Thanksgiving is just two days away, and most of us are still putting the finishing touches on our menus, so here are a few suggestions for pairings, recipes, and other ways to bring beer to your holiday table.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer quotes Garrett Oliver as saying a Biere de Garde is the perfect beer for Thanksgiving. They also make the case for Trappist Orval, Saison Dupont, and North Coast Old Rasputin as great beers to pair with your feast. The Federal Way Mirror calls on Rogue Juniper Pale Ale and Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome with dinner and suggests pumpkin ale, Belgian fruit lambic, or champagne beer with dessert.

The Bros at BeerAdvocate also have a great list of brews and recipes that use beer. Since we’ve been assigned to cranberry duty this year, we’ll be making their recipe for Cranberry Wit Sauce:

Cranberry Wit Sauce
A traditional side dish with a twist.

Ingredients
2 Blood oranges, zested and sliced into rings
2 cups Witbier*
1/2 cup Belgian clear rock candy sugar, or regular sugar
2 tsp. Ground coriander
1 pinch Sea salt
1/2 cup Orange blossom honey
12 oz. Cranberries, fresh (1 bag)

Directions
In a large saucepan, add oranges (giving a good twist to release the juice), Witbier, rock candy, coriander and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring about 4 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the sliced citrus, and add the honey, orange zest and cranberries; reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the cranberries have popped and the sauce has thickened, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately or chill until ready to serve. The sauce can be made up to 2 days in advance.

* For beer, use a local Wit or Double Wit from Southampton Brewery, if you don’t have a homebrew Witbier available.