By the time you read this, you will have your shopping done, your Thanksgiving menu planned, and maybe a few things, like pie dough and cranberry sauce, already made.

Me, I have a confession to make. After talking with you for three weeks about things like Simple Roast Turkey and Michael Brisson’s Thanksgiving Menu, I am turkey-ed out. We — just the three of us with one son home — are having beef tenderloin for Thanksgiving.

The truth is that I have a complicated relationship with Thanksgiving. Back in the day, I was lured on to national television (more than once) to offer turkey tips the day before Thanksgiving. It was exhausting. Between that and years of turkey photo shoots and turkey recipe testing for food magazines, I am okay with skipping the bird. Still gonna make those yummy desserts and sides, though. (Remember, all those recipes are in our Thanksgiving collection.)

Meanwhile, I’m planning ahead for what we’ll eat the rest of the holiday week. I’m making a big batch of Slow-Simmered Meat Sauce for Pasta, a Spanish Pot Roast (these guys like meat!), and my favorite curry (top photo), which is vegetarian but can take shrimp or chicken easily.

The recipe — Cauliflower Coconut Curry with Chickpeas, Spinach, and Tomatoes — is in our regular rotation. I made it last week with Morning Glory’s own cauliflower and pretty green romanesco. We added some shredded chicken leftover from the big fat fresh Morning Glory chicken we had pot-roasted the day before. (Pot-roasting is a great technique for keeping a big chicken moist.) But leftover shredded turkey would be delicious in this curry, too.

What else could you do with your leftover turkey? My mind goes to black beans and chili spices and melty cheese. Lime and cilantro, too. I’d try Ellie Krieger’s Loaded Potato Nachos with a bit of shredded turkey in the mix.

Or I might slip some turkey into these Butternut, Corn, and Black Bean Quesadillas. Cathy Walther’s Black Bean and Butternut Squash Chili would be great with knobs of turkey in it, too.

Since we won’t have leftover turkey at our house, I’m going to aim for a couple of easy egg nights: I think Baked Eggs Pizzaiola or maybe Broccoli, Bacon, and Gruyere Bread Pudding will do for Sunday supper.

That is, if we don’t have too many eggy things in the mornings.

I love breakfast time during the holidays — you sleep late, pad around in your slippers, drink lots of coffee, linger at the breakfast table, and eat heartily. This year I think I’ll make Abby Dodge’s Streusel-Topped Ginger Pear Coffeecake to have on hand.

And I’ll slip in at least one Puffy Pancake, a reminder of the popovers my 90-year-old Dad will be making for my sister in Delaware, like he has every year, every holiday, every breakfast, for more than 60 years. I will miss them (my family, not the popovers – well, okay, both) more at breakfast time than at any other time during Thanksgiving.

Not all the choices we have to make this Thanksgiving are as easy as what to serve for dinner. But it’s comforting to know we can connect to family through what we cook, even if we're not at the same table. And for that, and for so much more, I am grateful.

A happy Thanksgiving to you all.