Thanksgiving Tips

Today's the T-1 day mark for Thanksgiving, and if you're expecting a hoard of holiday feasters at your home tomorrow, you'll want everything to go smoothly. Between finagling oven and refrigerator space, prepping cocktails and appetizers, and ensuring there are enough place settings at the table, there's plenty to juggle, but it's very doable — if you keep a few things in mind! — we promise.

For a few extra pointers, we turned to Todd English, an expert who's not just got experience juggling all the elements in a Thanksgiving kitchen, but elements in many different Thanksgiving kitchens. The James Beard Award-winning chef toggles between 13 restaurants and a PBS show and authoring cookbooks (his latest, Cooking in Everyday English: The ABCs of Great Flavor at Home, was published last month). Keep reading to see Todd's advice for a seamless Thanksgiving.

Did your pumpkin pie never set properly? Did the dog knock over the cheesecake you slaved over? Did you forget about dessert entirely because you were too busy planning an epic feast this Thanksgiving? First of all, take a deep breath. Laugh it off, then take a look at these quick and easy dessert recipes. Some of them require a little more time than others, so depending on your particular situation, you'll have some options.

• Chocolate chip cookies are a classic that puts a smile on everybody's face.
• Use up leftover pumpkin purée and day-old bread to make a heartwarming and filling pumpkin bread pudding.
• Start up the fireplace and roast marshmallows (you can even roast them over an electric stove). S'mores are always a crowd-pleaser!
• If you have an ice cream machine and couple of hours before you want to serve dessert, use up your fresh cranberries in a refreshing cranberry sorbet.
• Shake up a bag of Muddy Buddies and munch on them the rest of the night.
• A simple pear crisp will finish off your Thanksgiving meal perfectly.

What are your Thanksgiving dessert plans?

Generally, I stick to basting or butter rubs to ensure a moist bird, but many Thanksgiving cooks swear by brining.

The Culinary Institute of America certainly does: they recommend brining as the very best method to ensure bold flavor and moistness. Essentially a brine is a seasoned aromatic liquid in which the turkey bathes before roasting. This technique is often used in preparing all kinds of poultry to maximize juiciness in the finished product. The salt in the brine breaks down the turkey's proteins, making it more tender and keeping in moisture that would normally be squeezed out. Here are a few important brining tips:

• Plan ahead: turkeys generally should brine anywhere from 12-15 hours.
• Choose a container large enough to hold the brining liquid and the turkey. You don't want any spillage situations!

For more tips, keep reading.

Thanksgiving typically involves appetizers, a cornucopia of vegetables cooked every which way, a huge turkey, stuffing, and inevitably some kind of pie. This can result in a majorly stressful oven situation considering many (if not all) of these items require oven-cooking. How do you avoid such a traffic jam and make sure that all of your delicious dishes are done at the same time?

Plan ahead! While you're planning your Thanksgiving spread, keep in mind how much oven space you actually have and adjust your menu accordingly. Select appetizers that can be made ahead of time and served cold or that don't require oven time at all. Caramelized leek, goat cheese, and bacon dip or homemade hummus served with sliced bread or fresh vegetables would be two great options. Cook anything that you can in advance the day before to save time and oven space. Also, many vegetable dishes and pies can be made ahead of time and served room temperature.

If worst comes to worst and you find yourself on Thanksgiving Day in a bind, don't be afraid to turn to your microwave to reheat dishes before serving. Also keep in mind that multiple items in an oven often increase the cooking time so you may need to bump up the temperature a bit. And most importantly, be sure to laugh off every little culinary bump. It's Thanksgiving, after all!

Want to get on the family's good side this turkey day? Then bake a pie! Sweet, buttery, and comforting, these pastries are a wonderful closing statement to an all-out meal. While it isn't too late to bake up your favorite recipe, pie can be a delicate balance of art and science. So to help you get started, we enlisted Tim Nugent, pastry whiz at San Francisco's Scala's Bistro and Top Chef: Just Desserts season one contestant. His tips for maximum pie finesse here.

