I made vegan pizza and cookies for my boyfriend, who is visiting from out of town. We shared a couple of beers. It was, if I do say so myself, perfect.

My husband grilled the turkey in the weber grill with charcoal briquettes, and it turned out amazing! And the gravy had a nice light smoky taste.

I'm living abroad this year, but attempted a small Thanksgiving meal nonetheless: turkey drumstick, boxed stuffing, cooked carrots. I'm sad to report it was the worst Thanksgiving meal I've ever had, but I'm not too upset - I'll be home for Christmas, which is usually just a repeat of all the Thanksgiving goodies :) I cannot wait to get some pumpkin pie in a few weeks!

We went out for a 5-course meal at the Claremont Hotel in Oakland -- 30 members of my family all gathered together and nobody cooked a thing! It was delicious, but now I'm cooking the day-after-Thanksgiving turkey and dressing. :-D

I did a dry-brine on the turkey this year with a salt rub that I blended with herbs and garlic and citrus zest in the food processor. The last few years I have alternated doing a dry brine and a wet brine, but I think this year sealed it for me- I like the wet brine better. The dry brine, no matter how well I rinse the turkey, always makes pan drippings that are too salty to use and the stuffing from inside the turkey (which is my all-time favourite) was so salty it was inedible this year. Never have that problem with a wet brine, and I feel like it's always moister, too.

Maybe I'm doing the dry-brine wrong? I did the salt rub on Tuesday evening and rinsed it all off on Thursday morning, so it was probably in the salt rub for about 32 hours or so.

Thanksgiving was really great this year, very traditional with all of my family's favorites: turkey with gravy, sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed butternut squash, roasted Brussels sprouts, glazed carrots, and biscuits.

We went with convenience this year and ordered a pre-made meal from a local natural market. It seemed a bit pricey at first, but in retrospect worth every penny and more. Very little effort, really good food (especially the pie), and a fraction of the cleanup; I’m seriously considering doing this every year now with some extra veggie sides to supplement.

Everything went very nicely for mine and the food turned out great. Except the green beans which my dad christened "gunpowder green beans." Why? Because my pepper mill, the one I've had for YEARS, dramatically broke in half and sent about a quarter cup of whole peppercorns into the pan!

As I often do, I took the turkey to my extended family's Thanksgiving meal. This year's innovation was butchering the turkey ourselves the week before. I now know, in spades, why cheap meat is Of The Devil. Whew.

We were displaced (due to Sandy) and cooking in a strange kitchen but we made it work! I churned out a nice Southern cornbread sausage stuffing, a brussel sprout gratin plus all the usual Thanksgiving day side suspects!

We are in the UK and will be celebrating on Sunday when all the family can join us, so the real work starts tonight for us! :)

I don't make gravy from the dry-brined turkey drippings plus because we BBQ the bird, that adds another dimension of smokiness to saltiness! Yuck. My solution is to make gravy two weeks in advance and freeze. Roast turkey wings, legs and thighs in a well- oiled pan until turkey brown. Save the drippings in the pan. Make a stock with the turkey parts. I use Wondra in the drippings, adding some butter prn. Cook the flour paste up to 10 minutes and add stock till it's your desired thickness. I save the leftover stock just in case. And one less thing to worry about on the big day!

My sweetheart and I went to the Lowe's Hotel on the beach in Santa Monica and wined and dined looking out over the ocean in the bar, where we made out for the first time.

I butterflyed my turkey and just added salt/pepper/sage/ and strips of thick bacon…cooked in 1hour and 20 min for a 14lb bird. It was amazing! I'll never cook it whole again!

Jen, I spatchcocked too - dry brine, spatchcock, make-ahead gravy from the NY times, stuffing in a pan. I was the best turkey I've ever had, and easy to carve.

I found out I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner at 6pm Wednesday night so went very, very, VERY basic. Thankfully it was for just me and my mom so there was no need to put together a whole pile of sides and dessert.

I cooked the turkey from frozen (brilliant and would totally do again) which meant no brine, dry or otherwise. Made mashed potatoes and steamed green beans. And that was it. If I had had more notice, I would've added a butternut squash side dish and a pumpkin bread pudding for dessert.

We spent this Thanksgiving at my son's home in Virginia. We had all the fixings. The turkey was good but the ham was better. Turkey came in second place to the ham. We also had rice and beans, carrots in dill, roasted potatoes, stuffing, fresh cranberry sauce and my first ever homemade apple pie and a flan of course. It was wonderful. I almost forgot I made the delicious creamy biscuits ala the kichen recipe. : )

We went to a friend's place for a large Thanksgiving gathering. It was potluck-style with all the traditional (and a few non-traditional) sides- sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, wild rice salad, green bean casserole and so on. I made biryani and chocolate pecan pie. My baby enjoyed being the center of attention and we had a lovely time.

We went to a turkey cafe for lunch on Wednesday - turkey dinner taken care of! On Thursday we went out for breakfast - steak and eggs for me - a treat - and took our walks without any rain. Then we watched the dog show on TV while we worked on a jigsaw puzzle and eventually had some hot homemade soup and finished with dessert at our neighbor's - she had had a bit too much wine during the afternoon so she "entertained" us with stories. I just had varicose vein surgery and it was the first night I could shower and take off the dreaded compression stocking for the night. This is not anyone's planned Thanksgiving but it was great for us. It isn't necessarily the food - it is what makes you happy.

