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I've made this meal for years, and now have a set menu everyone likes. If anyone wants to bring a turkey or anything else that's fine. I sometimes have a quorn roast, but don't bother with it much anymore. Here's the menu:

Cornbread dressing (I use No-Chick Broth, works great)
Mashed Potatoes ( and this year we grew them, along with most of the veg)
Wild Rice with toasted almonds
Acorn Squash with honey, cinnamon and rosemary
Fresh Cranberry Sauce
Light Wheat Yeast Rolls
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Cauliflower Salad with Remoulade
Yellow Squash
Green Beans
Corn
Sweet Potato Pie
Pecan Pie
Vanilla Ice Cream
Iced Tea with the meal, Coffee with dessert
Everything is made from scratch. I have a game plan written down and start 3 days ahead.
I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm not a vegetairan by any accounts but I did make this recipe one Thanksgiving and it is truly a show stopper.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pumpkin-Stuffed-with-Vegetable-Stew-240601

My vote for Fairmount, the best bagel bakery in the world.

Important advice for bagel smugglers: NEVER put hot Fairmount bagels in those plastic bags. Keep them in paper bags until they cool and then transfer to plastic. If you do put hot bagels in plastic, PLEASE do not blog about it. Spare me the anguish.

In a wood-fired brick oven, sesame comes out best, natch. But be sure to try kimmel (caraway seed), too. Never found a kimmel bagel in New York. Only place outside of Montreal I've seen one is at Happening Bagel, the best bagel bakery in London. That's not saying much: I don't even mind much if you put a hot Happening bagel in plastic.

I like both, I was so blown away by my first Montreal bagel, that the next was better than the last. I didn't even realize I was eating Canada's best bagels.

St. Viateur gets my vote due to the fact that they also have a Cafe on Mont Royal that sells beers and great food put between two halves of your favourite bagel.

I'm a bigger fan of the Montreal-style bagels than the NYC ones. I dunno, the NYC ones always tasted much more doughy to me.

I am a vegetarian and I was born on a Thanksgiving Day so this is a BIG DEAL for me... I just don't like to eat a bunch of side dishes that seem to have nothing in common... That's why I have taken it upon myself to make a vegetarian menu with which noboby will miss the traditional turkey. This is what I have done in the last few years:

2006
Butternut Squash Lasagna from Giada Di Laurentiis
I guess we accompanied it with a salad... can't remember

2007
Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese
Vanilla Maple Glazed Carrots
Sweet Potato Flan
Arugula/Red Onion Salad

2008
Pumpkin Rissoto
Baked Sweet Plantains
Vanilla Cheese Flan - same recipe as above, but without the sweet potato added.

2009 - this menu is still in the works... but here are a few options I am considering
pumpkin polenta
sweet potato mash with a homemade cranberry sauce
truffle mac & cheese - just because its delicious and super simple to make
roasted pears with blue cheese and hazelnut pralines

I've always gone the sides route and have been vegetarian long enough that my family respects my decision and doesn't make the sides with chicken broth or whatever. It also helps that many of our family's traditional dishes don't have animal products, like my grandmother's roasted eggplant salad.

But, if there's any worry that you're putting someone out with your request (or that you're being put out), there's no harm in bringing something to the table yourself (or asking your guest to). It lets the vegetarian be in control of their food, introduces other family members to their lifestyle choice/veggie foods and helps the host/hostess out. Honestly, most veg*ans are used to this anyway and it'll be a good experience for your brother.

Since my grandmother is getting on in years, I plan on doing a lot of cooking this year anyway. I'll be making a veggie gravy (roux of margarine/flour, veggie broth, various herbs and soy sauce for umami), green bean casserole, garlic mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes from The Modern Vegetarian Table. My husband, an omnivore, is making his signature "bird in a bag" (roasting a spice-rubbed turkey in a paper bag).

@Nickiter

Like not be a difficult eater for a day and just deal with what's given them?

Just wanted to add that vegetarian gravy is ridiculously easy to make if you have a good veggie broth or stock. Just make a roux (you can even use olive oil for a vegan gravy) and whisk in the broth, then season the crap out of it.

I'm no longer vegetarian, but when I was, I unabashedly went the parade-of-sides route. Green bean casserole was a must for me, along with stuffing (with apples!), roasted spiced sweet potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. My vegetarian ex-husband, on the other hand, would just mix corn and stuffing into his mashed potatoes and call it a day.

My aunt is vegetarian and came to our place for dinner last year. She was the only vegetarian among us omnivores, so it was Mom to the rescue. Having grown up Seventh Day Adventist--though not vegetarian--I am accustomed to occasional vegetarian dinners. Mom made one of her delicious vegetarian loaves--which is always a hit at church pot lucks--from cottage cheese, eggs, ground nuts, bread crumbs, and perhaps mushrooms. She also made vegetarian gravy to go with, so we had to two gravies, the other being made with the drippings. I think more than half of us--owing to the general Thanksgiving pile on--had some of this veggie loaf special addition to the table and it was delicious. I think I also did a vegan stuffing with veggie stock, and all the other veggie sides were without bacon or drippings or chicken/turkey stock, which is not my preference, but everything was a hit!

I think if I were to do a veggie entree it would be three sisters stew, (corn, beans, squash) using either summer squash and corn or winter squash and hominy. The stew can be done in the crockpot and it celebrates foods of the New World and the fall harvest. The veggie loaf, the gravy, and the three sisters stew can all be made ahead and taste better the next day anyway.

I love the sides and happily eat my way through dinner with plenty of room for pie, and more pie! If you want something more specific/complete The Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates features both a fully vegetarian and a separate fully vegan Thanksgiving menu. The recipes look awesome and I plan to make a couple of them this year.

I am only familiar with the last few years of Gourmet, so I can't speak as to the quality declining, but I really enjoyed and looked forward to the magazine. From what I can see, it was a unique publication - the photography was beautiful, the writing was good, and it had a mixture of ambitious recipes with everyday ones. No, it didn't have the rigour of Cook's Illustrated, or the ease of recipes in most publications. Yes, it may sometimes have focused too much on what was trendy, expensive over more substantive topics. Maybe it ended up looking too much like a travel magazine than a food publication at times. But overall, it was a really excellent magazine that I enjoyed reading all the way through, and it was writing about the culture, history, and traditions behind the food described. I can't think of too many other publications that do this regularly and comprehensively.

i am so sad. not just because i just renewed my subscription for another three years but because the ability to read about of food/food culture/food enlightenment/international food in an intelligent, comprehensive way has gotten much smaller. there are so few good food magazines left (please don't take my la cucina italiana or saveur!!!) or food tv left (you touch my baby jacques pepin, lydia or a few others from the PBS food family - you can take that horrid martha stewart produced show). i hope just like someone recently did w/ vibe magazine that another publishing company sees just how revered and loved gourmet is and saves it. i'm w/ daryn in saying that whoever made this decision obviously doesn't know or understand the real food/food culture-lover or how annoying the dumbed-down bon appetit is.

please don't send me bon appetit and expect me to not beg for my $65 back.

RIP Gourmet.