For some people, Thanksgiving is all about the side dishes - potatoes in all forms, cheesy vegetable casseroles, rolls, salads - and for others it’s all about the turkey.

You served an enormous feast for Thanksgiving, and now your family says they’ll sprout feathers if leftover turkey lands on the table once more. Give everyone’s taste buds a change from all those traditional flavors by serving Gobbler Pizza, made from turkey. And if you have sweet potato casserole aging in the fridge, here’s a way to hide the tasty stuff inside breakfast pancakes.

Putting together a Thanksgiving feast doesn’t have to gobble up your monthly budget. In fact, money-saving gurus say it is one of the least expensive meals to make, provided you keep an eye out for in-store savings and manufacturer’s coupons in advance of the holiday.

From the turkey to pumpkin pie and accompanying spirits, watch the savings add up with these tips:

Probably like most workplaces, we use birthdays and other milestones as an excuse to bring in treats. We do it so often — hey, it’s Monday, let’s bring in goodies — that we get a little bored of the same old sweets. That’s why I was excited to see a new cake cookbook cross my desk.

A traditional Thanksgiving dinner calls for potatoes, but how they're prepared is entirely up to the cook.

The holidays without cookies — unthinkable, even among soldiers in harm’s way. Each season, generous Americans send boxes of cookies to our troops, only many arrive smashed to crumbs. Soldiers will eat the crumbs, but whole cookies are nicer. You need not know a soldier to send cookies. Go to www.anysoldier.com for names and addresses.

Nowadays, for a craft beer to get any kind of buzz, it has to be high in alcohol, hard to get or full of exotic ingredients.

The Texas Tommy has nothing to do with Texas or even the early 1900s swing dance of the same name. This is a split hot dog with bacon and cheese, invented in Pottstown, Pa.

Truwhip faces tough competition against the venerable Cool Whip and traditional whipped-cream toppings. This stuff manages to be naturally healthy and taste good at the same time.

The Dutch invented kaasdoop (KAHS-doop). It's a popular cheese dip, also known as a fondue, made with Gouda cheese and dry white wine.

Beaujolais Nouveau is France’s unruly vintage, like a child. It is a youngster -- some would say a toddler -- of a wine that violates every hallowed rule of the vineyard. It is the rock and roll of a stuffy industry steeped in legend.

After Katrina decimated New Orleans, people still had to eat, although almost every restaurant and grocery was flooded.  Suddenly throughout the city appeared lunch trucks, also known as camiones de comidas or “gut wagons.” If you’re cooking in an old delivery truck, things must be kept simple.

Weekly food rail, with items on whimsical French pastries, an easy recipe for Yankee pot roast, how you can make your own buttermilk, and more.

Fish soup appears in every city, town and village that grows up by the sea. It is a natural outgrowth of thrift.

Halloween may be over, but for many the candy lingers: bowls of bite-size candy bars, pumpkin-face suckers, chocolate eyeballs and gummy candies remain, along with bags of candy that were never even opened.

Garlic’s reputation has promoted more than 2,500 health studies, but most are for marketing, not medical science.

Illinois produces close to 90 percent of all pumpkins, followed by Ohio, Pennsylvania and California. However, most of these pumpkins are used for pumpkin pie filling. Most people wouldn’t recognize a processing pumpkin if it splattered at their feet. (They might say, “Hey, that looks like splattered pumpkin pie filling.”)

As the trees slowly give away their leaves, coating the ground with a vibrant palette of reds, yellows and oranges, tastes shift from summer’s corn and tomatoes to fall’s bounty of squashes and root veggies.

Cheesecake: Have it topped with berries, a dollop of whipped cream or just as is. It’s comforting, delicious and it just seems to be the perfect creamy treat.

When it comes to autumn recipes, those with pumpkins and apples jump to mind.