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Put the stuffing in the cage after you blend and separate
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Is Thanksgiving really about the food? Every year people make the same meal over and over again with little imagination. What's important are friends and family getting together, eating too much and touching base with the softer, caring side of each other. And though it sounds corny, even though you're making the same meal again this year, get those kitchen gadgets ready to make the prep time go faster, easier and hopefully a meal to appreciate.
Photo Credit: Sur La Table
Space is at a premium in the oven. You can have a turkey, a lasagna, a couple of pies and sweet potatoes and wham! Where the heck is the room? Take yourself to some cooking/kitchen site on the net or one of the famous kitchen stores in the mall like William-Sonoma and buy yourself a multiered oven rack. The food piles safely on top of each other with just the right amount of space and that problem is solved. Cost should run you about $22 and you'll get alot of use for it all year long. And this way on the actual Turkey day, you don't have to get up at dawn to cook all the different sides first.
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Photo Credit: Williams-Sonoma
Kitchen Aid lends a splash to a tired run-of-the-mill kitchen with a bright red easy-to-read LCD digital timer. A non-slip rubber base secures it for safety and all you have to do is put in two AA batteries and you can time the cooking of an ingredient up to ten hours.
Credit: Bed Bath & Beyond 
Now- a-days so many people don't eat meat, some of your guests - especially if you didn't know in advance - will skip the turkey and load up on the salad, the vegetable, the potatoes and what is Thanksgiving famous for after turkey? The stuffing. Now in the past, perhaps when you were growing up, your mother used to stuff it into the turkey by hand and it was messy to put in and messy to get it out. Some genius invented the stuffing cage. You fill the cage up with the stuffing, place it inside the turkey, cook the whole magilla and when it's ready, you just pull the stuffing cage out of the turkey by the handle and for $10, you've managed to turn this action into a quick and easy enterprise.
Credit: Amazon.com
Blenders come in all shapes and sizes, colors, accessories, and price tags. Think of the jobs you plan to do with the blender and you can pick one that matches your needs and prices besides the color scheme. You can whip eggs or cream, chop nuts and herbs, make puree, salad dressing and whatever else your imagination can conjure.
Credit: Williams-Sonoma
My daughter's favorite is the mashed potatoes and since she is a vegan, potatoes become an important necessity. There are mashers. There are handhelds and mechanical devices and there's always the old-fashioned way of pulverating the boiled potatoes with a fork. If you're living in this century, there are mashers that you can just put in the dishwasher when you're done. There are potato ricers that mash the potatoes and turn them into fluffy rice-sized grains. For those of you who never tried a ricer, you just place the potatoes in the hopper and press the handle. Poof! Easy. The hopper is perforated and its ridges are protected with rubber so that you can save your pots from getting scratched. In addition to all that, the ricers come in stainless steel and cast aluminum for easy cleaning and durability.
Lots of people like gravy on their mashed potatoes and on their turkey. The gravy separator always reminds me of some kind of science experiment you're doing for school. By separating the meat and poultry juices from the fat, the removable strainer saves you from needing a separate sieve. They can be made from glass and have the usual measurement markings like a cup or liter, etc. It's microwavable, oven-safe and dishwasher-safe. Hello, Williams-Sonoma. You can get all your kitchen gadgets there and prepare the meal that will get raves.
If you're a bit squimished about needles, did you ever get a load of one of those marinade injectors that lets you insert liquid flavorings and marinades? You can use it for preparing your meat for roasting, barbecuing, and frying. And if you can get away from the fact it looks like a giant hypo, you can change the flavor of your meats.
My childhood memories recall the simple baster that lets you get every drop of liquid in the pan to use the drippings for basting and gravy making. It comes with a silicone bulb, a contoured tip and angled to prevent drips. The shaft is made out of polycarbonate and is transparent. It holds from 1/4 to 1 1/2 fl. oz. It can come with accessories like a wide, flat tip for suctioning shallow pan juice, a silcone basting-brush tip and a cleaning brush. They're safe for temperatures up to 450 degrees and are dishwasher safe. You can get them in Williams-Sonoma and any other store that sells kitchen gadgets. It runs about $18. And of course you know all those jokes about the turkey baster helping you get something else done...
Sources:
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13553_1-9813759-32.htmlhttp://www.chefsplanet.com/products/view/4
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13553_1-9813759-32.html
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13553_1-9813759-32.html
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/sku7068505/?pkey=ccooks-tools-thanksgiving
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/sku6365316/?pkey=ccooks-tools-
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/cw202/?cm_src=rel
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/shop/cooks-tools/cooks-tools-thanksgiving/?cm_type=lnav
http://www.gadgetgrid.com/2007/11/10/stuffing-cage/
http://geekygourmet.com/2006/11/17/three-tiered-oven-rack/
http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=206800
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