spikes and the chaos dives in, it’s not rank that keeps crews focused, it’s the calm confidence developed long before the call came in. The steady operator who’s walked the walk, trained the way, and never needed to announce their leadership becomes the anchor.

And the power of this style doesn’t just end after the emergency. Silent leadership echoes through time, shaping culture, building trust, raising the bar, and setting a standard for new firefighters even long after the mentor steps off the rig. No plaques. No ceremonies. Just quiet respect, capable crews, and a legacy written in how people perform when the heat is on.

Check out the full article here by Ken Fowler from Firefighter Nation.

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