The Goof-Off’s Guide to Thanksgiving

T-Day in minus ... four ... three ... two ... one ...

Sam Etheridge, voted "Best Chef" in this year's Best of Burque Restaurants poll, is passionate about putting his own cheeky spin on comfort foods at Ambrozia.

The folks at Sadie's ("Best New Mexican Restaurant" in this year's poll) prefer to replace gravy with their own secret weapon.

Yashoda Naidoo, whose Annapurna Ayurvedic Cuisine and Chai House won "Best Vegetarian Menu" and "Best Vegan Baked Goods" in the Best of Burque poll, thinks Tofurky is a waste of space on your dinner table.

The chefs at Joy Junction and the Albuquerque Rescue Mission are experts at creating splendid meals on a shoestring budget.

What do all these expert chefs have in common? They want you have the best Thanksgiving ever.

The holidays come earlier every year, and in Thanksgiving's case, that's actually a good thing. Crafting a successful, low-stress Thanksgiving all boils down to planning. And guess what? We've done it all for you. Just pick one of our chef-tested, doldrum-busting Thanksgiving themes—Etheridge’s Nontraditional, Sadie’s New Mexican, Naidoo’s Vegetarian or Joy Juntion/Albuquerque Rescue Mission’s Inexpensive—hit the food market and follow the good-sense guidelines we compiled below. Come Nov. 22, you'll be thankful you did.