It's Thanksgiving this Thursday -- you know, the kick-off holiday to all that warm, group hug family reunion sort of thing. We're overwhelmed with nausea already. What if you don't dig your blood relatives? What if you don't want to talk or eat with them, much less, hug them? 

Busy yourself. Cook up a storm! Assign yourself so many roast turkeys and sweet potato casseroles that you won’t have time to chitchat. Uncle Jimmy will have to trash Aunt Minnie with some other poor chump. Baby Joey can spit up on another cousin’s silk top. 

And Kristal Manning has your off-the-family-radar rescue resource. Self-published author of The Dirty Apron: A Young Lady's Cookbook and Guide, she’s written an approachable, easy-to-follow manual full of recipes and homemaking tips and tricks, all in the snarky voice of a single girl bushwhacking her way through the good, the bad and the tasteless.

To wit: Prosciutto and Cheese Stuffed Chicken—a.k.a., The Boyfriend Keeper, or, The Boyfriend Stealer. You can also find on-the-fly, minimum prep dishes if you need to be out the door in a pinch, like a quick-and-nasty spin on Chicken Piccata.

She's a trusty connoisseur. Influenced by her grandparents—her Italian nonna and papa—Manning has been cooking since she had a stool to stand on. Peering over the counter, she would help prepare dinner and, soon, a lively confidence was born—a conviction that you can’t be afraid of failure in the kitchen, that a mess can reflect you had fun. Even if you’re with your relatives. Happy Thanksgiving.

www.kristalcooks.com