Highlights: Thanksgiving Tips and Advice

This could have been an incredibly long post.  I can’t think of a more “foodie” holiday than Thanksgiving and my Reader has been inundated with posts about turkey, side dishes and pies.  It makes me a little sad that I’m not hosting (then again, yesterday’s attempt at an apple pie makes me think maybe it’s all for the best).  Maybe I’ll get my chance next year?

Instead of sharing every one of those posts with you, I’ve reduced this week’s highlights to the best Thanksgiving advice and tips that came my way recently.

Every time I start feeling tempted to offer to host Thanksgiving, I start worrying about messing up the turkey (though we did successfully roast a chicken once…). Help in the form of “5 easy ways to ruin the turkey” sounds like something I could do without, but luckily Food and Wine also has the solutions. If your problems go beyond turkey, try Chow’s solutions to other disasters like burnt marshmallows on your casserole or lumpy gravy.  Real Simple also has a whole bunch of ideas for solving your Thanksgiving problems including what to do when the fridge runs out of room, how to provide enough white meat and how to handle the all the dishes.

Another way to ruin Thanksgiving? Bad etiquette. Luckily, Chow has us covered with all their Thanksgiving etiquette posts in one place and a chart to help you decide what to bring to Thanksgiving dinner.

Is finding enough time on Thanksgiving morning your problem?  Real Simple has a collection of make-ahead Thanksgiving recipes for every course.  And if you really mess up your timing, according to the folks at Chow, you don’t have to thaw your turkey before roasting. You do, however, need to allow extra time for it to cook.  I’m still kind of skeptical of this notion, but I feel like it’d revolutionize Thanksgiving if it works.

I would presume that it’s easy to get distracted by Thanksgiving dinner and completely forget about the most important meal of the day.  Luckily, Kevin from Closet Cooking has a mouthwatering collection of Thanksgiving breakfast ideas.  Roasted Pumpkin Quiche with Caramelized Onions, Gorgonzola and Sage sounds especially delicious, though I’m not sure I’d have room for dinner afterwards.

Still working on your decorating plan?  Apartment Therapy found some décor and serving ware on Etsy to brighten your meal and Real Simple has unique serving platters.

When I wrote my Thanksgiving highlights last year, it seemed like a lot of blogs were really into the idea of a vegetarian Thanksgiving.  This year the notion seems to be much less of a big deal.  Is it because I’m less hypersensitive about the topic of meatless meals? Is it more acceptable to be vegetarian in American culture?  I don’t know, but if you’re not sure how to pull it off without a turkey as the centerpiece, check out this collection of vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes from Herbivoracious and this neat alternative way to buy a turkey on The Kitchn.

Only 11 days to go!

Don’t forget: there’s still 3 days left to enter my Seventh Generation dish liquid and accessory giveaway!  Tell all your friends—if they win, maybe they’ll share!

image source: Future15pic on Flikr