In these days leading up to Thanksgiving, most of us can use a refresher course in how to cook this American feast’s traditional centerpiece, the turkey. Few of us buy and roast a whole 12- to 20-pound bird at any other time of the year, and it’s easy to get rusty.
Last year after I ruined another big bird [...]

My earliest food memory belongs not to me, but to my mother.
Half complaint, half Sunday afternoon tale, she would recount for those gathered in the living room the time my grandpa fed me so many pinto beans, I was up all night with stomach cramps. She would shake her head and give a rueful laugh. [...]