Test kitchen manager Noelle Carter answers common Thanksgiving cooking questions.

Should I stuff the turkey before roasting, or not? What dishes can I prepare ahead of time? How long does a turducken really take to cook? And, well, what is a turducken, anyway? This afternoon, Jasmine Elist and I fielded some last-minute Thanksgiving questions in our video chat (above).

And we did so in stylish Thanksgiving hats, I might add.

Thanksgiving can be a high-stress time in the kitchen. If you find yourself stumped, drop us a line on our Facebook page. We’re checking in periodically to do what we can to help. Obviously we can’t do specific recipe searches, but we’ll try to answer as many of your general cooking questions as we can.

Here are some helpful related Thanksgiving links from our L.A. Times website:

And we've collected more than 110 in our "Los Angeles Times Holiday Handbook." The book shares ideas to help you celebrate Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year's.

We’ve also updated last year's "Los Angeles Times Holiday Cookies," so it now includes 65 recipes from a wide range of sources, including world-famous pastry chefs and home cooks.

Each book is $4.99, available at the Los Angeles Times bookstore for Kindle, Nook and iBooks.


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You can find Noelle Carter on Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest. Email Noelle at noelle.carter@latimes.com.