Thanksgiving is the only day we eat turkey. The rest of the time, give me a roast capon or a duck prepared almost any way at all. DH and I are just not turkey lovers. My niece makes a very fine brined and roasted turkey, but once a year is enough for us. We're sauce and gravy people. Stews, braises, casseroles - we love them. I do a fair amount of cooking and a lot of dining out, and we hold that a fine sauce is a work of art. Even though we eat a lot of steaks and roasts, a great sauce is always to be admired. There are too many bad ones around to not acknowledge when something is done correctly. One of our favorite restaurants does a great poached monkfish. This is the fish known as "the poor man's lobster" for both its taste and texture. It's a great little fish, with wonderful flavor. But nap it with Amoricaine sauce, and it rises to a whole 'nother level. This is a Bretonnese classic, and for good reason. Red wine and marrow Bordelaise on a rib-eye? Absolutely! Black truffle cream sauce on a filet? Yum! Mop that goodness up with a well made starch - roasted fingerling potatoes, barley risotto, fresh pasta, freshly baked bread rolls. Gravy and sauce was the way to extend meat to feed a lot of people. Most of the world still loves sauced dishes as treasured childhood memories. Like soup, they are warmth and comfort, soothing and homey. Chicken strips that are velveted and steamed with lop cheong sausage (classic Chinese technique) are stunningly tender, almost as soft as sous vide but we like the flavor and texture better. Perfect with a roasted garlic-oyster sauce gravy over lots of rice! Far better than stir-frying or roasting. As Charles Phan of The Slanted Door restaurant in SF points out in today's WSJournal, steaming is considered the ultimate test of a professional chef in Asia. Getting back to the NY Times' and Pepin's suggestions for steaming, one of the greatest dishes in Chinese cuisine is steamed sliced chicken breast with thin slices of Hunan ham. My mother introduced me to this dish (she took classes from one of the leading Chinese restaurateurs in San Francisco) and it still ranks with DH and me as one of the three finest poultry dishes we've had in our 45 yrs of dining. A glaze should always be light. Heavy-handedness is the mark of a bad cook. Peking Duck would not be the same without the glaze applied, for example.

Hi, Stacy! Your post just struck such a chord with me, and I wanted to share my experience for what it's worth... My family had always (and I do mean *always*, as in for the last 100 years at least) had a huge Thanksgiving feast with turkey, dressing, ham, homemade rolls, along with countless side dishes and lots of desserts. Then we'd repeat the exact same menu for Christmas dinner. Besides hours of grocery shopping and days of cooking, there was silver to polish, linens to iron, crystal and china to hand-wash, etc., etc. Like you, we usually had a crowd of 16-18, so it was a massive undertaking. But with several good cooks and lots of willing helpers, it was always great fun -- very definitely a pleasure rather than an obligation. A couple of years after I 'inherited' hostess duties from my mother, though, suddenly the joy was all gone and it became overwhelming. Our family reached a point where the grandparents and others of their generation were too old and feeble to help. And the grandchildren were still too young to assume any meaningful responsibilities. There was absolutely nobody to help me with this huge project. Well, except for my sister-in-law, but I refuse to go there.... After serving Thanksgiving dinner that year, I was on the verge of collapse. (As usual, SIL didn't even offer to help with the dishes!) And all I could think about was the fact that it would be deja vu all over again in less than a month -- PLUS all the shopping, wrapping and decorating that makes Christmas 10 times more chaotic. In order to save my mental health, something had to give! So I did the previously unthinkable and announced that our holiday food traditions were about to change dramatically. The Thanksgiving menu would remain basically the same, but Christmas dinner would be way different. I promised them it would be elegant and delicious, but it would also be extremely simplified. To my shock and amazement, all the oldies were extremely supportive. They said it made lots more sense under the circumstances, that they were sure they'd love anything I served, and it would be fun to start a new tradition. (Pretty cool 'tude for people in their 80's and 90's, huh?) The ones who howled with indignation were my kids! I actually had wild-and-crazy teenaged boys up in my face, accusing me of "throwing generations of family tradition down the tubes..." It would have been riotously funny if they hadn't been so genuinely upset. Who knew they had even noticed the enormous effort I put into holiday celebrations, much less cared??? Despite a negative PR campaign (orchestrated by my oldest son) that would have done any politician proud, I stuck to my guns. The result? The most wonderful Christmas dinner you could imagine! I put the boys in charge of the salad. One prepped the spinach and red leaf lettuce and sliced some red onion. Another cooked the bacon and shredded the Swiss cheese, while the third mixed the poppyseed dressing. Their other assignment was to cook the beef tenderloin. (They weren't real great in the kitchen at that point, but they were already superstars on the grill.) Yes, it put a lot of pressure on them to cook such an expensive entree -- but I knew they'd step up to the plate. And they were sooo proud when the beef drew raves! For the first time, one of them invited a girlfriend to join us. When she insisted, with obvious sincerity, that she'd like to help, I accepted her offer. With me providing the recipe and a minimal amount of supervision, she prepared a wonderful crabmeat concoction for our starter course. All I had to do was layer the ingredients for a potato gratin and cook a green veggie, pop some rolls in the oven, and later pull out the cheesecake I'd made two days in advance. It was the most wonderful Christmas dinner! So wonderful, in fact, that we've repeated it every year since. For once, I was able to relax and enjoy it as much as everyone else did. And, of course, the 'cherry on top' was that my sons readily admitted afterwards that they had been wrong and that having a different menu for our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners actually made both meals seem more special. Talk about feeling vindicated!! You don't sound like you're on the verge of a mental breakdown over your menu like I was. lol But I would really encourage you to try this different approach! However, like several others have said, stick to the basics. Stuff something that needs help, not this. I've found it's best to allow 1/2 lb. per guest. Unless you have a crowd with unusually large appetites, you'll even have a little bit left over. Good luck! sm P.S. Almost forgot to share the best part of the story. The lovely young woman who so thoughtfully insisted on helping prepare that crab dish 5 years ago? To my joy, she became my DIL last month. Just one more reason our first Christmas dinner without turkey will always rank up there with the most wonderful ever!! :)

