A few of the best stories spied elsewhere on the Web this week:

Learn some new holiday cooking and baking skills with this roundup of Thanksgiving cooking classes across the nation.

Not surprisingly, an Aloha, Ore., man was fined $300 for calling 911 to complain about his botched McDonald's drive-through order.

Design icon Isaac Mizrahi will sell tartan-topped cheesecakes from Junior's on QVC in early December.

Los Angeles' popular Kogi Korean Taco Truck gets a tricked out Toyota Scion Kogi xD Mobile Kitchen that's fully loaded with a grill, a sink and an Alpine Sound System.

Restaurant consulting firm Baum + Whiteman released its 2010 food and dining trend forecast, which claims "fried chicken is the new pork belly."

Former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni sold the TV rights to his memoir, "Born Round."

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

Turning fresh bread into day-old bread (that's perfect for stuffing) only takes 15 minutes.

Start planning your turkey day -- from decor to dessert -- now.

Whet your appetite with 10 exciting dishes for Thanksgiving.

Will you make room for soup at the Thanksgiving table?

Does Masterchef, another televised cooking-show competition, mean too many chefs in the kitchen?

Bacon makes everything better -- even candles!

Leftovers can cure the take-out temptation -- Thai Beef with Coconut Rice.

Think it's too early to start planning Thanksgiving dinner? Think again! Nov. 26 may seem like a long way off, but for the holiday host, it's right around the corner. That's why each Tuesday until Turkey Day, we'll bring you preparation tips to ensure your Thanksgiving is as smooth as your gravy (should be).

1. Get a head count.
Now's the time to start inviting people to Thanksgiving dinner. If you're thinking about it, chances are good your friends and family are, too. So if your cousin is bringing her new boyfriend, and both sets of grandparents are coming to town, as well as your parents and siblings, you're going to need to figure out how to seat everyone at your small table with three mismatched chairs.

Getting a head count this early ensures you'll have enough time to borrow tables, chairs and whatever other furniture items you need to so that everyone can eat comfortably, and then have a place to lounge when the tryptophan-wine combo sets in. And don't forget to find out who's a vegetarian, who's allergic to nuts, and any other dietary restrictions you'll be dealing with. The last thing you want to hear as you put your orange-scented green beans with toasted almonds on the table is that your cousin's new boyfriend has a severe nut allergy.

A few days ago, I documented my first visit to a Pollo Vivero, or live-kill poultry place. Well, having now had the joy of dressing and eating a freshly-killed turkey, I can absolutely state the following points:

Cutting off Heads Isn't That Hard: I thought that removing the bird's feet and head would be really difficult, but it was actually easy. I used a sturdy, German-style chef's knife, located the respective joints, and sliced away. While the legs came off in one piece (each), I had to take the neck off in two pieces. I used a paring knife and reached inside the carcass to cut it closer to the torso.

Live Turkeys Don't Look Quite the Same: My turkey's torso was longer and slightly sleeker than the Butterballs that I was used to. That having been said, it was still quite meaty, and the actual process of cooking it was very much the same (minus the pop-up timer, of course).

Live Turkeys Are Yummy: The turkey tasted more or less the same as a grocery store turkey. It was slightly more succulent, but I also chalk that up to the fact that I brined it.

Live Turkeys Dry Out Easily: Unlike store-bought turkeys, which soak in a broth solution until you unwrap them, live turkeys need to be protected from drying out. I wrapped mine in moist paper towels before brining it.

Turkey Heads Are Fun: Being somewhat perverse, I held on to the turkey head and feet so I could show them to select people. Two of my sisters got in a little bit of a tiff over who got to keep them (I'm not the only weirdo in my family), until my youngest sister claimed the artist card, stating that she wanted to draw the various parts.

I have decided that I'm definitely going to go with live poultry for Christmas. Does anybody have a good recipe for pheasant?

While turkey may be the centerpiece of many people's Thanksgiving dinners, the meal would not be the same without its pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, winter squash, parsnips, pears, Brussels sprouts, and much more. In fact, the Thanksgiving turkey seems like the only meat associated with the meal. Falling at the end of the season, this holiday provides a great opportunity to make use of the fresh fall produce.

