I have been contributing to Thanksgiving dinners since I was a child, doing everything from polishing the silver to serving the cocktails to making all the side dishes to inventing new deserts. However, this year will be the first that I'll be hosting and, admittedly, the thought fills me with dread.

I've thrown many a party and cooked many a feast in my time but the idea of making a whole turkey in a temperamental oven is, simply, frightening. Thus far, I've dealt with my problem in my usual way--avoiding it by becoming absorbed in everything that surrounds it. In this case, the side dishes. By dint of my location (Las Vegas) and the thrift shop acquisition of a pertinent Sunset cookbook, we are having a southwestern Thanksgiving this year.

On the menu: sweet potatoes with tequila and lime, garlic green beans with Manchego, corn pudding (I'll be adding some chiles and perhaps sprinkle some cheddar cheese on top), mashed potatoes, cranberry salsa, cornbread chorizo stuffing, roasted poblano gravy and, of course, that blasted turkey. The thought of it stops me cold so I can't even plan desert, although I am thinking about pumpkin cheesecake or sweet potato cupcakes with dulce de leche pecan frosting. Although I could just say the heck with the whole thing and go over to Freed's Bakery and order a Thanksgiving dinner cake.

Just when it seems that we'll never get any decent food on an airplane again, Southwest Airlines has introduced a special on-board snack. Produced by Nabisco, "golden airplane-shaped crackers" mark the airline's 35th anniversary. The unique crackers come in commemorative packaging.

Since Nabisco makes Ritz crackers, which already come in various non-circular shapes, Southwest's crackers will probably be very similar to them. The last time I flew Southwest, they were serving mini-pretzels, which I quite liked for an airplane snack. I'll be sad to see them go, even though Ritz are tasty, too. I'm just hoping that they decide to go with mini-airplanes, because the only thing sadder than not getting a snack on a plane is getting one lone Ritz cracker.

Now, as a native Floridian, the idea of getting to a restaurant by trekking up a snowy mountain does not immediately appeal to me. The Denver Post, however, recently ran a review of three Colorado restaurants that ask diners to do just that. Some of the restaurants, like Copper Mountain Stables, also offer sleigh rides to their high-elevation dining rooms. In Copper Mountain Stables' case, the dining room is a replica of a miner's tent that seats 38. Similarly, the Tennessee Pass Cookhouse features a large yurt (pictured here) that seats 40. Prior to arrival, diners gather together and hike up to the structure, which sits at an elevation of over 10,000 feet. The Pine Creek Cookhouse, amazingly enough, is an actual cabin, which seats 100. You can choose to ski, sleigh, or snowshow the 1.5 mile trail to your dinner. As you might expect, menus for all of these places feature hearty, game-heavy fare.