WhiteFence's Favorite Thanksgiving Dishes

We're now just hours away from our Thanksgiving feasts, and it's getting a little hard to focus on anything else at this point. I've noticed that while the basic components of everyone's meals are pretty consistent, it seems like every family has their own twists and traditions to make their meal unique.

My wife and I are hosting our first Thanksgiving at our house this year, and we've been trying to work out what dishes to add to the mix. With that in mind, I turned to my coworkers to get some ideas.

Here are some my fellow WhiteFencers' favorite Thanksgiving dishes:

• Anthony, Marketing Optimization Analyst – My favorite Thanksgiving dish is a little outside of the box and quite possibly a little bit dangerous. It’s…(wait for it) turkey.

• James, Marketing Optimization Analyst – Someone in the family usually makes a 7 layer Mexican bean dip and if I’m not careful, I will fill up on that and chips before we get to the main food. We usually have it at Christmas as well.

• Tara, Senior Manager of Paid Search – So, when I fix my plate I fill it up as efficiently as possible—covering the bottom layer with the ‘sides’ like dressing, green beans, yams, roll, etc..,etc…then I lay the turkey across the top and finally finish with the cranberry sauce! Pretty delicious! For round two, an hour or so later, I go with the turkey sandwich on a roll. So basically, my favorite is the perfectly made plate-takes precision!

• Stacey, Senior Process Analyst – I’m all about the sides. I find turkey to be dry unless it’s in a sandwich with other stuff. I also don’t really like gravy or mashed potatoes. I fill up on green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, and whatever kind of casseroles are available.  Also, lots and lots of pecan pie. Mmmmmm, pie…

• Lindsay, Marketing Optimization Analyst – My family likes to replicate the first Thanksgiving. We hunt deer and wild turkeys and cook them at home. We love to couple them with instant mashed potatoes and the pumpkin pie found at HEB.

• Eddy, Senior Copywriter – My grandma makes mac and cheese from the box but for some reason it tastes better than any mac and cheese ever, and I really have no idea why.

• Russ, Manager of Site Design and Development – Kugela, Lithuanian potato, cheese & fat casserole.

Poll: Where Could You Save the Most Money?

Lately, my wife and I have been taking extra care with our spending habits, and really trying to analyze where our money goes each month. It's surprising how your standard of living can just ratchet up over time without you even realizing it. Several years back, we were living on much less and coming through each month just fine in terms of our savings.

There are a few different areas that we're targeting to see if we are spending more than what is sensible: food, transportation, entertainment, utilities. Already, we're finding that we can easily cut down on the amount of gas we use by running errands together over the weekends, and knocking them all out at once, rather than making several trips to different stores over the course of a few days. In addition, our entertainment and food expenses can be dramatically decreased just by making a schedule for when we eat out with friends and what we're going to have for dinner each night.

All in all, it's been an interesting exercise to see where most of our money is going, and we were certainly surprised by the results that we saw. I decided to make a poll to see where the WhiteFence Blog readers fell in this discussion. Where do you guys think you could stand to save the most money? Feel free to tell us more in the comments!

Placing Smoke Alarms Around Your Home

Now that we've been in our house for just a few weeks over a year, it's time for my wife and I to start checking all of our smoke alarms. It's recommended that your home smoke detectors receive a new set of batteries once a year, so setting it around a yearly event such as a holiday (or in our case, the end of Daylight Savings this weekend) helps to keep track of it.

If you're wondering about the best places to put detectors, Charles & Hudson Home Security has a new blog post up about Where to Install Smoke Alarms in Your Home. Considering that each year, nearly two-thirds of all home fire deaths can be traced to improperly working smoke detectors, this is valuable information that could help you protect your family, yourself and your belongings.

Here's a rundown of the list:

• Put a smoke alarm in each bedroom and on each floor of the house. Yes, that includes the basement!

• Connect the alarms so that one alarm will trigger each one. That way you will be alerted if an alarm happens to go off somewhere that you would not have heard it before.

• Smoke rises, so place alarms either on the ceiling or near the top of a wall. Too low and the warning could come too late.

• Test your batteries each month, just in case!

