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Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Being a foodie, I look forward to planning the whole meal. I know not everyone shares my love of cooking and planning so here are a few basic tips to make things easier, plus a great new recipe for sweet potatoes.

Start planning now if you are hosting the Thanksgiving meal at your home. Hopefully, your guests can bring side items and help in some way. I find it best to plan what I will cook and ask others to bring certain sides. If your sister makes the best pecan pie, assign that to her. Uncle Bob likes to bake bread? Done. Always ask people to bring that which they do well and use flattery when asking them. Don’t be tempted to cook more than you reasonably can without being exhausted. You don’t have to have eight side dishes and five desserts. As long as there is enough food for everyone, stick to the turkey and three or four special sides including bread and no more than two desserts. The less food there is to chose from, the less tempted people will be to over indulge.

Do everything ahead of time that you possibly can. Make a detailed list and do your grocery shopping this weekend for everything except perishables. Make the cornbread for your dressing on Tuesday night. Some casseroles can probably be made Tuesday as well, then baked on Thursday. Send someone else to the store on Tuesday to finish up the grocery shopping. The stores will be less crowded if you go early in the morning, even before work if you can, avoiding long check out lines and packed aisles.

My mother in law gave me a wonderful new cookbook for my birthday, Dallas Dish, from the Junior League of Dallas. I tried the twice baked sweet potatoes last Sunday and received rave reviews from my family. If you are looking for something new to try, this one is a winner. It is super easy and eliminates all the sugar and calories of the traditional sweet potato casserole. I’d allow 1/2 a potato per person if serving it on Thanksgiving.

Twice Baked Blue Cheese Sweet Potatoes

4 sweet potatoes

1/4 cup softened butter or butter substitute (I used Brummell and Brown)

1/4 cup sour cream or non fat plain yogurt

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

Jalapeño Maple Cream

Heat oven to 400. Place clean sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes or until tender. Cut potatoes in half length wise and scoop out the pulp. Reduce the oven temperature to 350. Mix pulp with the butter, yogurt and blue cheese and spoon back into the potato shells. Bake for five minutes or until heated well. Serve with the Jalapeño Maple Cream sauce.

Jalapeno Maple Cream

1/2 cup sour cream or non fat plain yogurt

1 Tbsp. maple syrup

2 tsp. minced, seeded jalapeño or to taste

1 tsp. fresh lime juice

dash salt

dash Tabasco sauce

Mix all ingredients well and chill until ready to use. Can be made a day or two in advance.