Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Ah, picking just one favorite Thanksgiving story will be a challenge. I am afraid that I will have to out my mother with her recipe for giblet gray that she invented the first year we had a smoke alarm (you know where this is going, don't you?): Put giblets in small sauce pan, cover with water, bring water to a boil, forget about pan until smoke detector goes off, throw out giblets and stick with pan drippings for gravy making. I would love to report that this only happened once, but I am afraid that it became something of a tradition.

The year we decided to go vegetarian and we completely messed up the tofurkey. Oh well, it was a great idea - we just weren't technically prepared.

Last year, I did all the cooking.I don't mind the cooking, but someone else gets all the credit for my work, so I don't know what will happen this year.

My first year making pies, my boyfriend and I were trying to cut a decorative design for the top of the cherry pie. Somehow the 3 leaves that we were cutting out turned into two eyes and a giant smile. We left the pie crust that way, but I still remember laughing uncontrollably at how happy our pie looked.

My grandma overcooked the turkey every year. I'm the only one not completely ruined on turkey in my family.

My father decided one year to do the turkey on the Weber. This was before the internet, and I'm not really sure where he got the "recipe" but he certainly didn't properly gauge the cooking time.

My grandparents arrived, the drinks were poured, the pecan-encrusted cheese ball was served with crackers. More drinks were poured.

The turkey was not cooking, and was starting to develop a sort of ashen pallor - my father dusted off the turkey and added more briquettes (he was an adept griller of steaks and chicken and chops, but not of large meat masses like...a Thanksgiving turkey).

More drinks were poured.

Eventually, my father boozily plucked the turkey from the Weber and carved it up. Underdone portions were nuked in the Radarange. Dinner was fine if you pulled the ashy skin off your turkey.

The Weber was retired for the season.

the first time my mom made chocolate pecan pie she mistakenly used semisweet chocolate instead of unsweetened. It turned out delicious and the next year, when she tried it with the unsweetened, it wasn't nearly as good. She hasn't gone back to the "real" recipe ever again.

I made an innovative Brussels sprout quiche; however, did not pre-cook the sprouts prior to popping it in the oven. It shall be forever known, christened by my brothers (thanks, guys) as the 'Golf Ball Quiche.'

I nervously asked my new hubby what I could make for Thanksgiving for him, what did his family make that he liked? I was waiting for oyster stuffing, or something totally off the wall. He thought for a minute and said "do you think you could make the celery with cream cheese in the middle?"... Why yes, I think I can handle that...

One year, when I was about 10 or 11, the stove in the house broke on Thanksgiving day, and the area we lived in, there was nobody to come fix it. So my Mom pulled out the camping equipment (we had one of those Coleman camp stoves) and did the turkey on a charcoal Weber grill, and the sides on the camp stove. The turkey was so good that she still often does the turkey that way!

My favorite thanksgiving story happened last year. My uncle haphazardly ran the kitchen that morning and ended up burning the stuffing and dipping his fingers into my aunt's pumpkin pie for a taste. The stuffing was delicious and the pie was just as good. It made for a great laugh and great story.

Last year's Thanksgiving was loads of fun for me since it was the 2nd time for me hosting it. This year will be my 3rd. My in-laws insisted upon bringing the fresh turkey when they came down on Wednesday night. They live in a farming town, so I knew the turkey would be fresh and tasty. Unfortunately, they told the turkey farmer we would have a huge crowd (not true - only 12 people) at our house so he gave us the biggest turkey he had. 24-26 pounds of it! I could barely get it in the oven with my medium sized roaster and it was so top heavy and slid around the pan. It was quite the workout to get it in and out of the oven. It also took forever to roast. We didn't eat until after 2pm!

This year they're under direct orders to not bring me a turkey greater than 20 lbs. Alton Brown's Brine recipe is a winner, even the huge turkey from last year tasted great.

Last Thanksgiving, my boyfriend and I prepared a traditional, multi-course Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people in Munich, Germany (at which I was the only American). Although grocery shopping for traditional ingredients was interesting (why, oh why, was it so hard to find chicken stock?), I would have to say that buying and prepping the turkey was by far the most amusing part. A friend had pre-ordered the excessively large turkey (almost 20 lbs.) from a local butcher, and my boyfriend and I went to pick up the bird. We did not have a car and there was no way we could balance the huge bird on a bicycle, so we carried it by hand in a large orange crate that the butcher gave us. It was quite a site to see the two of us carrying a turkey through Munich in the middle of the afternoon. When we got home, we realized that the turkey was too big to fit in the sink or the refrigerator. Our only option was the shower, and after a thorough cleaning of the tub, we rinsed the bird using one of those hand-held shower heads -- one person holding up the bird and the other hosing it down. The shower was then scrubbed again. The clean bird was then placed in the imported brining bag with imported brine and was stored on the balcony overnight. Fortunately, it's cold in Munich in November. Thankfully, our friend in Munich had an oven large enough to fit the bird (although barely), and in the end, the dinner was delicious and a ton of fun!