Hopefully this list proves helpful for anybody that needs to re-inspect their smoke alarms in the near future. For more information, be sure to visit Charles & Hudson.

WhiteFence's Favorite Halloween Costume

Halloween is now just a couple days away! Do you have your costume picked out yet? I don't. For some reason, I just can't get a good idea going this year. I've got nothing and I'm quickly running out of time.

With that in mind, I turned to my fellow WhiteFencers for some inspiration. I asked a group of co-workers what their favorite Halloween costume of all time was, whether it was something they had worn, something they'd dressed their kids (or pets) in, or just something cool they'd seen around.

Here are some favorites from around the office:

• Monica, Manager of Marketing Content – My favorite Halloween costume as a child was when I went as Raggedy Ann. I was 8 years old and I had a HUGE Raggedy Ann doll, so that year I borrowed her clothes to make my costume. Yes I was that petite and the doll was that big.

• Tara, Senior Manager of Paid Search – My favorite Halloween costume ever was when I put my English Bulldog—Delilah—in a tutu (my husband was not impressed)! She waddled sideways in embarrassment until we took it off! Poor thing... but a bulldog named Delilah just needs a tutu—seemed only fitting!

• Amanda, Manager of Product Marketing – My favorite costume was my son’s first Halloween costume. He was 11 months old and the cutest giraffe ever! I dressed up as a ladybug, complete with antennae and wings, though it didn’t compare with how cute my little giraffe was!
  
  

• Eddy, Senior Copywriter – When I was a kid I dressed up one time as MC Hammer. My mom made me the Hammer pants, and I loved them so much I wore them the next day to school, where I was ridiculed for the rest of the week. I’m not sure why she let me leave the house like that. Now that I think about it, that’s probably not my favorite costume.

• Molly, Web Designer – I tend to lean more towards animals than humans. I think mainly because it can be  more clever in my opinion! I think I may take my cow color-coated dog as an excuse to dress her up as the most hilarious dog costume I have ever seen:
  
  
  I think she can pull it off! Either that or a Chik-Fil-A cow.

• Brooke, Manager of Paid Search – A favorite of mine was a group of children dressed as s'mores. They all wore black turtlenecks and pants, strapped white pillows to their chests and backs and topped it all off with sheets of cardboard over the pillows. For a costume that didn't cost anything, it sure had a lot of impact!

Choosing Secure Passwords Online

If you're anything like me, you get freaked out every time you hear stories of online security failures. Whether it's people getting their e-mail or Facebook accounts hacked, I just can't help but get a little more paranoid, wondering if all of my passwords could be compromised just as easily.

For the most part, I try to keep my passwords fairly complex while still easy to remember. I also don't use the same password for every single site I access. While these are fairly basic online security procedures, I'm sure there is much more that I'm unaware of.

That's why it's a good thing that Mozilla put out a recent video titled How to Choose Strong Passwords. It's got a handy guide to helping you choose passwords that are easy to remember, extremely secure and also different for all the sites you visit. It's definitely worth checking out if you're unsure about how secure your online accounts are.

Feel free to share your own thoughts about Internet security in the comments!

10 Free Ways to Learn More About Home Repair

It is no secret to my friends and my loved ones that I'm the opposite of handy, whatever the name for that happens to be. There are some people that just seem to know how to do everything in the handyman's repertoire, and I'm just not one of them. Give me a hammer, and I'll find a way to put a hole in something. Tell me to hang something on the wall, and I'll stare back at you for a few absentminded moments with a blank look on my face. That's just the way it's always been for me.

However, I'm always up for the opportunity to learn more. I'm sure there are probably classes that do this kind of thing, but I never know where to start. For the handy-challenged like myself out there, MSN has put together a list of 10 Free Sources for Home Repair Know-How. This list is actually full of both practical suggestions such as volunteering with home building organizations or helping a handy neighbor. It also sports a few online resources such as Expert Village's YouTube account. No matter what tips you're looking for, you're sure to find something that meets your needs on the list.

For those of you that happen to be handier than the rest, what resources did you use to learn more about home repair and home improvement? Was it just one of those things where you had to jump in and get your hands dirty? Did you do any of the things on the list? Share in the comments!

