The Hungry Traveler shares her fave tips & recipes for a Thanksgiving feast

I get overwhelmed around Thanksgiving. Between the magazines, blogs, and cooking websites it’s hard to navigate through all of the recipes, advice, and ideas. While I get excited to try new recipes and make a huge meal, I try to restrain myself and stick to the basics. As much as I love cooking, relaxing and spending time with friends and family is way more fun. After a few years of stressing myself out, I’ve developed a list of traditional, foolproof recipes that I go back to every year.
I spend Thanksgiving with my mom and we go to dinner at my neighbor Chris’s house. We start the meal by scratching off lottery tickets and then dig into Thanksgiving staples, complemented with kielbasa and sauerkraut as a nod to my neighbor’s Polish heritage. We usually add a few new dishes that may or may not make the cut and reappear the next year. Here’s what’s going to be on my Thanksgiving table this year:
It’s only natural that we start by talking about turkey.