Thanksgiving

This fresh side is a delicious alternative to cranberry sauce.

If you aren't making the schmaltz manié ahead of time, there's no need to form the paste into balls. Simply add the paste by teaspoonfuls to the simmering stock until the gravy has reached the desired consistency.

Think of a strata as a savory bread pudding; here, leftover stuffing serves as the bread.

Try using Grade B maple syrup, which has a deeper flavor than Grade A, in this recipe. Look for it at natural foods stores.

Toasted homemade croutons are tossed with a warm dressing for a stuffing that's lighter than the traditional Thanksgiving version.

For convenience, make the cornbread one day before preparing the stuffing.

Make or buy a favorite pumpkin pie for dessert. What to drink: A fruit-forward Zinfandel or Malbec.

You don't need a panini machine to make these; use the low-tech method of weighting the sandwiches with a baking pan filled with canned goods. If you're making just one or two sandwiches at a time, you can cook them in a skillet and top them with another skillet weighted with cans.

Unlike most brined turkeys, this one can be stuffed because the apple-cider brine contains less salt than the typical recipe. Begin brining two days ahead.

If your Thanksgiving dinner is a formal affair, serve the crostini on small plates with the frisée salad. If your guests like to hang out in the kitchen until dinner is served, offer the crostini as passed hors d'oeuvres topped with a sprig of dressed frisée.

Celery root (also called celeriac) is one of autumn's most delicious—but least appreciated—vegetables. Here it adds fresh celery flavor to this velvety first-course soup.

A seasonal Manhattan.

A spicy spin on the Cosmo.

Instead of relying on fat for flavor, this fresh side dish uses varied tastes and textures to impress guests: crisp, peppery arugula; tart, crunchy pomegranate seeds; and rich, slightly sweet pecans. It's nutritious, too, with pecans contributing monosaturated fat (the good kind) and pomegranates providing a good dose of fiber, vitamin C, and antioxidants.

Watch out, pumpkin pie! This dessert is delicious even without a caloric crust. It's a light and flavorful soufflé consisting mostly of egg whites, a great source of high-quality protein. To further up the health quotient, naturally rich but low-calorie unsweetened soy milk is used in place of whole milk.