I’m about to have to duck away from the keyboard off and on this afternoon. The kitchen calls. Julie is flying back from Louisiana today, and I have to get started on our Thanksgiving dinner prep.

I’m going to dry-rub the turkey with the Bavarian seasoning mixture from Penzey’s, which we usually use for pork but which is good on poultry too, methinks. It has crushed brown mustard seeds, rosemary, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, and sage. He’ll sit overnight. Then this afternoon, I’m going to make this ancho sweet potato puree (we have no anchos, but we do have a number of chipotles, which’ll do). Next, the cranberry sauce — I’m a hard-liner on homemade cranberry sauce; I put lemon zest in mine, too. And the cornbread dressing, the recipe for which is right here. I’ve never had better. Bourbon and bacon make the difference.

I’ll also do the sous-cheffing for the sauteed green beans. Our guests are bringing red cabbage salad and pecan pie. I bought a little creme fraiche yesterday in case I feel like baking a few of the last of our Pennsylvania apples. Julie is also making Dorie Greenspan’s Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good.  You want to know how good this is? Just look at the ingredient list:

• 1 pumpkin, about 3 pounds
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 pound stale bread, thinly sliced and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
• 1/4 pound cheese, such as Gruyère, Emmenthal, cheddar, or a combination, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
• 2–4 garlic cloves (to taste), split, germ removed, and coarsely chopped
• 4 slices bacon, cooked until crisp, drained, and chopped (my addition)
• About 1/4 cup snipped fresh chives or sliced scallions (my addition)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme (my addition)
• About 1/3 cup heavy cream
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

The pumpkin is only for being the container for the fondue. Cheese, bread, bacon, garlic, bacon, herbs, cream, nutmeg. I mean, come on! What’s not to love? We did this last Christmas, and it was a knockout, and hugely popular.

To drink, Riesling is standard, but we’re out of white here, and I didn’t want to restock before the move. Besides, we have two really nice bottles of Beaune, the last of our stash. It’s light, and will do; besides, we all prefer red wine. We do have a nice bottle of super-dry pink French Champagne to toast our last holiday in Philly. So, there we are.

What are you cooking for Thanksgiving? Open thread. (And before you say it, yes, we Orthodox have a dispensation from the fast for Thanksgiving.)

UPDATE: The Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good just came out of the oven: