Thanksgiving

A simply delicious sauce to serve over grains, veggie burgers, green vegetables, or mashed potatoes.

An appetizing preparation, this will invigorate the winter-worn palate.

This is a variation on the classic recipe more often referred to as “candied yams.” Did you know that calling sweet potatoes “yams” is actually a misnomer? Yams are rarely sold in this country, so quite often, what you see sold as yams are actually sweet potatoes. I make this dish for nearly every Thanksgiving dinner.

A traditional side dish is made even better with the addition of sweet potato. The flavors and colors are heightened, and the nutritional quality is enhanced.

I’m not one to eat pears out of hand, but I like them—slightly underripe—in salads. Contrasted with the pleasant bite of goat cheese and the sweetness of dried cranberries, this salad is a party for the palate.

This tart treat is welcome on any Thanksgiving table.

Pumpkin pie is a custard-type pie that bakes most easily in the convection oven at a steady temperature. Because ovens can vary, if your pie gets too dark too soon, reduce the oven temperature by another 25 degrees. The pie is done when a knife inserted just off center comes out clean and the center of the pie still jiggles but is not liquid. This will be in 10 to 15 minutes less time than if baked in a conventional oven. I prefer pumpkin pie chilled rather than hot from the oven, which allows me to bake it a day in advance.

Perfect for autumn holiday meals, this pie is best served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

An apple pie “made from scratch” has no competition from store-bought pies. Here’s the basic recipe with some favorite variations. To bake a frozen apple pie, see the chart. Convection-baked pies cook in about one-third less time.

Roast turkey is synonymous with autumn holiday celebrations. Because of the dangers of bacterial contamination, I prefer to bake bread-based turkey stuffing separately and stuff the turkey with garlic and herbs. Recipes for a variety of tasty glazes follow below. Check the guidelines chart for roasting time and temperature depending on the size of the turkey you are cooking. With turkeys up to 14 pounds, you can bake two or three accompaniment dishes—I suggest Creamy Garlic Potatoes (page 144) or Sweet Potatoes or Yams Roasted with Orange (page 145)—on the very bottom rack of the oven.

This simple recipe might well replace a turkey for a special holiday meal. The even browning that the convection oven offers and repeated basting with the slightly spicy glaze guarantee beautifully burnished, succulent little birds.

This treatment is a great way to dress up a precooked smoked ham for a holiday table.

There are two kinds of pumpkins—those intended for carving jack-o’-lanterns, and those that are usually smaller and rounder, with thick, fleshy skins, which are intended for pumpkin pies. Either kind of pumpkin is suitable for soup, though you may need to drain the jack-o’-lantern’s cooked flesh to concentrate the pulp. In the convection oven, you can roast the pumpkin to make pumpkin puree. See the Note below.

For all those who can't wait to nibble at the skin when the turkey comes out of the oven, these cracklings are for you. You won't believe how insanely delicious they are as the star of this salad. Don't be surprised if you start buying turkey thighs on a regular basis, just to make cracklings.

A spectacular gravy begins with pan drippings, but the true flavor base comes from a good stock. The real selling point of this stock is that you can make it way in advance of Thanksgiving. And any leftovers of the stock will enhance the soups and sauces that follow the big feast.

When you've got a native berry that's the foundation for a must-have sauce on every Thanksgiving dinner table across the country, you can count on lots of variations. Just check the Internet. This cranberry chutney is essentially a classic sauce, jazzed up with the more vibrant flavors of pineapple juice, pepper flakes, and clove. The good news is that while it's supermarket-friendly—not hard to find ingredients—it tastes remarkably more complex and nuanced than the short ingredient list would lead you to believe. Aim to make it several days ahead so that the flavors have time to mingle and mellow.

The miniature scale of Brussels sprouts makes them the perfect choice for a finely shredded lemony slaw to top the sliders . The freshness of the sprouts along with the little hit of acid in the dressing helps balance the rich flavor of the barbecue turkey.

This corn bread stuffing is a stroke of genius. It's so easy, you'll be making it far more often than once a year for Thanksgiving! Shelley Wiseman, author of Just Tacos, knows a thing or two about corn—and not just in tortillas—and she decided to skip the process of drying the cubes of corn bread in the oven. That alone is a huge time-saver. To enliven the corn bread, she balances the flavor punch of chorizo with the sweetness of onions and corn kernels. When it comes time to bake it in a dish (not inside the turkey), she forgoes the old process of covering the stuffing—which allows steam to soften the dried bread—because the bread isn't dry. She simply bakes it uncovered, so that the top gets golden with crispy brown edges, while the interior stays moist.