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Emily of Black Rock Orchard swears by Ida Reds.

If I've only got a choice of supermarket fruit, Golden Delicious is my favorite option, but at the farmers' market, I prefer talking to growers, sampling, and then selecting a mixture.

Has to be the stuffing! It's the only time of the year I make it. And ooooh so good the nest day- IF it makes it!

Sorry El_Zilcho, what misplacedtexan was describing is most definitely Texan migas. I don't doubt that the "original" version of migas is a different dish, but so it goes with many other dishes that have been regionally adapted, e.g. Japanese "curry", BBQ differences regionally (where I grew up BBQ was anything cooked on a grill and in central Texas that would be blasphemy since it doesn't involve indirect heat), etc.

I don't know why, its just a pet peeve of mine when people correct other people just to seem to say "you don't know what you're talking about, but I do".

http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/missing-migas/

My new favorite this fall is jonagold for pies. Made a perfect tarte tatin this year: soft, cooked, and held its shape, though with tarte tatin, the apples are more cooked than they are baked. I have to say that in an informal crisp test I performed (I make dinner at a shelter twice a month) golden delicous outperformed granny smith by a mile. The grannies turned to mush while the goldens were sweet and held their shape. I'd think it would be hard to do an apple pie test without any apple pie seasoning though. Who's to say that plain apples in the presence of cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. would still perform the same?

Simple mashed potatoes

My favorite Thanksgiving side is stuffing with gravy.

Fried Turkey, stuffing and gingersnap gravy in one bite. By far my favorite holiday as it is truly THE holiday for food lovers! I can't wait!!

Gotta go with roasted garlic mashed potatoes. I could eat it all.

Cortlands should surely be considered, a pamphlet put out by NYS apple growers names them as the best for pie. I am a Macoun fan myself, both for pie and out of hand snacking.

I love homemade warm applesauce!! That and the apple pie are my favorite part of Thanksgiving. I don't like most of the other food including the turkeY!

Thanks for the giveaway!

New England tradition demands baldwin apples.

Baldwin:
Raw: bland and uninteresting
Baked: Full of layered spicy notes

I'm down in VA where Baldwins cannot be found, so I'm experimenting tonight with a heirloom variety called "gold rush" which is an ugly beast, but crunchy, tart, and with a lot of layered flavors when raw. We'll see how it cooks up.

My mom always used Granny Smiths because she is not too big on sugary tastes so I used those until I took a baking class in Philadelphia years ago with a pastry chef from a well known restaurant who ONLY used Golden Delicious. I started using them then and have never looked back but I do sometimes use equal Golden Delicious and Granny Smiths to even out the sweetness. Northern Spy is an interesting thought but Macs and Empires I would think would turn to mush!!!