Need a super-quick, delicious dessert for Thanksgiving? How about classic pecan pie! This no-fail recipe is especially great for those short on time or new to the kitchen. No special baking equipment is needed to make this pie. All you have to do is combine the filling ingredients in a bowl, fill the pie shell, and bake. To simplify the process even more, use a ready-made pie crust from the store. The final pie is chewy, sweet, and nutty. Learn how to make it and read more

If you're hosting Thanksgiving at your house, then hopefully you've started planning your menu. Once you've decided on the menu lineup, don't wait to stock up on seasonal essentials. Three days before, shop for herbs, spices, seasonings, and other specialty Thanksgiving ingredients, as they'll be the first to go out of stock at the store. These include items such as:

• Fresh cranberries
• Herbs such as rosemary, thyme, and sage

To see other items I suggest stockpiling, read more

This year, indulge an expectant gour-mom with items that will be as adorable as they are useful in her kitchen. With this baby food cookbook, her little one can eat like the rest of us.

A popular French babyfood maker, once unavailable in America, is perfect for steaming and puréeing fresh meat and produce. For a mess-free happy ending, she'll love this festive and humorous bib.

Want more gift ideas? Browse the selection below or check out all the gift guides on HolidaySugar.

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with Dale DeGroff. If you've never heard of DeGroff, you'll be surprised to know that he has changed your life. Remember that basil gimlet you enjoyed at the bar last week? You can thank Dale for that. Or what about that perfectly poured martini? Dale's responsible for that, too. Known to food insiders as the King of Cocktails, Dale DeGroff is single-handedly responsible for the renaissance of classic cocktails. Back in 1980s New York, at a time when the majority of bars served drinks made from overly-sweet mixes, Dale was mixing drinks with fresh, seasonal, local ingredients and creating cocktails based on preprohibition recipes. To find out what the master has to say about cocktail trends and to see who he thinks is the best bartender in America today, read more

With President-Elect Barack Obama taking office in two months, changes to our country's economy, national security, and foreign policy are imminent. But will America's agricultural system change with Obama in the White House as well? In an interview last month with Time magazine's Joe Klein, Obama commented on a recent article in the New York Times written by Michael Pollan, the country's preeminent critic of modern factory agriculture, saying:

Our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the meantime, it’s creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they’re contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs.

With Obama in the process of selecting new members for his administration, activists have begun circulating a petition for the new president to appoint Michael Pollan as the country's new Secretary of Agriculture. Do you agree with Obama's remarks that the country's food system is in need of reform? Do you believe this is the beginning of a new agricultural era for the United States?

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Too busy to think about Thanksgiving? No worries, this week I'm planning a quick and easy Thanksgiving dinner that requires little effort and minimal stress. With help from the grocery store everything on the menu can be made the day of. A dinner party that gives thanks can be stress-free and delicious. Instead of hosting a formal fete, host a casual meal with the emphasis on friends and family. To get started, call guests to invite them to dinner, or send these easy, hand-written invites in the mail. Learn how I made them and, read more

For a break from the ubiquitous wintertime stew, try using leftover chuck roast to make this satisfying alternative.

Serve the flavorful meat with oven-broiled tomatoes and a zippy, Italian-style chimichurri.

For a casual yet classy meal, read more

Although pie making is a year round activity, I find myself more particular about pies in the Fall. Because they are the sweet accompaniment to important holiday dinners, a pie's presentation is incredibly important. To ensure that all of our pies are pretty, you headed off to market in search of the perfect pie pan. You looked for decorative, festive pie pans that are also functional and dishwasher safe.

You bookmarked the pans in the Yum Market on TeamSugar with the keyword tag, Pie Pan. I love this pumpkin shaped pie pan that shelleymonster discovered! It's festive, colorful and ideal for transportation. For more pie pans, check out the widget below.

Please read geeksugar's explanation for more on how to bookmark.

Kelsey Nixon, the perky blonde contestant on the fourth season of the Next Food Network Star, is getting her own show. In the November issue of Utah Valley magazine, she discusses her new role at Food Network:

I've been approached by so many production companies, but I think Food Network is the route I should go. I'm working on a project with them right now — a web show about teaching cooking basics. . . My co-host on the show is Spike Mendelsohn from Top Chef and we have a great time. I'm the one to do the 'by-the-book' classic methods, and he uses crazy ingredients from all over the world.

The show will be a part of F2 a new website the Food Network is launching in early 09. According to Kelsey they plan to shoot 65 episodes and have wrapped filming on the first 13. This is an interesting move for Food Network and I definitely look forward to checking out the chemistry between bubbly Kelsey and spastic Spike. What do you think of the unlikely duo?

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