Relaxing with loved ones while giving thanks over good food and drink is what Thanksgiving is all about, but hosting it can also be stressful if you're doing it for the first time. Want to impress your guests with more than just a well-executed meal? Set a table to match, using this easy cheat sheet.

• Set plates first to determine spacing (they should be about 2 feet apart from center to center) and the layout for the rest of your place settings.
• Arrange cups and glasses on the right side of the plate and butter and salad plates on the left.
• Silverware should be set in the order they will be used, starting from the outside working your way in. First course silverware will be on the outside and main course silverware will be on the inside.
• Set forks to the left of the plate (unless it's a small cocktail fork, which goes on the outermost right side of the plate) and knives and spoons (in that order) to the right. Flip knives so that the cutting edge faces the plate and line up the silverware so that the bottoms of the handles align with the bottoms of the dinner plates.
• Napkins are traditionally placed to the left of the forks, but since there are so many ways to artfully fold or display cloth napkins, feel free to play around with the placement. Slipping on a napkin ring and placing it directly on the plate or tucking it beneath a soup bowl (if you're serving soup) on top of the dinner plate are a couple of alternatives.
• Butter plates go above the forks to the left of the plate and should include a butter knife. Dessert silverware go above the dinner plate with the fork handle facing the left and the spoon or knife handle to the right with the cutting edge facing the plate.
• The water glasses are placed above the dinner knives, but the arrangement of the wine glasses can vary. Either place the white wine to the right, and red wine top center, forming a triangle, or placed above the knives in a straight row, slanting down from the upper left, going from biggest to smallest glass. Coffee cups and saucers are placed to the right of the setting with the coffee spoon on the right side of the saucer.

Keep reading for an easy-to-read visual diagram for the formal place setting!

Given just how much has to go down in one day over the course of Turkey Day, I'm all about planning ahead — and cooking ahead. Less craziness in the kitchen, after all, means more time to spend giving thanks with family and friends.

I'm also a huge fan of soups, which not only can be made ahead, but also imbue the entire house with an intoxicating aroma. But former Top Cheffer Dale Talde recently gave me another do-ahead dish to add to my Thanksgiving arsenal: a slow-cooked roast. With any kind of braise, "the longer it sits, the better it gets," Talde explained. One to two days beforehand, he pops the non-turkey main in a ceramic cooking vessel in the oven with some cooking sauce (Talde, a spokesperson for Annie Chun's, uses a Korean barbecue sauce), lets it cook for several hours, and serves it right out of the pot.

I love the idea, and want to try a braised pork roasted simply with stock and herbs — nothing could be simpler. Are you braising anything for Thanksgiving this year?

Want to make sure your cranberry sauce is perfect? Here's what you need to remember: the jelly needs to be cooked down with enough sugar and have sufficient time to set and chill.

Boil the cranberries for at least 10 minutes — this will allow the berries to release the fruit's pectin. For maximum firmness, include the full amount of sugar in a recipe; it helps the sauce set. (You can use less sugar, but it won't be as firm.) Let the sauce cool at room temperature before chilling it.

As a very last resort, if your cranberries still aren't jelling, try adding a teaspoon of pectin and boiling for five minutes. Cranberry sauce keeps well in the refrigerator, so if you make it the day before, it'll have time to come together well before your guests arrive.

Worried that your turkey's too dry? Gravy's too lumpy? Bread doesn't rise? Then write us in the YumSugar Community to get that problem solved!

Source: Flickr User slgckgc

Of all the year's celebrations, Thanksgiving often is the most expensive. In 2008, roughly a quarter of you said you were spending $150 or more. This year, to help you stay well within your budget, we've enlisted the help of Melissa d'Arabian, winner of the Next Food Network Star and host of Ten Dollar Dinners With Melissa d'Arabian.

On her Food Network show, Melissa makes dinner for four for under $10 — and her Thanksgiving is no different. She's partnered with Walmart to come up with a turkey day feast that's only $20, and plans to serve it to her own family this holiday. "My family is really getting the $20 thanksgiving!" she says. Regardless of how much you've got in your wallet, she has some pointers to help you stay under budget. See them when you read more.