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So I've cruised newspapers' Thanksgiving Food sections online for a week now, seen hundreds of recipes, and blogged a lot of them. With all that new input, what am I cooking?

Slight variations on the tried and true. And my plans may change a bit when I do the shopping.

For sure, I'll make Jazzed Up Packaged Stuffing from the Orlando Sentinel with the blue-bag Pepperidge Farm Stuffing my mom always used. I'll keep the green onions, red bell pepper and walnuts but leave out the celery (I don't like hot celery) and sausage/bacon. Instead, I'll add diced sweet onions and some dried porcini mushrooms soaked in wine or chicken broth for 20 minutes.

Holiday Waldorf Salad from the Raleigh (N.C.) News-Observer sounds like a good light munchie for snacking before dinner (without the lettuce, which seems superfluous).

Alternatives still in play:

Asparagus With a Mushroom Ragout, above, from the Washington Post looks easy and light -- onions and mushrooms in a butter-and-wine reduction.

It depends on my finding a way to purchase "1 pound assorted mushrooms, such as cremini, button, beech and trumpet" without having to buy large amounts of each.

My husband's leaning towards Butternut Squash With Onions and Pecans from the N.C. News-Observer.

Or Kale and Butternut Squash Gratin, at right, from the Washington Post, looks intriguing, but kale can be tough, so I may use fresh spinach instead.

Realistically, though, the turkey is what people care about, and some of these vegetable dishes should perhaps be saved for one of our football Sundays with a roast, when they can have more of a starring role.

We'll spring for a fresh turkey -- the basic Whole Foods / Nature's Promise (Stop & Shop) / Wild Harvest (Shaw's) bird is $2.29 a pound this year. (Gulp.)

And after reading the L.A. Times' turkey test, we're going to salt it:

...But the bird that got people most excited was the one we had Judy-ed. Unlike the brined turkey, which had a slightly spongy texture, the one that had only been salted was firm, meaty and smoothly dense. And though it was a bit too salty as prepared this first go-round, the underlying flavor of the turkey was amazing -- deep and full.

Suddenly, my Thanksgiving menu plans took a turn. This was one serious bird. People sampled it, went thoughtfully quiet a minute and then grabbed for more. The opinion of the panel was unanimous -- the Judy-ed bird, though it needed a bit of refinement to tone down the salt and crisp and brown the skin, was the clear winner.

...To further refine the pre-salted turkey, we tried it again, this time reducing the salt, allowing only a tablespoon for every 5 pounds of bird. To improve the browning, we started roasting the bird at 425 degrees for 30 minutes instead of 375 degrees.

And we threw in one further wrinkle -- we brushed half of the bird with melted butter before it went into the oven to see what effect that had on browning and on flavor.

This time we hit it right on the money.

The turkey was a glorious brown all over -- the side brushed with butter might have had a slightly more golden color but only ever so slightly (and there was no difference in flavor at all). The skin was nicely crisp. The dark meat was firm and meaty and still incredibly moist -- enough that even after a half-hour's sitting there was a flood of juice when I carved it. The white meat was only slightly less so.

The problem with saltiness was solved. If anything, the breast meat could have used just a little more passed at the table for those of us with a salty palate. So next time, I might try upping the salt just a bit -- this is a recipe that will evolve over time.

With it, pan gravy enhanced with stock from the giblets fortified with chicken bouillon and canned chicken broth, with canned gravy to finish it off. This is the family gravy I learned at my mother's knee, and it's one of the family heirlooms, even if it is an oral tradition. My daughter watches me make it, and helps taste.

Basically, while the turkey is resting and being carved, we let the roasting pan straddle two low-heat stove burners and start whisking flour into the drippings till it browns and swells. Then I start adding chicken broth a little at a time, whisking it in, till it no longer tastes like flour. If it's thin, it can be reduced. Canned gravy, salt and pepper finish it off, making it taste like everybody's memories of gravies past.

Mashed potatoes: Boiled potatoes, warm milk, butter, salt, pepper, lumps. It's homey.

Green beans, sauteed in a pan in which garlic has been sweated, with slivered almonds.

Dinner rolls, store-bought (perhaps the frozen ones from Whole Foods my daughter likes), popped in while the oven is still hot.

And I'm eyeing these cheese balls from AP, thinking about coating them with something other than sweet walnuts. (These are totally unnecessary, but I think the family would like them with beer or wine and football before dinner.)

AP

There's a video of making these cheese balls and a printable recipe at this link.

Since just about anything will stick to the cheese, I'm thinking about rolling them in finely chopped mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and/or red peppers with the parsley, and skipping the nuts.

Dessert may include a coconut custard pie, my brother's annual request; either this one from the L.A. Daily News, minus the cream topping, or this one from Junior's in Brooklyn. And pecan pie, my daughter's favorite. (I emailed her the Mama's Pecan Pie recipe from the Post, because it promises the "pecan-to-goo ratio is just right.")

I'll have cookies around -- maybe these Crisp Oatmeal Cookies with chocolate chips and coconut. It has 149 mostly rave reviews, most of which urge doubling the recipe. (I'm also thinking of using half whole-wheat flour and all butter. Maybe I'll make one batch tomorrow and see how this works -- see what the kid thinks.)

Finally, we'll buy a small bag of really good coffee to brew after dinner.

And be very grateful for another Thanksgiving together, still having fun.