To read more of the article, visit MSN. For help with home improvement, visit WhiteFence.

Have You Ever Switched Energy Providers to Save Money?

Fall is here, and it's time to think about ways to save money on energy again. During the hot summer months, consumers in deregulated electricity markets are mostly focused on the savings they can find by looking for better rates through different providers, lowering their monthly payments and keeping some extra change in the pocket.

However, now that fall has arrived (and in full swing here in Houston, where the weather is quite lovely), it's time for folks in deregulated natural gas markets to start thinking about natural gas. After all, you don't want to suddenly wake up one morning to find that it's much too cold in your house and rates have already shot through the roof.

The surprising thing about all of this is that not that many people take an active interest in ways they can save money on their monthly bills. Sure, they would like to pay less, but they don't always do the legwork to go out and find the savings that are there to be had. My wife and I have done this a couple of times with our electricity provider, and we couldn't be happier. Honestly, it was so easy I was shocked that more people don't do it more often.

So I thought I'd create a poll and see just how many folks out there have switched energy providers to save money. Feel free to vote or leave a comment down below! If you're interested in saving on energy, visit the WhiteFence electricity and natural gas pages and get started!

WhiteFence's October Deals

Here in Houston, the change to the fall season doesn't always mean immediately cooler weather. Last year, the mid 90s heat stayed the same all throughout the month of October, giving us no real reprieve from the sun's hateful beams. However, this year, it actually feels legimitately like fall, seeing as how we are experiencing some of the best weather we've had in all of 2010. It's a nice reminder that summer is officially over.

While our focus on the blog might have been the summer of savings, the chances for you to find great deals are still all over WhiteFence. Here are some of the best deals for October:

• Get three FREE months of Starz and Showtime with select DIRECTV plans.

• Receive a $50 gift card with select Green Mountain Energy plans.

• Reward yourself with $40 in bill credits with select Georgia Natural Gas plans.

• Get $240 back plus $5 off per month for 24 months with select Verizon bundles.

• Get AT&T high-speed Internet for as low as $14.95 per month.

• Save $45 per month or get a $200 reward card with certain AT&T U-verse bundles.

As always, these promotions are subject to change and are true as of the date posted. Really, the best way to ensure you catch one of these deals while they last is to enter your address and see just what's available where you live. Don't miss these fall savings!

Poll: On Demand or Premium Content?

Over the weekend, I began doing some research to see how I could expand on the already numerous features of my current TV package. Having never really sought for more channels, it was a brand new experience for me, and one that I wasn't aware of before. Through our DVR interface, I was able to see what other channel options I could add instantly, including sports (was very tempted by NFL RedZone) premium and on demand content.

I actually ended up ordering a premium channel, and was surprised at just how simple the whole thing was. Honestly, the thought never really occurred to me that it would be something I would be interested in, but this weekend proved me wrong. Since then, I've caught myself going through on demand content, just testing the waters to see if there are any movies or shows I'd like to catch instantly.

Even though this was new for me, I'm guessing it's a practice that's fairly common for many avid TV watchers out there. So I thought I'd do a poll to see where our readers stand. Do you guys watch premium, on demand content, or both? Feel free to vote and tell us in the comments!

How To: Build Your Own Compost Pile

One of my wife's goals when we moved into our home was to start her own compost pile. As we lived in an apartment before, there are a number of obvious reasons why we couldn't leave our organic waste like eggshells and fruit skins lying around, so she couldn't wait to start once we had our own yard and our own space to experiment with. The question I always had for her before I understood the process was "why do you want to compost?"

There are actually a number of benefits to starting your own compost pile that I wasn't aware of. For one, starting and maintaining a compost heap in your backyard will actually help you come up with good, fertile soil for plants and gardens. Not only will you cut down on what you spend to fertilize your own plants, it also is scientifically proven to grow plants with less pests.

On top of all of that, there are actually a lot of green benefits to composting. With a growing problem of waste in landfills, cutting down on the amount we set out in trash bins is ultimately a green endeavor. Why throw it away when you can turn it into something useful and help out the environment?

So, if you've ever been interested in starting your own compost pile, here are a few tips for beginners.