Across the Desk
Thanksgiving approaches. Plans for the festivities begin to formulate. Where else but at the library would one seek the ideas and information that can ensure the day's success?Holiday cookbooks can be found in the Dewey area of 641.568 of the collection. The Thanksgiving Cookbook by Holly Garrison with more than 340 recipes of traditional Thanksgiving favorites serves as a fine exarnple. Another area (793.2) is where a book such as Celebrations by Becky Stevens Cordello can be found. This title features ideas not only for recipes but for family games, decorating and craft activities as well. In our magazine area, the November issues of Good Housekeeping, House Beautiful, Better Homes & Garden, and of course, Bon Apetit will be competing with each other with their choices of the most mouth-watering recipes.
A quick search on the Internet at one of our Internet stations reveals a plethora of sites with helpful information. Sites such as foodtv.com offer well-organized indexes of recipes divided by region of the U. S., vegetarian, a category called "easy" (my favorite!) and even a category called "cooking therapy" for fixes to problems, stress reduction, etc. Sites like butterball.com offer useful preparation information such as how many pounds of turkey for how many people served, safe preparation from thawing to storing, and so forth. Sites like childrenwithdiabetes.com offer recipes for the diabetic guest or family member.
A particularly interesting and very dynamic site on the Internet is kitchenlink.com which provides a recipe exchange and message board so that one might ask questions and get feedback regarding particular dishes or cooking techniques. The people whom one might consult here are "ordinary" people, not "experts". About.com, on the other hand, offers expert advice and does have cooking guru Diana Rattray to answer your questions.
Will you be traveling to a family member's home instead of hosting the big event? In addition to our selection of Road Map and Travel Atlases there are also a number of sites on the Internet which will plan your entire trip and give complete travel directions to any place from your home--door to door. Sites such as maps.yahoo.com, mapblast.com, or mapquest.com provide this service when the proper departure and destination addresses are entered. It is interesting to note that they don't all provide the same route, so take some time and compare results.
If you're in a quandary as to how to make the big day a success, come to the library to let us help you sort it all out, with the wealth of resources here at our disposal.