Thanksgiving Cook’s

My brother is hosting us for Thanksgiving in Los Angeles, right at the edge of the San Gabriel mountains, and it’ll be a team effort, but I’m in charge of the cooking. This means I can’t put it off any longer: It’s time to think things through and really get organized!

I’m definitely looking to Eric Kim as my stuffing authority this year — after cooking 20 stuffing recipes, he developed his own from a mix of crusty white bread and cornbread, layered with the flavors of sage leaves and fennel seeds. And Claire Saffitz has two new

That gets me just about there! When I’m putting together a big meal like this one, I find it helpful to think through the cooking methods required for each dish so I can chart a rough timeline for the oven and stovetop. Everything can’t go in the oven at once, so it’s always great to have a dish that I don’t actually have to cook, like a big, bright salad, which I can keep ready to go on the counter, then toss together at the last minute. It’s also good for balancing out the textures, flavors and colors on the table.

Yewande Komolafe suggests a beautiful beet salad with a coriander-yogurt dressing, a simple green salad with an apple cider vinaigrette or — the one I’ve got my eye on — a grapefruit and herb salad with coconut and crispy shallots, which I’ll plan to make with a mix of pomelo varieties from the farmers’ market.