The holidays are the time of the year when you can flex those culinary muscles. Thanksgiving is your chance to shine: bring out those family-favorite recipes, both new and old. It’s a time for traditions — for both those old-fashioned traditions as well as newly created traditions. Regardless of the details, the highlight of Thanksgiving is often the food. Thanksgiving is the time to add those sweet details to savory dishes (cranberries or raisins in stuffing, anyone?) and to experiment with cool kitchen gadgets that make your life easier. Let’s get ready. Incorporate some of your favorite Thanksgiving and fall home décor, create a welcoming table and let’s talk about some fantastic kitchen gadgets that no kitchen should be without this Thanksgiving holiday.

Miles Kimball’s Top 7 Picks for the Must-Have Gadgets for This Thanksgiving

#1: A Quality Baster

Whether you’re a turkey fanatic or opt for ham, no kitchen should be without a high-quality baster. Our Chef’s Pride multi-function turkey and barbeque baster set comes within everything you need to keep those meats juicy. Are you a baster? A brusher? A flavor-infuser? Whatever your method is for maintaining that optimal flavor and tenderness during cooking, this baster set has what you need to create something amazing. One of the biggest woes about basters is their cleaning. No worries — this baster set comes with its own cleaning brush, so you can maintain cleanliness without hassle.

#2: A Marble Cheese Slicer

Appetizers are the mainstay of every holiday home. And who doesn’t like cheese? Everyone knows that those store-bought cheese trays are at least twice as expensive than buying blocks of cheese and doing it yourself. Those store-made options also can be quite boring. With your own marble cheese slicer, you can incorporate gourmet cheeses and meats into your finger foods. Cut your own gouda, asiago, experiment with cheddars, add some brie and some blue cheese. Then, throw on some almonds, Greek olives, figs, jellies and crostini. Voila. You’ll have an epic charcuterie tray and cheese board that will be the highlight of your Thanksgiving get-together.

#3: My Favorite™ Knife

Who doesn’t struggle when cutting and serving? (With Thanksgiving dinner, as you know, there’s a heck of a lot of cutting and serving.) Whether you’re cutting pies, cakes, bars, lasagna or meatloaf, My Favorite Knife will get the job done. This knife is not too big, not too small and will get into the sides of your pans with almost zero effort. Best of all? My Favorite Knife won’t scratch your non-stick pans and is heat-resistant up to 410°F.

#4: Bamboo Toast Tongs

Think these bamboo toast tongs are only for your morning toast? Think again. Although they’re fantastic for safely removing hot toast from your toaster, they’re also fantastic for serving your breads, cheeses and other foods during Thanksgiving dinner. They allow you to take one piece of bread — without the use of fingers (something that’s extra important now when we are so conscious about spreading germs.). Avoid hands and fingers touching food with this bamboo toast tong — purchase several for multiple platters. These bamboo toast tongs are also ideal to use on your charcuterie tray and cheese board (see above).

#5: Clever Food Preservers

Thanksgiving means baking (duh). With all that baking, however, comes those half-used bags of staples, such as flour and sugar. We all know that the packaging these items come in do little to keep out moisture, humidity and (eeek.) sometimes bugs. Check out our super-clever food preservers and ingenious food storage items — all which are particularly helpful around the holidays. Check out our flour and sugar keepers, pie keepers, bread keepers, bun keepers, deviled egg keepers and square and round cracker keepers. Looking for an interesting way to keep your brown sugar free from those gross dried-up clumps? Check out our set of two brown sugar preservers, made from all-natural terra cotta.

#6: Three-Piece Cooling Rack

Still looking for a good cooling rack? How about three? These stackable three-piece cooling racks make the most out of your counterspace when you’re making those gingersnap cookies for Thanksgiving dessert. They’re also great to use while making those famous Christmas cookies of yours. There will be plenty of room for those cookies to completely cool so you can move on with your family’s cookie decorating tradition.

#7: Jadite “Drippings” Bowl with Lid

Does anyone really know what to do with meat drippings? You can’t pour them down the sink and dumping them into the trash makes a huge mess. As grandma used to say: “A place for everything, and everything in its place.” We think this is ideal for drippings, as well. Whether you’re a bacon grease saver or need a secure, lidded place to drain your hamburger, this jadite drippings bowl with a lid by Home Marketplace is the perfect place to put them. You can then allow them to cool so they can be disposed up properly at a later time.

Miles Kimball for All Your Kitchen Helpers

Miles Kimball has a ton of cool kitchen gadgets that make your holiday cooking ventures easier, including measuring spoons, liquid measuring cups, cooking aprons, microwave egg cookers and dinnerware sets. From kitchen linens, towels and kitchen chair cushions to cookbooks and instant pot cookbooks, we have everything you need for a well-stocked kitchen — all throughout the year.