When tryptophan-tastic aromas waft from the kitchen on Thanksgiving, televised parades and football games are not adequate diversions to allay hunger. Children, especially the grown-up variety, need something edible to keep them occupied while holiday feasts are being prepared.

Food lovers come in all forms: snobs, egalitarians, conformists, neophytes, neophobes. Sometimes there seems to be very little that unites them. But all the food lovers I know have one thing in common: an almost obsession-like love for (or is it perhaps a crush on?) mashed potatoes.

It happens every year. It's not that you resolve to be virtuous on Thanksgiving, just reasonable. Two plates of food, and no more. One piece of pie, and that's enough. But when you're sitting at that table, staring at that food, there is no more self-control. No more reasonable. You stop when you...

Here's another local option for buying a ready-made Thanksgiving dinner. For a complete list, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/food .

Beer columnist Greg Kitsock recommends a Belgian-style witbier, a wheat ale that typically is flavored with orange peel and coriander, one of the spices in the dish. Try a Hoegaarden from the Belgian-Brazilian conglomerate InBev or an Allagash White from Allagash Brewing Co. in Portland, Maine. A...

I am writing in reference to the article about the "turkey in the hole" tradition that takes place each year at Hemlock Overlook Regional Park ("For their Thanksgiving feast, they buried the birds," Food, Nov. 18). The article said last year's celebration would be the last; however, only George...

Say Cheese: Good news about blues. With their robust flavor and gorgeous varied veining, blue cheeses belong on a winter cheese plate for appetizers or dessert. Domenica Marchetti and three volunteers recently conducted a mini tasting of half a dozen blue cheeses. Here's what they had; the cheeses...

Affection for her daughter wasn't the only thing that prompted Chedlia Dridi to name her Tunisian eatery, Chez Manelle in Arlington, after the 16-year-old. Mom confesses to an ulterior motive: "I'm hoping she'll take over."

-- COFFEE TASTING: A discussion and tasting of how to roast coffee at home. Free. Reservations recommended. 11 a.m. Adega Wine Cellars, 8519 Fenton St., Silver Spring. 301-312-2407.

An edited excerpt from the Going Out Gurus blog, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/goingoutgurus :

Whiskey season has officially begun. You can tell because it is marked by a series of related festivals across the country, including major WhiskyFests in San Francisco, Chicago and New York. Now in their 12th year, the events are sponsored by Malt Advocate magazine, the Wine Spectator of the...

Thanksgiving dinner can be challenging from a wine-pairing perspective because it abandons the orderly progression of dishes, each requiring one wine, for a smorgasbord approach and a riot of flavors on the table all at once. To which I say: Embrace the challenge and open one of everything....

Light seasonal salads are the antidote to a beige, brown or otherwise boring Thanksgiving spread. They can be starters, palate cleansers or a punctuation before desserts roll out. They add color and crunch, and their dressings lend brightness and much-needed acidity to cut through the heaviness o...

Here's the secret to a moist, tender turkey: A shovel.

-- GINGERBREAD BUILDING: Visitors can watch former White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier create a gingerbread replica of Mount Vernon. Free. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. daily. Vaughan Lobby, Mount Vernon estate, 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Hwy., Mount Vernon. http://www.visit.mountvernon.org .

Whether you've cooked 20 holiday feasts or your very first will happen next Thursday, classic recipes loom large at Thanksgiving. Make them year after year, and it's almost as though the cooks and chefs who created them have earned a place at your table.

Members of the Food staff and a few other committed Post colleagues tasted store-bought frozen pie shells and roll-out refrigerated doughs to see whether any brands are worth using in a pinch.

Before being tapped to cook at the British-accented Againn, Wes Morton says, he wasn't exactly fluent in bangers and mash or bubble and squeak. But "a ton of reading" and a week-long "eating frenzy" around London in August gave the Louisiana native plenty of ideas for what he could serve at the...

Balducci's 866-278-8866 http://www.balduccis.com A la carte/complete meals (oven ready $139.99 for 6-8 people, precooked $159.99 for 6-8 people, cooked turkey breast $129.99 for 6 people). Advance orders preferred (while supplies last). Pickup from Nov. 23 until 3 p.m. Thanksgiving.

An edited excerpt from the Going Out Gurus blog, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/goingoutgurus :

When I was growing up, my grandmother always cooked for Thanksgiving. One of the staples of the table was her mashed potatoes and turnips. It was a simple dish: The potatoes were boiled and blended with enough turnips to add an edge, along with a little butter, milk, salt and pepper.

Jim Koch takes credit for coining the term "extreme beer." The founder and chairman of Boston Beer Co. , best known for its Samuel Adams brand, first applied the expression to his Triple Bock, a dark, syrupy ale that upon its release in 1994 became America's strongest commercial beer, clocking in at...

An iconic American Thanksgiving meal prepared by an iconic American chef (such as Mom, Dad or Grandma) calls for iconic American wines.

There are lots of ways to prepare Thanksgiving turkey, and many of them are not much harder than roasting or grilling a chicken. So why would we favor a method that calls for detaching the leg-thigh pieces and partially boning them, cutting out the backbone and wishbone, and trimming the wings an...

I've been making sweet potato rolls at Thanksgiving long enough to count them as a family tradition, but my decade or so with them is nothing, really. By the time James Beard featured them in his pioneering 1973 book "Beard on Bread," published eight years after I was born, they were already a...

These days, sweet potato pie is a Presidential Fave. But before Barack Obama began endorsing it last year at seemingly every campaign appearance, much of America considered it a mere pumpkin pie wannabe.

No Thanksgiving feast is complete without something sweet to finish it off. Maida Heatter, with more than 10 cookbooks to her credit, is truly an icon of American baking. So it was a no-brainer for me to consult her "Book of Great American Desserts" (Knopf, 1985) and find the treasure of Date Pecan...