Our favorite Thanksgiving recipes

😋 Nadia makes a fantastic lasagna. Never use ricotta. Always make béchamel sauce and layer with a homemade Bolognese (use milk) and tons of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Also, make the pasta by hand.

🍜 Shawna's family, like many Asian immigrant families, typically hosts a hot pot feast.

• They use a two-sided pot, with pork broth on one side and a very spicy Sichuan-style soup base on the other. Start with sliced beef and pork — it allows the meat's flavors to saturate the broth — before adding napa cabbage, tong ho, enoki mushrooms and various kinds of seafood.
• Her personal favorite ingredient is taro, which takes longer to cook but soaks up the flavors well and adds a creamy consistency.

🐔 Claire thinks turkey is overrated but roast chicken is absolutely perfect.

• She uses this great recipe from amazing British chef Heston Blumenthal, but really all you need is lemon under the skin, butter on the top, and at least 12 hours of brining.
• As for gravy, that recipe is a closely guarded secret, but she always does it while listening to her absolute favorite Australian song.

Down in San Diego, Claire has made it a life goal to never make Thanksgiving dinner, but she can actually cook a few things.

• This spinach lasagna recipe is so easy and a big crowd pleaser.

Her SD partner Kate usually sticks to the classics, but she made this fall salad for her Galsgiving this year and zhuzhed it up with roasted butternut squash, goat cheese, cranberries and a balsamic glaze drizzle.

👨🏻‍🍳 Our editor Geoff swears by his family's stuffing recipe and would like to emphasize that stuffing is the best part of the meal and should always be cooked in the bird.

• The method is simple: Break a large loaf of any good Italian or white bread into chunks and place it in a big pot. Add a tube of Jimmy Dean sage sausage that you've browned up and a pound of shelled roasted chestnuts.
• Toss in a chopped large onion and two celery stalks sautéed in butter. Intuition takes the wheel from here. Mix it it with your hands, adding poultry seasoning and glugs of chicken broth.
• Go light on the broth, as the bird will moisten it too. Got more stuffing than your turkey can take? Bake the rest for about 15 to 20 minutes at around 325° and add a splash more broth to maintain the moist.