Help has arrived. Don't panic. You could do takeout? You could order a premade meal? But you're probably cooking and you might need some help.
The Twin Cities Turkey Hotline will go live for a second year in a row, with experts ready to tackle all your holiday cooking questions. Eight experts will lend their know-how to the hotline, and organizer Dara Levine says there will be more of a focus on side dishes this time around.
"We just thought, let's expand it. Let's make it bigger than it was last year," Levine explained. "There's so much more than just cooking that goes into it. There's drinks, there's presentation, and so we wanted to kind of hit all the marks when it comes to Thanksgiving."
Levine says cocktail ideas and dessert options will also be offered up by this year's list of award-winning chefs who will be tapped to help the home cook.
"Bentley Gillman from Tattersall Distilling and Taylor Surdyk of Surdyk's Liquor Store," Levine says about the participating experts. "They're talking about drinks. Molly Miller from Sift Gluten Free and Heather Keogh from Heather's Pies are talking about dessert."
MORE: WCCO's Jason DeRusha's "Ultimate Thanksgiving Takeout Guide"
For years, the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line has tried to help the home cook out with what can sometimes be a complicated protein to get just right. But Levine says the hyper-local hotline was designed with the community in mind.
"It lets the local experts speak to ingredients that people around here could find," says Levine. "It lets them talk to regional taste preferences and hopefully help make Thanksgiving a little bit easier for everybody all around."
The hotline goes live one week ahead of turkey day on November 21st at I-844-TURKEYDAY.
Here's the full lineup of experts available between 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Hurry though! It's only active for the one day.
Appetizers
10–10:30 a.m.
Meredith Deeds, James Beard-nominated author of The Big Book of Appetizers
10:30–11 a.m.
Gheorghe Vatafu of St. Paul Grill
Mains
11–11:30 a.m.
Mike DeCamp of Jester Concepts
11:30 a.m.–12 p.m.
Marque Collins of Tullibee at The Hewing Hotel
Drinks
12–12:30 p.m.
Bentley Gillman of Tattersall Distilling
12:30–1 p.m.
Taylor Surdyk of Surdyk's Liquor Store
Desserts
1–1:30 p.m.
Molly Miller of Sift Gluten Free
1:30–2 p.m.
Heather Keogh of Heather's Pies