Don't mess with Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. I love it so much. I love it because (a) I’m a wannabe foodie and no other holiday is all about food, and (b) it’s not all sentimentalized and commercialized like Christmas. I feel sorry for people who haven’t learned to savor Thanksgiving, but instead whip out their Christmas decorations the moment the Thanksgiving dinner table is cleared. I think Thanksgiving should be a multi-day holiday. At the very least, there should be a Thanksgiving Eve. My dream is to become the king of Thanksgiving. Someday I hope to be serving up legendary Thanksgiving feasts that people talk about for months after. I want people to leave my Thanksgivings thinking “Christmas? Eh.” That is my dream.

I’ve cooked, let’s see, at least 7-8 Thanksgiving dinners. Each year I improve a little bit, and I thought I’d pass on a few simple tips to any of my many readers who might be cooking dinner this year for family or friends.

1. Brine your turkey. It’s easy and it virtually guarantees that your bird will turn out great. And if you don’t brine, at least try using an oven bag if you haven’t already. Oh, and please cook a fresh turkey instead of a frozen one. That’s a no brainer.
2. Don’t bother to stuff the turkey with stuffing. It doesn’t really add any flavor to the stuffing and it’s kind of a salmonella risk. Just cook all the stuffing in a baking dish. It’ll be great.
3. Make your cranberry sauce from fresh or frozen cranberries instead of using canned cranberry sauce. Just buy the Ocean Spray cranberries in the bag and follow the recipe on the package. It is very simple and much, much better than canned. Also, you need to be eating cranberry sauce on your turkey if you aren’t already. I grew up not touching it because I thought it was some sort of quasi-Jello salad, and I think my family still suspects that it is even though I try every year to get them to put the cranberry sauce on their turkey when they eat it.
4. Press a thin layer of pulverized store-bought ginger snaps into the bottom of the pumpkin pie crust before adding the filling. It helps keep the crust from getting soggy as it bakes.
5. Two new tips I’m trying this year: keeping the mashed potatoes warm in a slow cooker (set to low) as I prepare the other dishes and using a thermos-style coffee carafe to keep the gravy warm on the table.
6. Be sure to have an indulgent but not overly filling breakfast (don’t ruin your appetite for later), like a chocolate-chocolate chip muffin or a big cinnamon roll. Remember, Thanksgiving is one of only four days during the year when you can eat whatever you want without any reservations at all, so take advantage of it. The other days are: your birthday, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve.
7. Finally, with Thanksgiving just 13 days away, you need to get some buzz going about your feast if you haven't already.