It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is almost here already!  That being said — I am cooking my first Thanksgiving dinner this year, so I am all about finding all the help I can get.  While looking for some ideas and recipes, I can across Better Homes and Gardens and found that they have a lot of helpful information.  They have an excellent tasty recipe section that has cranberry sauces, holiday salads, spice-rubbed turkey, turkey stuffings, and even a wine guide just to name a few.  They also have a lot of crafts and decorating ideas. You can make the Wheat Centerpiece, Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids, Thanksgiving Day Cards, Tic-Tac-Toe, and the Wild Turkey.  We can’t forget the Turkey Roasting Guide which is what I really need.  Best of all, its free!  The roasting guide helps you figure out defrosting and cooking instructions for your turkey, as well as chicken, beef, pork, and other large cuts of meat. You can even select the time you want to serve your meal and get a personalized cooking schedule.

If you are looking for some great ideas for Thanksgiving, make sure you check out Better Homes and Gardens.  I know I am glad I did!

Before covering a casserole with foil, spray the foil with cooking spray to prevent any toppings from sticking.

Cooked link sausage can be frozen up to 2 months.  Make sure you defrost it before you use for cooking.

My husband loves spicy. The kids and I do not. It makes cooking at my house extremely interesting since I would like everybody to be happy.  Morton’s Seasoning Salt and Cajun Seasoning was a huge hit in my house.  We recently tried this seasoning on some wonderful thin sliced porterhouse steaks from our local grocery store.  The seasoning salt gave my steak an awesome flavor. I am not one for seasoning most things, so I was surprised how the seasoning brought out the flavor of my already awesome steak.  I shared my steak with the kids, and they also liked it.  My husband tried the Cajun Seasoning on his steak.  He liked the kick that his steak got from it.  When I make steaks, I hadn’t been seasoning them at all.  However, now that I have been turned onto the delicious flavors of Morton’s Seasonings, I am now going to be seasoning everything I grill out on my Foreman Grill (remember, I live in Chicago, and it is a tad cold to grill outside).  If you would like to try out these seasonings on your own, they can be bought at any one of the 80 Morton’s Steakhouse locations and their website.  I have to decide what to make for dinner tonight, and I think steak sounds good, don’t you?

Now, you know I like to pass along tips (like my tip of the day feature I do daily).  If any of you are food bloggers (and I know several of you are), you definitely need to check out Dragon Naturally Speaking (and the Mac version is called Dictate.  Since I have a PC, I own Dragon Naturally Speaking).  I know you are asking yourself why?  Well, this software has literally made writing posts for this blog ten times easier!

How many times have you found yourself writing yourself notes on recipes that you are making?  I know I do this all the time — especially when I am modifying a recipe for my family.  I also find myself writing notes that I want to include on my posts on the recipe itself.  Wouldn’t life be easier if you could dictate this recipe while you were cooking it?  Wouldn’t it be great to be able to add your notes when you were making the recipe instead of having to remember them?  I can’t tell you how much time I have saved using this software. Want to see how easy this is to use?

Now, if he can use it on a windy day, you can use it in your kitchen. I use mine with screaming children in the background with no problems (note: if you accidentally swear, because you burned yourself it, it will record those words down. Not that I know this from experience or anything). I am writing this post right now with Dragon Naturally Speaking, and my children are right here playing like they normally do. Now, I have a wired headset for my computer. I just keep everything right next to the stove, so I can keep the headset on and cook. However, you can buy Bluetooth headsets, and will not have that problem! Oh yeah, and instead of typing what you normally do (if you don’t know, check out Dragon’s typing speed test), you can be typing around 150 words per minute. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. Watch the difference:

Amazing, isn’t it? Now, there are so many more uses that you can use this for in your home. You don’t need a cooking blog to make use of this. I have four other blogs I use this on. I also am able to answer emails, IMs, and even making out my grocery shopping list! What uses for this would you have in your house?