I was recently brainstorming ideas for the how-to video series I'm creating to promote GPP's Knack books, when inspiration came in the form of a birthday e-vite. Each year, my pal Chris Norris celebrates his latest trip around the sun by cooking a whole animal in his backyard. Last year, it was a pig. This year, it would be a sheep. The perfect test subject for a video, I thought—how to cook a whole lamb.

Fortunately, Chris liked the idea, too, and didn't call the cops when I arrived at his house just after dawn the morning of the party to film him preparing "Larry the Lamb" for the afternoon feast. I documented the whole process step-by-step, from the first cut with a power saw to the final unveiling at the fire pit.

Note: Chris is not a Knack author. But he is the head of the paleontology collection at the American Museum of Natural History, with a PhD in zoology from Oxford, so his expertise at preparing animal remains for public consumption is certainly world-class.