On today’s menu:

1. New York’s historic (and historically pricey) Russian Tea Room is offering a children’s tea for $25 including peanut butter sandwiches, Little Pigs-in-a-Blanket, red velvet cupcakes, chocolate mousse, scones and apple slices with caramel sauce.
2. “Dinner with the Band,” is a new cooking show on the Independent Film Channel hosted by chef Sam Mason (former pastry chef at wd-50). Mason invites musicians into the kitchen to chat and play music while he cooks.
3. The Obamas’ first state dinner will be held in a heated tent on the White House’s South Lawn.
4. The Wall Street Journal reports Japan’s supply of sushi masters is threatened.
5. Groups like Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry are promoting venison donations to food pantries in Ohio and other states.
6. In Olympia, Washington, a supermarket became a bowling alley for a day as competitors rolled turkeys down the frozen food aisle.
7. Former cinematographer Alton Brown chats with CBS about applying knowledge of chemistry in the kitchen.
8. Heston Blumenthal, chef/owner of England’s Fat Duck restaurant, is promoting sous vide cooking for the home.
9. Filipino culinary experts are crafting 5,000 unique cheese dishes in an attempt to beat the previous Guinness world record of 4,668 set in India.
10. Fifty-eight year old Sandy Moriarty has a cult following for her legal cannabis brownies that are, reputedly, packed with a potent THC punch.
11. Chris Bojalian and readers discuss real Thanksgiving turkeys — gastronomic nightmares like “Limburger and blue cheese soup.”
12. In The Hot Dish, Jessica Chapman dishes on more of Thanksgiving’s Grossest Foods.

Tags: Alton Brown, cannabis, Dinner with the Band, Food, Guinness, Heston Blumenthal, Obama, Russian Tea Room, Sam Mason, state dinner, Thanksgiving, The White House, turkey, turkey bowling