Help! I'm Hosting My First Thanksgiving Dinner!

While you were offering to host Thanksgiving dinner this year, you basked in the glow of social acceptance. Now, upon reflection, do you belatedly realize that, like the drunken prom queen, you have tumbled headlong into a "sitch-ee-ay-shun?" Do you dread spending a week coping with The Great Turkey who'll come to roost in your fridge; the poking, the prodding, having to accommodate his excessive need for personal space? Are you envisioning yourself on that frosty midnight before Thanksgiving, at the kitchen sink, up to your elbows in bio-hazard raw turkey grossness, trying to finish thawing a pervasively frozen fowl, and swearing like a sailor who's just lost his shore-leave? Whether you are stressed-out about hosting Thanksgiving this year because you are busier than ever, or you are just new to the whole thing, Gail McGaffigan is here to help. Basic, traditional recipes are presented with tips in three levels: Nice to Have, Need to Have, and Fending off Disaster, so you can prioritize. Also included are lists, schedules, trouble-shooting, and more