I prepped and cooked and cleaned and designed a tablescape for a whole week...and the morning of I woke up with a stomach virus! So not cool! Still recovering so I haven't even had any pie yet.

We had to cancel our plans to join the family due to a stomach virus so I threw together a last minute meal. Never again! I was the next one down and I regret not just sending the well ones out to eat!

Congrats to your little brother - it sounds as if he did great job! I'm looking forward to our Xmas turkey (or goose), too!

Thanksgiving for me is like Superbowl for football fans... it turned out great! We stuck with tradition, but I did put a twist on a few classics.
http://lifewithlampnsofa.com/2012/11/24/another-thanksgiving-gone-remembering-family/

We went with a free range bird this year. Worth every penny! I used all the same ingredients and proportions I've used for the last five Thanksgivings, and the free range bird was much more flavorful. It made amazing gravy and the meat was moist and tender. Amazing!

This was our second year in a row of us (or rather, my husband-I take no credit) and we even managed to convert some "I don't care for turkey" family members into believers. Other than the smoked bird, we pretty much stuck with the traditional dishes but with our own unique spin.

My pumpkin panna cotta went down a treat. :)

Cooked the whole thing from scratch, except for the turkey which my husband did. The meal was fantastic! Bought a Gozzi turkey from Guilford, CT. Bought most of my groceries the Sunday before the big day and made the pie dough. Wednesday evening, I made the cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie and prepped the veggies for the stuffing. Days before I made the croutons. I bought pre-trimmed haricot verts for convenience. Morning of Thanksgiving, I made and baked the blueberry pie, then the big bird went in. An hour before the turkey was to be done, I put the pot to boil for the wild rice, later I put in the yams to roast. We sat down to eat at 5:30pm. Overall, a successful and not too stressful meal.

Oh and the gravy I made from the giblets.

i had a peanut butter sandwich and spent the day working on a farm in the sun. a glorious thanksgiving!

I had a wonderful potluck Thanksgiving - comprised of 10 work friends without other plans or nearby family. I have a (not quite) 500 square foot apartment, but luckily a big balcony. I supplied the turkey breast, a Gardein roast (for my veggie friends), and a cauliflower gratin. Guests brought the mashed potatoes, vegan stuffing & gravy, green beans, roasted asparagus apple pie, pumpkin cheesecake and wine...lots of wine. Oh - and chairs and a folding table, because I only have a small table and 2 dining chairs. Three additional friends dropped by for a drink before dinner, so at one point I had 13 people in my small space. It was a lovely occasion, with everyone pitching in. I am truly blessed to work with a group of people that I actually like enough to want to see on my off hours.

At the last minute - Tuesday morning - my fiancee and I found out we'd be hosting her parents and older sister for Thanksgiving.

We spatchcocked the 18 pound bird (after a rushed defrost process the morning of) - rubbed with margarine, salt, fresh cracked black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and injected with rosemary, thyme, margarine, and minced garlic - cooked it at 450 for 40 minutes and 500 for 60. The moistest bird I've ever had.

Rounded out the meal with corn, green bean casserole, candied yams, mashed potatoes, warm cranberry sauce, biscuits, and one more thing that I keep forgetting, and it was a fantastic success for our first holiday meal in our home!

My mom just had (long-planned, minor, but tiring) surgery and we had 13 people coming for dinner so I took more charge of the meal than I have in years. She'd made apple sauce, butternut squash puree and the giblet part of the dressing in advance, and the guests brought the pies, cranberry relish and potatoes so it wasn't too hard.

The stuffing was great, if I do say so, and so were all the sides except the green bean casserole, which I think it's time to replace next year.

The turkey I roasted on Wednesday, carved in blessed, messy privacy, and loaded into two baking pans half full of stock to be reheated on Thursday. This is traditional at my house and I highly recommend it.

What I do not recommend is buying a rolled Butterball turkey breast to supplement your smallish whole turkey and roasting the two in the same pan. The sad rolled thing tasted like cold cuts and had pounds of salt plus MSG in the brine...which I only discovered when I realized that all the pan juices I used to make the gravy tasted "fake." I don't think anyone noticed as much as I did, but I added mass amounts of herbs and spices (ancho chili anyone?) to try to hide the salt flavors.

I am 40w pregnant and ended up as a guest rather than hosting a newborn. Leftovers the next day were lovely. I had made turkey stock weeks before so I could insure adequate gravey as well as my favorite cranberry sauce. Leftovers plus fresh gravy were really lovely.

I really believe the key to good gravy is lots of best quality turkey stock made in advance plus a really well cooked brown roux plus like a solid hour of stovetop cooking to reduce and give any lingering flour taste out.

Also, I finally found the perfect pumpkin recipe showing yet again that butter and cream are GOOD. http://www.marthastewart.com/318704/pumpkin-cream-pie I do add an extra egg because it is a looser than I'd prefer.

Funny how a bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy + cranberry sauce + pumpkin pie are really enough. Wait I think I ate a carrot too.

Vegan Green Bean Casserole, oh yeah!

http://vegweb.com/recipes/vegan-green-bean-casserole