Thanksgiving: What We're Most Thankful For

Here at The Daily Meal, we've been thinking about Thanksgiving since January. We've been searching high and low to bring you all of the news, tips, and recipes you've ever wanted for this bountiful holiday. But amid the hustle and bustle this holiday creates for our team (or heck, any food-focused team), we wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on what makes us happiest this time of year, and all year long. Check out what foods, drinks, and things make us smile:

I'm thankful for sweet potato fries because they're tastier than regular fries, and sweet potatoes rock! I'm thankful for my favorite dessert, chocolate chip cookies, which I tend to eat too many of at a time. And I'm thankful for hazelnut lattes that wake me up and keep me warm when it's cold outside.

—   Haley Willard, Assistant Editor

I'm thankful for New York, and especially Brooklyn, and especially Park Slope, and especially my apartment there. I am thankful that the landlord charges a lower rent than she can get away with. I'm thankful for friends and family, cool co-workers, and for Bklyn Larder, Purbird, Maya Taqueria, Pork Slope, Union Market, and the fact that there's a giant Key Food two blocks away from me. I'm thankful for a 30-minute door-to-door commute. I'm thankful that I get to write about food for a living. I'm also thankful for Negronis.

—   Dan Myers, Eat/Dine Editor

I'm thankful for all desserts because I have the biggest sweet tooth and would always eat dessert first if I could. I am also thankful for muffins because they are like eating dessert for breakfast. And for butter because butter makes desserts better. I am thankful for salad and vegetables, too (I guess).

—   Emily Jacobs, Recipe Editor

I'm thankful for big, messy California burritos, cheese of all kinds (I never discriminate), and heaping scoops of coffee ice cream, but mostly (not to get too sappy) I'm thankful I have wonderful friends and family to share these delicious things with.

—    Carly Goldsmith, Copy Editor

I'm thankful for salad — I eat a big plate of greens every day (with no dressing) and I really enjoy it, though it makes me sound very boring and unadventurous with food (which I'm not).I am thankful for creative desserts. No, really, classic desserts, too — whoever invented dessert? I'm thankful to him or her anyway. I'm thankful for granola and Greek (plain!) yogurt. I could live on the combo of these two things (tragic, but true). I'm also VERY thankful for the coffee-cart guy on the street outside our office — I appreciate his energy and smile every morning — really, I prefer his quite-bland-but-drinkable coffee to anything served by a stuck-up coffee snob barista (I used to be one myself so I can say it!).

—   Elsa Säätelä, Travel Editor

I'm thankful for Snickers ice cream bars and whiskey. Together or separate.

—   Jane Bruce, Photo Editor

I'm thankful for burrata and red wine, the perfect cure for a long day.

—    Jessica Chou, News Editor

I am grateful for all things chocolate. I am so thankful that someone put Adam Richman on TV, because he is seriously one of my favorite people in food. I am also thankful that someone invented the margarita, for without them I would not have had the courage to continue dancing after I slipped and fell on the floor at a bachelorette party — though likely it was his fault I fell in the first place. I'm kidding about the falling part. Or am I?

—    Lauren Gordon, Entertain Editor

I'm thankful for dirty gin martinis, for the people who know that martinis aren't martinis when they have vodka in them, and for the people I share them with. I'm thankful for warm bagels at Ess-a-Bagel right out of the oven, and for the half-inch of Temptee cream cheese that they slightly melt underneath a cold bed of Nova. I'm thankful for my three iced coffees a day and the scarves that keep me warm while I drink them all winter. I'm thankful for the imperfections that form on pizza crusts and the places that still make pies that aren't so manufactured that they appear on them. I'm thankful for my new favorite sushi restaurant Kura on St Mark's and the Japanese sushi Santa who calls me fat while he serves me another perfect piece of sushi. I'm thankful for the pepperoni slice at Joe's, for Chicago-style hot dogs, for Round Rock Donuts. I'm thankful for all the people who make all this great food, and I'm thankful for the friends, fiancée, family, and colleagues that I share it with and who know me for loving them.

—   Arthur Bovino, Executive Editor

I am thankful for my Nespresso machine, without whose early morning ministrations I'd still be wandering around my place in a fog. I am thankful for bacon-cheeseburgers, which I consider a proof of the love God has for humankind. I am thankful for grenache.

—   Colman Andrews, Editorial Director

So, what food, drink, restaurant, or thing in general are you most thankful for? Let us know on our Twitter  with the #thedailymealthx!