Thanksgiving is a dicey time. Everyone has favorite dishes, and woe be to the intrepid cook with an itch to tinker with the feast.

Still, the holiday can be an ideal time to tweak things just a bit and perhaps add a newfangled side dish or sweet to the familiar holiday spread. The meal may stretch accordionwise until the newcomers are voted off the table or turned into keepers. But this is how traditions are made.

Take Green Bean Casserole. In 1955, the Campbell Soup Co. test kitchen, under the helm of Dorcas Reilly, invented the five-ingredient melange of beans and cream of mushroom soup as a way of increasing sales of the company's products. The casserole has been a de rigueur Thanksgiving side dish ever since.

Last holiday season, according to the soup makers, more than 152,000 people looked up the recipe on Campbell's Web site. That's just added gravy compared with the folks who found the recipe on the back of a cream of mushroom soup can or in magazines or on recipe cards.

In 2002, Reilly presented the original Green Bean Casserole recipe card to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio. Traditions don't get much more hallowed than that.

Yet a couple years back, Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh, the "Hearty Boys" of Food Network, dared to make over this classic, and their version has become a "must" on my own holiday table. They gave the dish an elegant lift with a homemade two-mushroom and sherry sauce topped with frizzled leeks instead of the usual French's French Fried Onions.

For many, Thanksgiving is a hollow, bleak experience without a sweet-potato casserole topped with oozing, charred miniature marshmallows. It just wouldn't be the holidays if the month following the feast wasn't spent trying to scrape off the slopped over, burnt-on sugary goo from the floor of the oven.

Ida C. Bailey Allen may be the person to thank for this marshmallow-topped sweet-potato phenomenon. In her 1928 tome, "Vital Vegetables," she printed a recipe called Browned Sweet Potato With Marshmallows. Few have looked back since.

Yet again, there is more than one way to kill a cat besides choking it with butter — or mini marshmallows. As Gourmet magazine suggested in its 1994 Thanksgiving issue, topping those taters with oatmeal cookie crumbs will make you wonder what you ever saw in the marshmallows.

Even classic pumpkin pie can be morphed into another dessert altogether - such as Pumpkin Cheesecake Swirl Torte — as cooking instructor Phillis Carey did for one of her classes on putting a twist on old holiday faves.

As a cook who is constantly trying new recipes to teach her students, Carey has no qualms about fiddling with the traditional holiday meal.

"I'm really lucky because my family is used to being guinea pigs at all family gatherings," said Carey. "While we love the traditions at Thanksgiving, like turkey and mashed potatoes, it's easy to stay within the guidelines of the customary and still jazz things up a bit by adding new flavors to old standbys."

Carey suggests adding leeks, mushrooms and toasted hazelnuts to your stuffing. She also recommends getting daring and flavoring your mashed potatoes with garlic or sauteed leeks and pancetta.

If you're tired of those cloying sweet potatoes with marshmallows, try roasting the sweet potatoes, Carey said. Slice or cube them, toss in a little olive oil, garlic and fresh rosemary, and roast them at 450 F for 40 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender and slightly caramelized.

Carey's family has never gone the Green Bean Casserole route; instead, she pairs green beans with sliced shallots that she caramelizes with balsamic vinegar.

"And there is always my favorite, pumpkin pie," said Carey. "But we often add Key lime pie or a chocolate torte, too. It's always a feast!"

Here are a few classics treated with a twist. Try one or all of them, and you will be on your way to establishing a new tradition for your holiday table.

CRANBERRY SAUCE WITH PORT AND DRIED FIGS

1 2/3 cups ruby port

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup packed golden brown sugar

8 dried black Mission figs, stemmed, chopped

1 (6-inch-long) sprig fresh rosemary

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 (12-ounce) bag fresh cranberries

3/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Combine port, vinegar, brown sugar, figs, rosemary and black pepper in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes. Discard rosemary.

Mix in cranberries and 3Ú4 cup sugar. Cook over medium heat until liquid is slightly reduced and berries burst, stirring occasionally, about 6 to 8 minutes. Cool. Transfer sauce to bowl; chill until cold.

(Cranberry sauce can be prepared 1 week ahead. Cover and keep refrigerated.)

— Bon Appetit, November 2001.

ORANGE-FLAVORED SWEET POTATOES WITH OATMEAL COOKIE TOPPING

7 large sweet potatoes (about 5 pounds)

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

1/4 cup sweet orange marmalade

1 tablespoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger root

2 teaspoons salt

Topping:

1/4 (3-inch) crisp oatmeal cookies, broken into pieces (about 3 cups)

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Yields 8 to 10 servings

Preheat oven to 450 F and butter a 9x13-inch baking dish. Prick potatoes and bake on foil-lined baking sheet in middle of oven until very soft, about 1 1Ú2 hours.

When sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop flesh into a large bowl and mash with butter, brown sugar, juice, marmalade, ginger root and salt. Spread mixture in baking dish. Potato mixture may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring to room temperature before proceeding.

To make topping: In a food processor, grind cookies finely. Add butter and pulse motor until mixture resembles soft cookie dough. Wrap topping in wax paper and chill until firm, about 2 hours. Topping may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered.

Yields about 3 1/2 cups

Crumble topping over potato mixture and bake in middle of oven until topping is lightly browned, about 25 minutes.

(From Gourmet magazine, November 1994)

NOT YOUR MAMA'S GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE

6 tablespoons butter (divided use)

2 small shallots, finely chopped (about 3 tablespoons)

8 ounces portobello mushrooms, sliced

8 ounces white mushrooms, sliced

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage leaves, or 1 teaspoon dried sage

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sherry

3/4 cup heavy cream

2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Frizzled Leaks:

Vegetable oil, for deep frying

1 leek

Superfine flour (Such as Wondra), for dredging

Yield 8 to 10 servings.

To make green beans: Melt 4 tablespoons butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and saute until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add mushrooms, thyme and sage, and saute until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes. Stir in flour and cook 5 minutes. Add sherry and stir until thickened. Add cream and simmer 5 minutes. Set sauce aside. (Sauce can be made up to 2 days before and refrigerated.)

Melt remaining butter in large skillet over high heat. Add green beans, toss to coat and saute until bright green, about 7 minutes. They'll still be crispy. (Or steam green beans until crisp-tender.) Season with salt and pepper and place on a platter.

Simmer sauce, spoon over beans. Top with the Frizzled Leeks.

To make Frizzled Leeks: Heat a couple inches of oil to 350 F in a large, heavy pot. To check temperature, drop a bread cube into it; if it browns within 30 seconds, oil is ready.

Trim leek, slice in 1/2 lengthwise, and wash under running water. Cut root end off and cut each 1/2 lengthwise into long, thin strips. Season flour with salt and pepper. Dredge leek strips in flour. Fry leeks for 1 to 2 minutes, or until crisp and golden. Drain on paper towels.

Note: French's French Fried Onions can be substituted for the leeks.

— Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh, the Hearty Boys, Food Network.

COPYRIGHT 2008 THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE.

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.