Top 20 Thanksgiving recipes

Classic Kentucky pecan pie with dark brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, and a heap of pecans on top. The Dear Abby reader-favorite recipe from the back of newspapers nationwide.

Make your own original french fried onions. You'll never use those inedible canned french fried onions again.

Easy pecan pie with butterscotch chips folded into a classic Karo syrup filling. The Thanksgiving and Christmas pie that bakes up glossy, gooey, and dotted with caramel pockets.

Georgia pecan pie with dark corn syrup, butter, and a full cup of toasted pecans baked into a glossy custard filling. The Southern Thanksgiving classic, no fuss, no fancy.

How to cook acorn squash. This works with carnival squash (used in the photo) as well as acorn squash. Perfectly cooked moist and not stringly squash paired with a buttery glaze that is caramelized perfectly. All this in about 20 minutes.

A quick braise keeps this much maligned "little cabbage" tender-crisp, slightly nutty and not mushy. Dressed simply in a butter mustard sauce seasoned with tarragon.

Libby's famous pumpkin pie is the back-of-the-can American Thanksgiving classic: pumpkin puree, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, and warm spices baked into a flaky pie shell. Holiday dessert gold standard.

Fluffy pumpkin pie with whipped egg whites folded into a rum-spiked custard, baked in a three-temperature method for a tall, mousse-light filling. Two pies for the holiday table.

This is a quick, easy way to saute asparagus. The dish has a light flavor and makes a great accompaniment to Italian meals. I make this year-round, but we especially enjoy it at Thanksgiving

Light rum balls roll up in 5 minutes from ground walnuts, vanilla wafer crumbs, honey, and rum. No-bake holiday cookies that stash in a tin for over a month and only get better with age.

This one skillet side dish makes for quick and easy cleanup. The crunchy butter and maple toasted pecans dress up everyday green beans for a side worthy of a holiday feast.

Fat-free pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving with a no-butter bread crumb crust, egg-white-only filling, and skim evaporated milk. A lighter holiday classic with all the warm spice.

Shortbread pecan rum balls are a no-bake holiday cookie made with crushed shortbread, toasted pecans, dark rum, and dark corn syrup. Five ingredients, twenty minutes, no oven required.

Double pecan pie: a layer of crushed pecans beneath a gooey corn syrup filling, crowned with pecan halves, all in a tender homemade crust. Twice the pecans, twice the crunch.

This is a very easy cranberries sauce, a very good accompaniment to your meal.

Pumpkin cheese soup is a Thanksgiving showstopper served right inside a baked pumpkin. A creamy, cheddar-rich pumpkin soup ladled from an edible tureen, scraping tender pumpkin into every bowl. As much centerpiece as supper.

From the Thanksgiving collection I been gathering over the years.

Don't bore your salads with the same dressings from the store, try this recipe that is sure to lively up your dinner!

Chocolate cream rum balls made from melted semi-sweet chocolate, heavy cream, dark rum, and icing sugar, then rolled in chocolate vermicelli, coconut, or cocoa. Five-ingredient no-bake holiday treat.

The Pennsylvania Dutch settlers made these at Thanksgiving and stored them in a stoneware crock until Christmas. The cookies can be made at any time, but allowed to age for 4-6 weeks.