So, if you're a vegetarian or serving vegetarians this season, there are plenty of dishes that you can make to celebrate the end-of-fall harvest.
Below are 8 vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes:

1. Maple glazed parsnips and carrots
2. Chantilly potatoes with a parmesan crust
3. Vanilla bean-whipped sweet potatoes
4. Parmesan-roasted butternut squash
5. Smashed rutabagas with ginger-roasted pears
6. Apple Pie
7. Sweet potato pie with pecan topping
8. Roasted winter squash and parsnips with maple syrup glaze and marcona almonds

Turkey, the centerpiece of everyone's Thanksgiving meal, can be prepared a number of ways, but, ultimately we all want it to be tender and succulent with the meat practically falling off the bone. There are several ways to cook a moist juicy turkey.

When I look back at previous Thanksgiving turkeys with my family, I think about having to dip the meat in so much gravy because of it being too dry. Fortunately, there are tactics (delicious ingredients) that can prevent this from occurring. Below are 8 recipes to follow to cook your scrumptious festive bird this Thanksgiving:

1. Martha Stewart's roast turkey
2. Brined, herb roast turkey
3. Adobo tukey with red-chili gravy
   
4. Citrus marinated turkey
5. Chili-roasted turkey with chorizo-corn bread stuffing
   
6. Smoked turkey with barbecue gravy
7. Porcini mushroom turkey with mushroom gravy
8. Miso-rubbed turkey with turkey gravy

What are some of your favorite turkeys from previous Thanksgiving meals?

The first time that I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for my family, it was a harrowing experience. Barely able to sleep the night before, terrified that I was going to forget some important detail or dish, I went over all the potential pitfalls in my mind, hoping that, if I worried enough, everything would go well.

The next morning, I woke up at 6, staggered downstairs, and began what would end up becoming one of the longest days in my life. Nine hours, three trips to the store, and one or two terrifying mishaps later, my Bataan death march of culinary misery was over. Dinner was on the table, everything was more or less in order, and I was completely exhausted. By the time the meal finished, about a half-hour later, I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. Luckily, my family took mercy on me and let me nap while they cleaned, cleared, and packed away the leftovers.

Having gone through one difficult Thanksgiving, I realized that the key was timing. Although many of the dishes were somewhat work-intensive, none of them was particularly challenging. Basically, I just needed to plan carefully, buy wisely, and make up a reasonable schedule for my assault on the kitchen. I vowed to do exactly that.

The following year, I began by making a list of everything that I was going to cook. Since my sister was bringing the string bean casserole and I had a friend who was taking charge of the apple pie, I needed to provided the following:

Roast turkey with chestnut stuffing and gravy
Roast Virginia ham with honey mustard
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Traditional (candied) yams
Salad
Canned cranberry sauce
Homemade cranberry sauce
Bread
Pumpkin pies (four) with whipped cream

I then found recipes for everything and made a shopping list of all ingredients. I fudged on some items, like the pumpkin pie crust and the bread, trusting that Pet-ritz and my local bakery could do a better job than I. Also, recognizing the eating habits of my family, I was careful to pick up an extra pound of butter, an extra half pint of cream, and one package each of salt and pepper.

The next few pages cover some of the recipes that I have since gathered for Thanksgiving dinner. Given that the meal has endless regional and familial variations, you will probably want to add your own items and omit a couple of the ones that I mention. The key, however, is timing, an issue that we'll deal with in the wrap up.

Enjoy!

If your family is like my family, you get into holiday ruts. This can often be a great thing, because if you're cooking something year after year after year, and everyone eats it, then it must be right. But sometimes it's good to experiment, maybe make another version of a dish, so we can have a choice and try something new.

That's very true of stuffing. A lot of families stick with one kind (bread stuffing, oatmeal, cornbread, etc) and stick with that, but this year I'm going to bring something new to my sister's house, and I'm thinking about this dish. It's Rice and Nut Stuffing. What intrigues me about it is the use of pistachios and raisins.