Don’t cook this Thanksgiving.
I don’t mean serve empty plates topped with a contrived sanctimonious speech. But Rather, make various salads: Beets, string beans, turnips, rutabagas, cranberries, carrots all lend themselves to interesting non-lettucey salads. You could even forego stuffing for a bread salad. Raw foods are lighter, healthier, easy to prepare, and generally less messy than cooked ones. A salad of grated carrots, beets, daikon, cabbage, etc. dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, maple syrup, and if you like a bit of cumin powder is a bright alternative to the sweet, mushy, buttery fare that is typical of the holiday.

I once ate raw chicken by accident, it was actually pretty good but I can’t reccomend a recipe for raw turkey. However, there is no law that the turkey must be roasted, and indeed it is a perennial stress point finding that sweet spot when the dark meat is cooked but the breast is not dry. For moist delicious turkey try braising it in any combination of chicken stock, cooking sherry, soy sauce, old bay seasoning, just make sure that your liquid is flavorful at the onset. I have cooked a whole turkey this way but it is a whole lot easier to cut the bird up, and it is most convient to cook the white meat and dark meat in separate pots.