september is the best time of year to visit greece. the sea water is warm and the crowds have all gone home since school is about to begin. there is little need to reserve accomodations ahead of time. in fact, it's the perfect opportunity for you to practice your negotiating skills and haggle for a reduced price of a room off the published rates. my favorite places in greece would include the ionian islands and crete. the sand is white and the water icey blue. hopefully the keepers have had time to clean up the mess from the crazy summer filled with crowds. this is one of my big complaints about greece: they don't bother cleaning up after the crowds come in and trash up the place. my second complaint would be their social skills... they don't have any. they are rude and will jump at the opportunity to rip you off. and before someone jumps in and accuses me of being rude let me say, I AM GREEK. my family is greek. i have spent many summers in greece and presently have a love/hate relationship with the place and its people. that said, it is a very safe place to vacation. i unfortuately cannot say the same for turkey. if you are considering a side trip i would strongly urge you to check with the state department for any alerts regarding middle eastern destinations. okay, to continue... if you do decide to sidetrack to turkey you may consider departing from rhodes which is a very interesting island. i would also recommend lesvos, which is considerable different from the other island in its overall look and feel... it's heavily wooded and the majority of structures are made of wood beamed construction. it's odd to see, considering the rest of the country is limestone. you probably won't find any means of transportation to turkey from lesvos. their people (MY people, actually) are not fond of the turks since they have not forgotten how the mother land was raped and pillaged by the turks. and depending on which island you choose to visit, it's probably not a good idea to mention to anyone except a travel agent how you'd like to visit turkey... just a caution! you may notice i haven't mentioned santorini or mykonos... i wouldn't push those simply because i think while they are beautiful they are big tourist traps. sadly this is the story of most of greece. there was a time not too long ago where you could find a quiet beach and call it your own. it would appear "virgin." there is no such place now, as all of the beaches have been invaded by guys who rent lounge chairs and sell souvlaki. sorry again... i digress...but i said i have a love/hate relationship with the place... i guess it's more of a hate relationship. it's just that it is beyond me how a single country could be blessed with so much natural beauty and then simply lead it to ruin by their own carelessness and greed. i suppose this is the plight of many places. sorry if i've brought you down. i wish you a very happy and safe trip and while i obviously have my own issues with it, it is still quite a lovely place.

I heard one on NPR the other day...One floor in a college dorm was all male and everyone had single rooms. On a Friday, one of the fellows left town for the weekend. Over the weekend, those staying behind purchased sheetrock, mud, tape, and paint to match what existed in the halls. They covered the door to the absentee fellow's room with sheetrock, painted it and made that stretch look like any old part of the wall. When the fellow returned on Sunday, and couldn't find his room, he went looking for someone to tell him what was going on. Part II of the practical joke was that everyone else pretended that they didn't know this guy and had never laid eyes on him before. I guess this went on until the next morning before they helped him unearth his door. I thought that was one of the better college pranks I've ever heard of.