Here are just a few of the digital wonders you can feast on for the holidays, hopefully helping you simplify your shopping and cooking so you can shed the apron a bit sooner and relax with family on Thanksgiving.
Apps
You don't have to go far to do your comparison shopping and keep Thanksgiving from breaking the bank. Search by item to compare prices, search by store to find deals before you go out, create and email your shopping lists, and print coupons, all right here on Patch.
Thanksgiving Menu Maker from Fine Cooking
Fine Cooking magazine invites you to tap your way to a customized holiday menu from more than 75 of its all-time favorite Thanksgiving recipes, plus get a customized shopping list and schedule. Best of all, the app is free for iOS.
Want to learn the secret of creating turducken (a chicken inside of a duck inside of a turkey) or tofurkey? Or just need to learn the basics of turkey 101? This $2 app from Mahalo takes you through a course to learn interesting possibilities for your bird. Available for Android or iOS (for both iPhone and iPad).
Epicurious remains a straightforward free recipe app from Condé Nast's Epicurious.com, designed for both iPhone and iPad, as well as Android.
Cooking multiple dishes at one time? Try out this $1 app for iOS iPhone and iPad, that lets you see and manage multiple timers at once.
Paprika Recipe Manager for iPhone
If you have an iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad with iOS 5.0 or later, this app is a great way to create your own recipe book online. You can "clip" recipes from the web, scale recipe ingredients, and create shopping lists. If you have iOS 6, it also has Twitter & Facebook integration. The downside, it's a $5 app, but goes way beyond Thanksgiving meal planning.
Gadgets
iGrill is a wireless Bluetooth thermometer that lets you monitor oven temperatures and cooking times without standing over a hot oven all day. At $80, it's pretty spendy, but if getting the bird absolutely perfect--or getting a techy spouse involved with the food prep--it might be worth a look.
The Ultimate Turkey Rack
America's Test Kitchen reviewed this gadget that promises to make it easy to "flip the bird," so you can start yout turkey breast-down to aid in cooking the slower cooking dark meat, with the primary advice being, measure your oven before you invest the $29.95.
