
After drooling over Party's
pumpkin cake and these
pumpkin pies, I wanted to experiment with my own unique concoction: a traditional pumpkin pie filling with baklava-inspired crust and streusel topping. With a belly full of
Thanksgiving fixings, eating a whole piece of pie can be a rather daunting task, so I made bite-size pies to satisfy everyone's sweet tooth. The pumpkin pie filling and walnut-oatmeal streusel are simple to make, but the cinnamon-sugar phyllo cups are more time consuming due to the very delicate nature of phyllo.

As much as I love cocktails made from fresh, seasonal ingredients, sometimes there simply isn't time — especially when you need
Thanksgiving dinner ready in a hurry — to juice 20 blood oranges. The grocery store liquor aisle is crowded with generic and overly-sweet cocktail mixers, but there's one brand I trust for excellent mixers: Stirrings. With their blood orange flavor you can make a quick batch of blood orange bellinis.

While some people
swear by canned cranberry, in my opinion, nothing beats a homemade variation. Making cranberry is incredibly easy. All you have to do is combine the components in a pot and simmer for 20 minutes.

Turkey day is only one short week away, so if you still don't have your
menu planned, I suggest you do it now! Here, I've created six fabulous
Thanksgiving menus. From the
foodie to the
novice to the
vegetarian, there's something for everyone.

Countless sandwiches are native to America, but the Navajo Taco is a Native American sandwich in the strictest sense of the word. Made by piling New Mexican taco fixings onto traditional Navajo frybread, this scrumptious sandwich is a specialty of Arizona, so on a recent trip to Phoenix, I stopped by
The Fry Bread House to do some firsthand research.
My first question, of course, is why a Navajo Taco — also called an Indian Taco — is considered a sandwich rather than a taco.

If you are in
a hurry for a Thanksgiving dessert, the easiest thing to do is be like
Sandra Lee and take some help from the store. Use a ready-made pie crust, instant pudding mix, and caramel sauce to assemble a delicious turtle pumpkin pie. The recipe calls for cool whipped topping, but it really doesn't take that long to make.

For
Thanksgiving, sweet potato casserole is a surefire winner: those who don't eat vegetables and kids who won't eat yams will happily sink their forks into this delicious casserole. While the toppings vary based on the recipe, the concept is the same: creamy, puréed, sugar-tinged sweet potatoes with nuts, glaze, or marshmallows on top. These two variations are similar, but the expert version, with its nutty topping, requires an extra step and a food processor.

Kick-start your weekend with this scrumptious, Southern-inspired dish. In it, shrimp and scallions are served on a bed of cheesy grits.
The resulting meal is comforting, yet healthy.

Impress the vegetarians in your life by taking the time to make this flavorful, hearty meal. Although it simmers for only about 45 minutes, the final dish has a depth and richness equal to something slow-cooked. The ingredient list includes mushrooms, cauliflower, onion, tomatoes, and bell peppers, but feel free to use the vegetables that your family enjoys eating.

The classic steak salad gets a Greek makeover in this quick recipe. Lamb is seared on a grill pan before being tossed with mixed greens, radishes, and feta cheese.
A simple dressing combines yogurt with fresh chopped mint.