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Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Menu and Recipe Collection

Straight from the test kitchens of Gourmet Magazine, plan your Thanksgiving menu with these recipes ranging from stuffings, pies and desserts, vegetarian choices, 10 ways to prepare turkey, and of course, leftover turkey recipes.

Also included, a complete primer on preparing a deep-fried turkey - with video, equipment suggestions, safety tips, and a recipe.

Thanksgiving Menus and Recipes  |  via epicurious.com

Zinfandel Picks and Other Wines for Thanksgiving

Choosing wines for our Thanksgiving feast is never an easy choice for us at Daily Olive.  It should be so easy, but it comes with lots of anxiety.  Andrea Immer, at epicurious.com, gives us her wine recommendations for Thanksgiving.  Starting with Zinfandels, she also gives her white wine choices preferring Gewurztraminers, and great port and sherry selections for dessert.  Finally, she reminds us that Beaujolais could also be great choices with Thanksgiving turkey.

Wines for Thanksgiving  |  via epicurious.com

Thanksgiving Ideas and Recipes from Martha Stewart

Thanksgiving is one true holiday that is about family and tradition.  And perhaps no one does tradition with a contemporary flair better than Martha Stewart.  Visit her website now to inspire and prepare yourself for the Thanksgiving holiday.  You'll find a classic roast turkey recipe along side 13 other ways to prepare your Thanksgiving bird.

To make your Thanksgiving complete, there are decorating ideas and tips, dessert recipes, stuffing and side dishes, a Thanksgiving checklist, menu plans, and Thanksgiving ideas just for kids.

Martha Stewart's Thanksgiving  |  at MarthaStewart.com

NEW!  Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

Related:  Best Pumpking Pie Recipe  |  Silicone Bakeware Popularity Surges

10 Favorite Cakes & Pies for the Holidays

Great baking ideas for Thanksgiving and Christmas

Epicurious.com presents its top 10 favorite cake and pie recipes from their recipe database.  Some are just perfect for your Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas parties.  If you have your own favorite, submit your own dessert recipe to their monthly contest for different prizes each month.

Favorite cakes and pie recipes  |  via epicurious.com

Serve a Better Tasting Heritage Turkey

Daily Olive readers -- Save 10% off your Heritage Turkey from Heritage Farms USA

Heritage Foods USA is beginning to take orders for their naturally raised heritage turkeys.  Order a Bourbon Red or American Bronze turkey, and enjoy a more flavorful heritage turkey over the common commercially raised turkeys.  The turkey's flavor comes from natural breeding, slower growth, and longer life before slaughter.

Learn more about Heritage Turkeys:

• Making a Comeback:  Heritage Breeds  |  via LocalHarvest.com
• The Hunt for a Truly Grand Turkey, One that Nature Built  |  NY Times via SlowfoodUSA.org

Technorati Tags:  Food and Drink

Wine Pairings for Thanksgiving Turkey

From the Food Network, here's a great listing of wine choices for Thanksgiving dinner.  From cheap to expensive, from elaborate dinners to simple, you'll find a wine here to go with your Thanksgiving turkey dinner.

Sponsored Link:  EuroCave - Premium wine cellars imported from France

Tips for Buying a Turkey

Yesterday, I met a man who has been deep frying turkeys for over 40 years.  We talked alot about turkey and he gave me some great tips.  His first tip was to buy smaller turkey hens.  Hens, it seems, have bigger thighs, legs and breasts.  They are more tender because they are also younger and smaller, and it's best to buy ones that are 10 to 12 pounds.  If you need more meat, then buy two smaller turkey hens.  He said never to buy larger turkeys--like the ones on sale that are over 20 pounds.  Most likely these are older male turkeys that have less meat and skinnier drumsticks and thinner breasts.  Generally, these turkeys will be tougher.  That's why they're on sale.  I think I learned alot yesterday, and I'm on my way to buying a turkey hen today.

Get Ready for Thanksgiving - A Survival Guide

Halloween's behind us, and here comes Thanksgiving! To get the holiday season started, we'll start by pointing you to Gourmet magazine's Thanksgiving Survival Guide at the epicurious.com site. The site has everything you need to plan your Thanksgiving, so go take a look.

See also - Tips for Buying a Turkey

Sponsored Link - wine.com: Where to get gifts for the wine lover

Best Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Everyone has their favorite pumpkin pie recipe, right? Well, count on Cook's Illustrated to test all the different ways to make pumpkin pie to come up with their own best version.

Note--since publishing this post, Cook's Illustrated has changed access to its page, so here's a copy of the recipe below.

Continue reading "Best Pumpkin Pie Recipe"

Choosing Wine for Your Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner

Looking for wine choices to go with Thanksgiving dinner? Here's a selection of turkey and wine pairing links from our friends at thefoodsection.com.

Turkey Carving Tips

Since Thanksgiving comes around once a year, not everyone is a pro at carving a turkey. If you need a refresher, you might like some quick carving tips from Gourmet Magazine's website.

A Twist on Thanksgiving Stuffing and More

Thanksgiving stuffing can be as traditional or untraditional as you imagine. To experiment and explore, Better Homes and Gardens offers a few unique versions of your traditional Thanksgiving turkey stuffing.

For a variety of other Thanksgiving recipes, Food and Wine Magazine's website offers an extensive listing of Thanksgiving articles and recipes covering turkey, appetizers, desserts, wine pairings, and holiday entertainment tips.

Daily Olive Special - Save on Food and Gourmet Magazines!

TurkeyHelp.com - All About Turkey from Cook's Illustrated

Our favorite cooking magazine, Cook's Illustrated, has published a new minisite all about Thanksgiving turkey. Appropriately called TurkeyHelp.com, the site has everthing you ever needed to know about buying, preparing, cooking, and carving your Thanksgiving turkey. As thorough as their magazine articles, you find the same comprehensive detail and knowledge on this great holiday resource.

Holiday Recipe: Cajun Deep Fried Turkey

Each year it seems we hear more about people deep frying their Thanksgiving turkey. So this year, we set out to find out about this Cajun tradition of deep frying turkeys.

We found excellent articles about turkey frying in general--"Deep-fried Turkey" from Texas A&M University, and another from native New Orleanian Chuck Taggarts' website The Gumbo Pages. And another site called Jim's Cajun Deep-Fried Turkey Page, comes with pictures of a fryer set-up in Jim's driveway.

Of course, we have to include a fried turkey recipe from Emeril, the star of Food TV.

Related Link: Turk N' Surf Electric Turkey Fryer

Thanksgiving Countdown - A Cook's Guide

FoodTv.com helps us prepare for Thanksgiving dinner and hopefully make it a bit less stressful with their Thanksgiving Countdown list. For virgin Thanksgiving hosts, this list is a godsend. For veterans, it might be old hat but always a good reminder.