Thanksgiving is the ultimate American holiday: Big-hearted, familial,
inventive and often, too damn stressful! When it comes to juggling your
devout vegetarian sister, your fidgety future in-laws and a 25-lb roast
foul, you want the turkey to take center stage. (Okay, you may just
want it all over with.)
The Internet is replete with culinary ideas and recipes for whipping
up a memorable feast without working yourself into a frenzy. The Net
offers vast resources and guides to help you plan and produce a Thanksgiving
meal that will even leave your mouthy aunt Edna stunned into silence.
For starters, before you log on eat something! The visuals on most
culinary sites are sure to make you salivate. Especially on Epicurious
- associated with Gourmet
and Bon App*tit
magazines-where you'll find plenty of eye-candy (food slideshows) and
over 11,000 recipes, complete with grocery lists and links to specialty
stores. Of the 450-plus recipes for Thanksgiving, approximately 30 are
for pumpkin-inspired deserts. Renowned chefs show you, courtesy of streaming
video, how to stuff a turkey. Fortunately, there are plenty of tasty
suggestions for vegetarians or finicky-eaters, and their buying guide
will give you the skinny on turkey, from kosher to self-basting. For
added fun check out "Search Spy," which tracks what other site visitors
are looking to cook, and Gourmet's Drumstick Disaster Forum, an outlet
through which you can vent and gain perspective on your holiday worries.
To build your own a la carte menu, use the recipe search on the above
mentioned and other food magazine sites. Food & Wine
has some exuberant suggestions, such as Coyote Cafe's Yucatec Stuffed
Turkey-guaranteed to wake up those taste buds. And Southern Living's
Thanksgiving dinner (sans turkey), infused with literary reminiscences,
just might steal your li'l ol' heart
All Recipes
serves up a smorgasbord of practical recipes and cooking advice. Their
hassle-free notebook includes plan-ahead menu suggestions for those
days when your home will be filled with houseguests. And if you're looking
to take an untraditional route, try their Hawaiian Thanksgiving Luau
or explore other regional cuisines of America. For a Thanksgiving dinner
without the gourmet frills, Meals, on the web,
provides simple and sensible menus that won't empty your wallet.
Every task requires specific and necessary tools for flawless execution,
and Williams Sonoma is the place to go
for your supplies and more. Their site will help you create a cooking
timetable, an equipment checklist -- conveniently linked to their sales
floor -- and roll out smooth dough. And if you prefer ladle-to-the-gravy
treatment, order your naked turkey, specialty ingredients and table
linens for speedy delivery to your door.
Sierra Home's site for their Master Cook CD-ROM series
is an excellent place to start your holiday planning. The online recipe
index, chat rooms and helpful hints will wet your appetite for the cooking
software. DLT tried the Cooking Light 6.0 and unlike most healthy cookbooks,
this collection is far from boring or bland (their maple, fig and marsala
pie is highly recommended). Its 3,000-recipe directory provides grocery
lists and nutritional analysis, instructional videos, organized menus,
and links to Web communities. The only downside: It can't do your dishes.
If all else fails, order in. Your local supermarket or gourmet store
will most likely offer ready-to-go Thanksgiving dinners that you can
reheat in the secrecy of your kitchen. And don't be modest when it comes
to presentation: Wow them with a luxurious table setting and accessories
from Williams Sonoma, Crate & Barrel
or any other online kitchen or home retailer.
Thanksgiving should be about creating your own tradition. The food
may be memorable in a way you'd rather forget and Uncle Jack's magic
tricks may be a disaster, but look on the bright side: They'll all make
for entertaining stories next year at the table.
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