I suggested a topic on holiday dinner talk. "How about housing bubble discussions at the holiday table?"

A reply, "I won’t touch that with a 50 ft. turkey leg. My in-laws are children of a developer, and I am still the crazy, family idiot."

Another said, "Looking forward to a couple of days with a finance professor — should be great fun!"

One looks at what's on the table. "How about a culinary themed thread on the top ten recipes for leftover turkey. Gobble-gobble-gobble."

A reply, "Turkey corn and black bean chili."

One had this, "First time ever, we bought the smallest turkey we could find, just to avoid left-overs. Next year we’ll decide if we like having, or prefer not having, left over turkey for days."

A reply, "I’ve never had much luck with very small turkeys. Maybe I cooked them wrong but they were tough compared to the bigger ones. All the turkeys in Brazil are small but they don’t have Thanksgiving either."

Another leftover tip, "Turkey ’shepherd’s’ pie: (super-easy, tastes great- sometimes better than the original meal). Put a layer of turkey on the bottom of a deep casserole dish, add some gravy. Then add a layer of stuffing, and add some gravy. Cap this completely with mashed potatoes. You can freeze it at this point."

"Heat in oven at 350 until the top is golden-brown and it’s heated through. (Leftover turkey also goes great with mole sauce and blue corn tortillas.)"

"Here’s a local favorite, Kentucky’s contribution to the open-faced sandwich world. Good if you have both leftover turkey and ham. (Twain once defined ‘eternity’ as ‘two people and a ham’):

The Hot Brown

Put a piece of white toast on an oven-safe plate (but wait- there’s more!)
Put a thin slice of ham on it (country ham is, of course, better)
Put a layer of turkey on next.
Cover it completely with white sauce (traditionally), or a cheddar cheese sauce (any type of cheese soup works well, too, I sometimes just heat milk or cream and shredded cheddar and a few dashes of hot sauce in the microwave and mix it up as it melts)
Put a few tomato slices on top of the sauce-covered sammich.
Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
Put it under a broiler until it’s Hot, bubbly, and Brown.
Put two strips of crisp cooked bacon crossways on top and serve."

"Cook it til it’s lightly browned, not completely brown, I should add. And be careful, amigo, the plate is hot!"

And another, "Goose stuffed with black walnuts and brandied figs here. Potato wedges roasted in the goose fat. Pungent greens with pomegranate seeds and my last two tomatoes. Pumpkin pecan pie for dessert. All ingredients home grown. (Yay.)"

'Leftover carcass goes into the stock pot for flageolets with hot Italian sausage, wilted greens, and confit of the goose leg meat. (Yum.)"

More, "We have a new tradition of ordering a smoked turkey from a local barbecue joint. They run 10-12 lbs, so not too big. While I do miss the cooked-in-the-bird stuffing, the smoked meat is to die for. All the leftovers get eaten without any fussing over casseroles etc."

Then this, "I've got a commercial pressure smoker that I’ll be using on the bird this year. Very fast and delicious! Happy thanksgiving HBB. My favorite holiday."

And finally, "Given near panic over the twin debt crises in the U.S. and the eurozone, that seems like the metaphorically perfect choice of cooking instrument for this year’s Thanksgiving dinner."