One challenge we always face at family holiday meals it that some of the family doesn't eat meat, some of them are off wheat and most prefer the traditional dishes. This year, added to the turkey feast will be cornbread stuffing, hobbit salad and yam-cheddar casserole to meet these challenges.

Here's one for the halflings...

Hobbit Salad Recipe From Mom

Hobbit salad: romaine lettuce, pecans, feta cheese or other (I'm using Edam this year) cheese, tangerine crescents, red onion (optional). With raspberry vinaigrette.

...the goose is getting fat.

In our case it's a turkey and we are starting to get set. While it is premature to but anything parishable, it is not premature to bake a loaf of bread for the stuffing. It is not premature to get the ingredients for the Butternut Squash Pie (YOU try to find a fresh pumpkin in Steamboat Springs, CO).

Adding to the challenge this year is Mark's birthday, just days before the holiday. He has requested pizza and red velvet cake. Tune in tomorrow for the pre-celebration activities. This year, he will get to taste his first ever all organic, homemade pizza. It might answer the age old question: Does organic taste better?

Freshly baked bread is a yummy base for any stuffing and it doesn't have to take a million years to prepare. Geraldine Duncann taught me a spiffy shortcut back in my Southern Oregon days when I had the benefit of sitting in her kitchen, watching and helping as she experimented for her cookbooks. The following recipe is my invention, but Geraldine's shortcut method.

Homemade Bread for Stuffing

• 2 cups warm water
• 1 tsp yeist
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2-4 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon ground rosemary, or diced fresh rosemary

Take 2 cups of warm water and mix in the yeist. Add two cups of water, mix well, then walk away for 45 minutes and clean your livingroom, read a book, go on a short walk, or do whatever else you like to do. I personally like to write songs in such a break.

After the 45 minute break, add the olive oil and salt and rosemary. Add flour until it is dough (as in not too dense, but also doesn't stick like goo to your fingers. NOTE: remove your rings before touching the dough or they will get super dirty. Shape into a loaf. Cover the dough and walk away for another 25-45 minutes.

ASIDE: I often just throw the bread in the oven at this point for baking, but if you want lighter bread, wait for the second rising cycle.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake the loaf for 25-45 minnutes until it is done. The crust should be a nice golden brown.

Remove bread from oven and let it cool for 15 minutes, then slice the heel off, butter it and try hard not to eat the rest of the loaf.

In southern Oregon, we went through a loaf of this bread every two days.

Cranberry jelly has often gotten the short end of the stick at holiday dinners. Served from a can with a slooping sound, the gelatinous substance often retains the can's ridge pattern even after slicing. Yet, cranberries are said to have many health benefits including fighting bladder infections, yeast infections and more. Better yet, they can taste very good if prepared right.

A food eaten by Native Americans before the new world was settled, cranberries also have shown preliminary signs of helping prevent cancer, according to the Cranberry Institute:

Anti-cancer - In 1996 laboratory studies conducted by University of Illinois scientists and published in Plants Medica demonstrated the potential anticarcinogenic properties of cranberries. More recently researchers at the University of Western Ontario demonstrated, using an animal model, that human breast cancer cells showed significantly lower incidence of tumor development when the experimental group's diet was supplemented with cranberries. Although these results are very preliminary, compounds in cranberries may prove to be a potent cancer fighter.

As a transplant to Nashville from Oregon, cranberries play an important role for the coming meal and my mother has an excellent and easy recipe for relish.

Mom's Orange Cranberry Relish

• 1 bag cranberries (In Nashville, you can order organic ones at PlumGoodFood.com, or go to Wild Oats
• Two Peeled Oranges (I still haven't found a very good location for sweet oranges, but Lannea suggests The Harris Tetter in Brentwood, 8th Ave S/Franklin Rd)
• Sugar to taste (I use a teaspoon - most will want 1-2 tablespoons)

Place cranberries and oranges in a food processor and grind them up. Add sugar to taste. Leave out for 15 minutes and stir, then store in the fridge until you need it.

If you do not have a food processor, I feel really sorry for you, but you can just dice ever thing up, then use a potato masher to achieve similar results. It takes about 5 minutes longer.

Cranberry Relish Recipes and Reference

• Simply Recipes
  A nice resource for many kinds of recipes. This recipe is more labor intensive than most of my cooking adventures, but looks pretty yummy.
• About: Southern US Cuisine
  Watch out for pop ups! This has a whole list of options.
• Reader's Digest Cooked Cranberry Relish Recipe
  I tried this recipe, or one like it, about two years ago with the following alterations: 1/2 the sugar (I like bitter) and two shots of premium bourbon. It was excellent!