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Forget pie. Embrace the trifle

Inspired by a text from a nervous first-time Thanksgiving host — the sort typed in a mild panic just as November dawned — I’ve spent the past several weeks gathering other queries about hosting the annual feast for our inaugural…
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Skip the turkey. Host a Sides-giving

Let’s be honest, the turkey is the worst part of Thanksgiving anyway. So why are we going to waste our time, money, and energy lugging a 12-pound frozen bird across town and into our kitchens when half your guests probably…
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Your big Thanksgiving questions, answered

Every family has a Thanksgiving origin story. Some begin with a grandmother’s battered recipe card, others with a shaky first attempt at gravy. But mine began, this year, with a text from Grace. Grace, who I once buckled into a car seat…
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Why we call the good stuff “gravy”

I must’ve been nine or ten, doing a community theatre production of “How to Eat Like a Child – And Other Lessons in Not Being a Grown-up.” (To this day, I still find myself mumbling, “Like a child, like a…
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Restaurant matchbooks strike again – Salon.com

Maybe it’s nostalgia — maybe it’s trendy aesthetics — or perhaps just old-school marketing, but restaurants across the country are bringing back the beloved matchbook. You know the ones. Sitting in a bowl on the edge of the host stand…
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A magical maple-pumpkin pasta sauce

I’ve been reading “The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again” by Catherine Price, and it’s been quietly radicalizing my afternoons. Price’s thesis is simple, but unsettling: modern digital life — especially social media — is turbocharging our anxieties…
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Celebrate Thanksgiving like Ina Garten

If you’re a longtime fan of “Barefoot Contessa,” you’re probably well-acquainted with Ina Garten’s signature and iconic catchphrase: “How easy is that?” It underscores Garten’s prevailing mission to simplify even the most daunting tasks with style, whether that’s preparing a…
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