Our Latest Contest: Your Best Green Holiday Side

Actually, I beg to differ that it's too early to plan for the holidays. Seriously. I've already mapped out for October various tasks that can be done before November 1 to ease the challenges of November. See, https://food52.com/blog/8826-how-to-hike-a-mountain-and-serve-thanksgiving-dinner-on-the-same-day . My plum puddings -- gifts for special family members, to be sent, I hope, within a few days after Thanksgiving -- will be steamed and wrapped in booze-soaked butter muslin by the end of October, as they will benefit from the longer ripening period. (My recipe -- which I hope to post later this month -- requires some special advance baking, which I'll do this week.) Mostardas improve with a few extra weeks as well, so I'll make those by the end of the month. I've already started my "agonizing re-appraisal" of my freezer inventory to add and remove items as necessary, to make room for baked goods, pie crusts, etc. that I'll make in early November, and to have on hand appropriate made-ahead meals/components to free up my evenings during the ten days before Thanksgiving. I think I'll check the Hotline, to see what other people are doing this month . . . . ;o)