I said it several weeks ago on Twitter and I still believe it to be true:

Here is a FREE ARTICLE for what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers. Ready? "Eat them; they are delicious. The end." Love, Kat.

It's true that there are dishes best served a la minute for optimum enjoyment; people aren't generally prone to stashing omelettes and pancakes into Tupperware containers for midnight noshes. Thanksgiving foods, though, tend to benefit from a night hunkered in the fridge, melding flavors and becoming exponentially more delicious.

We're sharing our time-tested Thanksgiving hosting tips and recipes, as well as plenty from chefs, hospitality experts, celebrities, hosts and home cooks we love. Our goal – sending you into Thanksgiving with a confident smile on your face, and seeing you emerge on the other side with your sanity intact. Leave your Thanksgiving questions in the comments below and we'll do out best to address them.

We're sharing our time-tested Thanksgiving hosting tips and recipes, as well as plenty from chefs, hospitality experts, celebrities, hosts and home cooks we love. Our goal – sending you into Thanksgiving with a confident smile on your face, and seeing you emerge on the other side with your sanity intact. Leave your Thanksgiving questions in the comments below and we'll do out best to address them.

The big meal is nigh on upon us and ya know what? You'll get through it. No matter what happens, in a few hours it'll all be a memory and ideally, you'll have a few luscious leftovers and warm, fuzzy feelings toward mankind.

We're here to get you through to the other side. Just submit your questions in the comments or hit us on Twitter @eatocracy and we'll get you an answer as soon as you possibly can. Your queries may be culinary - or even just a plea for solidarity and moral support.

Pull up a chair - we'll be serving up support in this here post all the way through T-Day and have a pretty thorough help list right here.

High & Dry

Help. My turkey is already done and it was supposed to take a couple more hours. The thing popped up and I checked it with the meat thermometer and it is ready. I didn't stuff it and I took the legs off so that I can allow them to cook more after the breast is done. I guess that is why it cooked faster. My guests aren't expected for two more hours. What do I do?

FULL POST

We're sharing our time-tested Thanksgiving hosting tips and recipes, as well as plenty from chefs, hospitality experts, celebrities, hosts and home cooks we love. Our goal – sending you into Thanksgiving with a confident smile on your face, and seeing you emerge on the other side with your sanity intact.

Know what? You're going to have an incredible Thanksgiving - even if you haven't given it a single thought until today. None of these dishes are rocket science and if you're clever, you're going to take our advice and accept all offers of help.

Still, our inner Boy Scout would be most cross with us if we didn't do everything in our power to get you prepared to have a calm and blissful day with the people you love (or at least put up with once a year).

Grab our buying guide, consult our killer list of tips and recipes and leave any questions in the comments below. Just because Eatocracy isn't gonna sleep 'til Black Friday doesn't mean you can't.
FULL POST

We're sharing our time-tested Thanksgiving hosting tips and recipes, as well as plenty from chefs, hospitality experts, celebrities, hosts and home cooks we love. Our goal – sending you into Thanksgiving with a confident smile on your face, and seeing you emerge on the other side with your sanity intact.

From the comments:

Sweet mother of poultry, the turkey isn't thawed all the way! WHYYYYYYYYY MEEEEEEE?!?!?

If you're reading this at any point in the week before Thanksgiving, you have no reason to panic. Sez the USDA's website:

Plan ahead: allow approximately 24 hours for each 4 to 5 pounds in a refrigerator set at 40 °F or below.

FULL POST

There's a Chekhovian theatrical trope that asserts that if a gun is introduced in the first act, it's got to go off by the third. The culinary corollary: if you're employing hot, bubbling oil to cook your Thanksgiving turkey and there are any other technically edible substances around, you've gotta end up deep frying most of them. Just embrace your destiny.

Behold the Stuffpuppy - an orb of textural pleasures progressing inward from crunch to sponge to pillow. It's the turducken of the sides world: a cloud-soft core of buttery mashed potatoes, swaddled in savory stuffing (or dressing - your call), crusted in crushed potato chips and fried to sublimity. To bite into one is to gaze upon the naked face of Thanksgiving and tremble in ecstasy.

Plus it's really, really, REALLY fun to throw random stuff in the fryer.
FULL POST

Thanksgiving is hands down my favorite holiday. It’s the one day of the year that’s off-limits on my calendar for anything other than family, dear friends and my complete and total domination of the kitchen. No work, no crazy international travel schedule; it’s all about bringing loved ones together to share an amazing traditional holiday meal complete with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, the works.

This year, however, work and my favorite holiday collided. My team and I at EarthEcho International, the environmental education nonprofit I co-founded with my mother and sister, had just taken the wraps off of a new tool for educators and students to help them explore the environmental and health impact of daily food choices called What’s On Your Fork?

In fact, the main element of this resource is a guide created in collaboration with the Meatless Monday campaign to help students start each week with options for healthy, environmentally friendly meat-free alternatives. You can see where I might be feeling a little conflicted about my poultry-centered food extravaganza.

Should the bird stay on the menu?
FULL POST

We're sharing our time-tested Thanksgiving hosting tips and recipes, as well as plenty from chefs, hospitality experts, celebrities, hosts and home cooks we love. Our goal – sending you into Thanksgiving with a confident smile on your face, and seeing you emerge on the other side with your sanity intact.

Thanksgiving is happening. There's nothing you can do to stop it, but there's everything you can do to make it magnificent and memorable for your guests and even (gasp!) yourself.

Here's why: you're not alone. Not only are millions of people across the United States encountering the same stresses (and delights) - you've got Eatocracy on your side. We're here to help via comments and on Twitter @eatocracy to offer culinary triage and a soupcon of sanity.

FULL POST

Country hams are terrifying. They’re dessicated, mold-ridden and possessed of a barnyard funk that could conceivably cause a soul to rethink their entire relationship with the animal kingdom.

They should not – for country ham is an American national treasure that rivals the finest porcine offerings of Italy, Spain and any other of the world’s ham-curing cultures. Here is what to do if you find one.
FULL POST