This year, the folks at Podcasting News are thankful to be spending the (U.S.) Thanksgiving day holed up in the Podcasting News “Test Kitchens” (right) with only the little podcasters (above) and a giant turkey to keep us company.

Whereas many years, we are either entertaining our large extended family, or biding our time waiting to eat at some other relative’s house, this year, it’s just the nuclear family. We are looking forward to the leisurely “fancy” cooking (fancy cake, right) one can do when it’s a smaller group.

To get some inspiration for the cooking we asked our foodie/podcasting friend, Anne Bramley, about what her Thanksgiving would be like this year, and she said:

“My holiday entertaining plans involve sharing an intimate, stress-free, non-traveling family meal filled with foods inspired by British and American food history: turkey with cider gravy, cranberries slow roasted with brandy, bread pudding jazzed up with pumpkin and maybe another side dish or two.

We always keep it very simple and keep the number of dishes to a minimum to be able to focus on the fun of cooking our favorite foods and the pleasure of spending time together in the kitchen. And then there’s the week of leftovers we can live on [afterward].”

Anne also recently posted two podcasts with autumn celebrations in mind: one EatFeed on perry (pear cider), “which we always have on our Thanksgiving table as a nod to old traditions,” she says, and one Amuse-Bouche on “what is American food?” with the editor of the Oxford Companion to Food and Drink.