Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  By now we're all probably knee deep in preparations for that holiday dinner or at least have a good idea of what direction we're going.  This year it seems Food Network is not helping matters much.  I'm saying this because of what I've seen the last week or so with all their special shows concerning Thanksgiving.  The one person in particular that I think we could do without giving us his so called "expert advice" is Alton Brown.  In fact, I'm afraid he's useless.  We used to love his show "Good Eats" and get a kick out of it but I never really got into the " Iron Chef" shows. Since I'm always looking for new and different ways to do things, I've been tuning into Food Network to see what's shaking.  One of his recent shows on thawing a turkey involved rigging up a fountain through a cooler so you would have fresh water flowing around it at all times.  Are you serious?  Do you really think the average joe would go to these lengths to thaw a turkey?  To me that goes against everything Food Network stands for, which is appealing to the at- home cook.  That's what they emphasize during the Next Food Network Star shows.  It has to be easy enough for a viewer to understand and willing to do.  He also gave a recipe for gravy where he said you needed 2 types of thickening  -  flour/cornstarch and potato starch.  The latter is a commercial grade thickener that most of us don't have access to.  The real clincher was the Thanksgiving Live show they just aired.  He was the moderator, Iron Chef style, that took phone calls and e-mails from people for the chefs such as Bobby Flay, Rachel, Sunny, Melissa, etc.  He was downright rude to some of them and had such an uppity (no racial slur intended) attitude.  I was appalled by him.  He was such a turn-off.  I hope Food Network takes a close look at this and reevaluates their need for someone like Alton Brown.