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It's go time.

It's the opening of Feast Season, are you ready? This is the week that my head starts spinning with potato options and I rip through the internet trying to find the cranberry recipe that will outshine last year's. Thank goodness one of my kitchen walls is made of slate, because it is now chalked over with lists of ingredients crossed with possible permutations in a mad Kaczynski-esque fashion.

While the lead-up may be crazed and insane, the feast must be about balance. I have 15 or so coming for dinner, some are food-driven (like me) and some aren't. While I would love to break the mold on every dish, creating an entirely new feast each year, that wouldn't be right. That wouldn't serve my eaters very well. There are people coming whose food agenda is focused simply on the turkey and my husband's creamed corn, they just agree to suffer through whatever cranberry concoction I serve.

My ulimate goal is to create a spread from which you can assemble the perfect plate, however that suits you. Ignore the brussel sprouts, that's fine, there are two kinds of potatoes. I'd love all to know the glory of ginger glazed carrots, but if not, there's more room for pumpkin pie.

Corny as it sounds, I am thankful for the challenge. It's my industry background, only under pressure do I truly thrive. This is a week in which all cylinders are firing and I could yap endlessly about yams.

So, tomorrow it's turkey talk: to brine or not to brine.