Ideas & Tips — Seasonal

Thanksgiving's here, and you've followed all your family's traditional recipes, or maybe just looked up how to cook a turkey online. In any case, you've just pulled the bird out of the oven, it's sitting imposingly on your dining room table: Now what? If you've never carved a turkey before, approaching it from the first time can be a harrowing maze of sinewy, bony roadblocks. Here's our step-by-step advice for getting the most meat out of your bird: Set the bird down breast-side up and remove the legs. Use the carving knife to slice the skin between the legs and the...

When you spend Thanksgiving at someone's home, you know they've spent all day cooking up a feast and preparing the house for guests, so you'll want to bring something along to show your appreciation of their efforts. When choosing a host gift, it's important to consider your host's particular tastes, but there are a few categories that many good host gifts fall into. Useful in many situations, sometimes even during the meal itself, these versatile host gifts will make your hosts want to invite you back next year: A serving bowl: Oftentimes, hosts who are taking on the Thanksgiving meal for...

Continuing in the Thanksgiving vein, let's talk about the confusing and intimidating process of preparing to host the big meal. Especially if this is your first time hosting Thanksgiving dinner for a large group, the sheer amount of food and supplies needed combined with the exhausting preparation process can leave your head spinning. To make sure you don't find yourself missing some crucial element on Thanksgiving itself, follow this list of things to take care of before hosting: Make sure you have all the necessary cookware and serving items. Once you have your menu planned out, mentally walk through the preparation...

If you’re planning to celebrate Oktoberfest this year a party at your home may be exactly what you’re looking for. With just a little planning and surveying among friends in regard to what their interests are, the food, music, beer and more can all work to convey the true spirit of the festivities. Here are a few suggestions on how to make the most of your Oktoberfest: Beer: When laying out the blueprint for your Oktoberfest celebration, one of the first inquiries to come from your guests will likely be about the beer. Clearly, there are several options for you to consider when building...

If you've gone out to a brewpub or into the home of a beer aficionado lately, you have probably noticed that there are a whole bunch of different beer glass styles in heavy rotation these days. Each type of glass corresponds to a particular brewing tradition and is meant to bring out the particular qualities associated with that beer style. That's not to say that you can't serve beers in the "wrong" glass, only that serving them in their intended glassware will give you a better idea of which characteristics the brewers were aiming to bring out in the beer....