Thanksgiving Survival Guide: Tips and Recipes for a Flawless Thanksgiving Dinner

Hosting Thanksgiving dinner for the entire family can be a scary concept. Take a few deep breaths, have some emergency chocolate on hand, and check out our hosting tips below to make your Thanksgiving dinner menu absolutely flawless. From table setting tips to leftover storage recommendations, no one will even know this was your first holiday.

The secret to how to host Thanksgiving dinner is making sure you don't forget to put out a tray of appetizers! Everyone shows up to Thanksgiving ready to eat, so if it's still going to be a few hours until the turkey's ready to come out of the oven, you've got a few crowd-pleasing appetizers, like our Holiday Pinwheels, to hold 'em over.

Aunt Susie prefers mashed potatoes, but Cousin Brian will only touch the sweet potatoes. Sound familiar? If you need to pull together a wide assortment of Thanksgiving side dishes to keep everyone happy, then you've come to the right place. Find out how to make mashed potatoes the whole family will love or how to take a few shortcuts when it comes to the stuffing.

Got stuck with the one side dish recipe you have no idea how to cook? Not to worry 'cause with the Mr. Food Test Kitchen's "Quick & Easy" cooking philosophy, you're guaranteed to get it right the very first time you make it. So whether you're looking for the perfect Sweet Potato Casserole or some crowd-pleasing veggies, we know you'll love the recipes we've got in store.

Finally... the star of your Thanksgiving dinner menu: the turkey! No holiday is complete without it, which is why it's important to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. We'll tell you exactly how to thaw and carve a turkey, so you can focus on your other dishes worry-free!

Trying to figure out how to actually cook an entire turkey? We've got a few ideas in mind, so you can host the Thanksgiving dinner of your dreams. Whether you're looking to have a traditional Thanksgiving menu with our Classic Roast Turkey or you're looking to change things up, your dinner table will never look better.

It's not a traditional Thanksgiving dinner menu until everything's been cleared away, and you're ready to dig into a big ol' slice of pie. In fact, with these easy baking tips, they may, in fact, end up stealing the show!

Do you see all these delicious Thanksgiving pie recipes we've got below? We don't know how you're going to choose either. You might just have to make all of them because we know you want at least a tiny slice of both the Four-Layer Pecan Pie and the Impossible Pumpkin Pie.