re: Thanksgiving Day Menu

I lay off appetizers. Maybe just better cheddar and drinks. Sam Sifton has a great take on why he doesnt serve appetizers and it goes something like this, "You are going to spend days cooking for your family, and then everyone is going to fill up on chips and salsa." Instead he just serves raw oysters.

Other thing I like to do to lighten the fare is serve vegetables as colder salad type dishes. So brussels sprouts get turned into a shaved salad/slaw, corn is grilled and then tossed with sliced shallots and thin slices of red pepper in a lime dressing, etc...