The simplest thing to say is, follow the instructions below. There's a lot going on here and I would just be repeating myself.

You may notice in the photo that there are no Brussels Sprouts. That's right I did not make them for this particular meal, but they are such a staple of many people's Thanksgiving tables that I wanted to include them. Again, almost everything that goes into the oven is at the 425°-450° F range that adding one more dish won't cause too much trouble. It might add 5-10 minutes of cook time, but that's about it.

1. Preheat your oven to 450° F.

*This is just a note, but I use gloves when working with chicken. Especially when I'm working with a whole bird. This is chicken and I secretly believe chicken is trying to kill you. It's revenge for all the nuggets as a kid you ate. I am paranoid about spreading bacteria. It's probably just me, but if anyone else is feeling uneasy about it, the gloves make for really easy cleanup afterwards too.

1. In a small bowl, combine granulated garlic, salt, and pepper and blend thoroughly. I usually use my hands or a fork to mix them together. No need to bust out the blender unless you just really like doing dishes.
2. Cut the lemon, celery, and onion into large chunks and stuff them into the cavity of the chicken.
3. Now add the leaves of two of the springs of rosemary (you can leave them on the stem if you like) into the cavity with the vegetables you just added.
4. Place the chicken on the roasting pan and tuck the wings under the bird to keep the tips from burning off and tie the legs together using butcher's twine. I also use a large cast iron skillet as long as the bird is small enough to fit.
5. Coat the skin of the chicken with the duck fat using a basting brush (you can use your hands, but it's messy).
6. Sprinkle the seasoning mixture over the bird. Be liberal with it. You're seasoning a large bird. Make sure to get it into every little nook and cranny.
7. Insert the thermometer into the thickest part of the breast and set it to 165°-170⁰ F.
8. Roast the chicken for 45-60 minutes or until the thermometer reads the proper temperature.
9. I know it's hard, but let it rest for at least 15 minutes. If you don't the wonderful juices that are just under that crispy skin will jump out and try to burn you. Trust me, your skin will appreciate the patients.

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1. Preheat your oven to 425° F.
2. Clean the sweet potatoes, poke holes through the skins (using a fork), and coat the outside with olive oil.
3. Wrap the potatoes in aluminum foil and bake until cooked all the way through, usually around 50 minutes but it can take longer if you have a very large potatoes.
4. While the potatoes are cooling, in a large mixing bowl, combine the egg, butter, vanilla, honey, and cream together and then add the sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pepper.
5. Once the sweet potatoes have cooled enough to comfortably touch, scoop out the flesh of the potatoes and add it to the egg/cream/butter mixture. Make sure to mix it thoroughly.
6. In a small bowl mix the dark brown sugar, wholewheat flower, and nuts together. The nuts are completely optional. Here at At Least The Dog Will Eat It, the nuts are a no go because they cause problems for The Picky Eater. Without the nuts, you basically get something like a sweet potato creme brulee (I know it's not, there's no cream or custard anywhere).
7. In a medium-sized, oven safe, bowl add the sweet potato mixture. On top of the sweet potatoes sprinkle the topping.
8. Bake the entire thing for 30-45 minutes or until the whole thing is hot and bubbling.

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I am working from the idea that you have either made the cornbread and the biscuits or bought them in advance. If you have not, make them first or get yourself to the grocery store and get them now. The recipes are after this one.

1. Preheat your oven to 425° F.
2. Dice the cornbread and the biscuits into 1/2-inch cubes (you don't have to be precise, but get them into bite-sized pieces) and add them into a mixing bowl.
3. Mince the fresh sage and add it to the bowl with the bread.
4. Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat.
5. Mince the garlic and dice the onions and celery.
6. Add the celery and onion in the skillet until it begins to soften and start to become a little translucent. It should take about 5 minutes.
7. Add the garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes.
8. Add the sauteed vegetables to the mixing bowl. Make sure to remove all the bits of food from the skillet and wipe it clean. Don't be stupid here! If it's hot, let it cool down before you wipe it out.
9. Add a 1/4 cup of canola oil to the skillet and heat it up either on the hot eye you just used or put it in the oven and let it get hot.
10. In a small bowl, mix the egg yolks and whites together and pour them into the bowl.
11. Add the chicken stock to the mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Use your hands for this. Yeah, you're going to get messy. It's the way it is. If you're not up to your elbows in Thanksgiving by the time you're done with this you're doing it wrong.
12. Add the remaining ingredients and mix them all together until everything is distributed evenly and all the contents of the bowl are wet and soupy (yes, one of those technical culinary term for you).
13. Pour the mixture into the hot skillet. It should sizzle like when you made the cornbread (I'm assuming you did make your own because my recipe is that kind of good).
14. Bake everything for 45 minutes to an hour. I usually aim for an hour and check it at the 45 mark to see if the top is getting too brown/burning.

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1. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and butter. Using either fork or pastry cutter cut the butter into the flour until it resembles cornmeal.
3. Next, mix in the buttermilk with your hands. If it is too sticky to work with you may have to add a little flour. Be careful not to work the dough too much or you will end up activating the gluten in the flour and make the biscuits tough and decidedly not flaky.
4. Sprinkle on a cutting board or any surface large enough to work the dough.
5. Turn the dough out onto the floured surface and work it until you can roll it out.
6. Cut the biscuits with a biscuit cutter and place them on a ungreased baking sheet or cast iron skillet. Be careful to try and not twist as you are cutting them. This will seal the sides and make them not rise as much. My mother actually uses an empty tomato paste can with both ends cut out. You want a cutter with either no end on either side like a cookie cutter (or the tomato paste can) or at least air holes in the top. This makes it easier to get the cut biscuits to release from the cutter.
7. Once cut out, let them set for about 10 minutes.
8. Bake the biscuits for 10 minutes and then baste each one with a bit of butter and then bake for an additional 5 minutes. Some people but a small pat of butter on top of them before they go in the oven.

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1. Preheat your oven to 425° F and place the cast iron skillet with the oil and two tablespoons of butter in the oven.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
3. In a small bowl, whisk the egg to combine the yolk and the whites.
4. Melt the remaining butter and add it, along with the egg and buttermilk to the dry mixture.
5. Let the batter set, covered, for 15-30 minutes. I'll be honest, I have no idea if this step is actually necessary. It just seems that when I leave it setting the end result is much lighter and fluffier (at least in my head).
6. Remove the cast iron skillet with the heated oil from the oven. Be very careful, you don't want to slosh it out and burn yourself. I've done this and it is not fun!
7. Pour the cornbread batter into the skillet. It should start to sizzle immediately (your frying the bottom - this is the good part).
8. Bake the bread for 20-25 minutes. The top should turn a golden brown.
9. Once the cornbread is finished, flip it out onto a cutting board and cut it into triangles. Be sure to have the butter ready because you're going to want to get in on it as soon as you can. It's great at room temperature, but it is something else all together when it is piping hot from the oven.

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1. Preheat your oven to 425° F.
2. While the oven is coming up to temperature, fry the bacon in a medium-large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. You want to cook the bacon about halfway through. It's going to be spending some time in the oven so it will finish cooking in there.
3. Once the bacon has finished cooking, remove it to a paper towel lined plate. Once it has cooled enough to handle, cut it into small chunks. Aim for something like
4. While the oven is coming up to temperature, remove any of the damaged outer leaves from the sprouts and cut the ends off the Brussels sprouts (the part that attached to the stalk). You then need to cut them in half length-wise. Add them to a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper.
5. Add the Brussels to the skillet and add the bacon back in. Make sure to toss everything to make sure it is coated in the bacon fat and olive oil.
6. Roast the Brussels for 20-30 minutes or until they soften and the outer leaves start to get roasted and crispy.
7. Once they are finished, remove them from the oven and drizzle them with the balsamic reduction. I buy pre-made balsamic reduction. It tastes just as good as anything I could make and is a huge time saver. If you do make your own, simply take 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar and 1 tablespoon of sugar (more if you want it sweeter) and simmer over low-medium heat in a sauce pan until it thickens.

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1. Break the stem off of each bean pod. You can break the tip off as well, but I don't find it annoying so I leave it on. The stem can be really unpleasant to chew through/swallow.
2. In a medium or large mixing bowl, combine the beans, olive oil, and garlic, salt, and pepper.
3. Remove the skin from a small-to-medium shallot and slice it as thinly as possible and then cut each round in half so that you have crescent-moon shaped pieces and place them in a bowl filled with buttermilk.
4. In a small sauce pan, heat canola or peanut oil to 350°-375° F. I use a deep frying/candy thermometer to make sure the the temp is right. You can also heat the oil for a bit and then through in a "tester" piece of shallot and see if it starts to sizzle and bubble.
5. While the oil is coming up to temp, the flour, cornmeal, granulated garlic, granulated onion, salt, and pepper together in a bowl.
6. Next, take the shallots out of the buttermilk and toss them in the flour and cornmeal mixture. Make sure they are coated completely.
7. Once the oil is hot enough, start adding the shallots to the oil and fry them until they are golden brown. This should take about 5-minutes. You just want them to be hot all the way through and the skin to be blistered, but you don't want them to get soft.
8. Remove them, using a spider or a large slotted spoon, to a plate lined with paper towels to drain.
9. Now, heat a medium sized cast iron skillet until the oil is very hot/almost smoking. Add the green beans and saute until they start to get the skin starts to blister and the beans are heated through. This should take roughly 1-2 minutes but could take as long as 5 minutes depending on how hot the skillet actually was when you added everything to it. Basically, cook until they start to look blistered and keep the contents moving in the skillet until that happens.
10. Once the green beans are finished, either portion them out on plates with a few of the fried shallots on each one, or place them all on a platter with the shallots on top.

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