It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving and you have a houseful coming. Let the games begin.

The first time I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for the family I was in my 20s. I’m not sure why I thought it was a good idea, but my mom graciously stepped down from her role as culinary matriarch and went along with my request.

Needless to say, it was a learning experience. When mom and dad arrived, thank goodness early, I didn’t even have the turkey in the oven yet and it was a big one. I informed my mom that I wasn’t going to stuff the bird because it wasn’t safe. She rolled her eyes a little I think, but patiently showed me how to rub butter under the skin and get the roasting pan ready with onions and celery and carrots. Then she asked me if I’d started the stock with the giblets and neck. Of course I had forgotten to even take them out of the bird! Mom didn’t say a word, she just retrieved them and started the broth that would be use throughout the day. Thank goodness for her!

After that, we usually went to mom’s or my sister’s for the event, but eventually, with expanding families and the need to share the holiday with other families of spouses, at some point our house became one of the hot spots. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot through trial and error about how to make a beautiful feast for family and friends, and still keep it stress-free and fun by doing as much ahead of time as possible.

There’s fun to be had all week, but beginning today we also have lots to do, and those tasks are all about preparation. I’ve catered many events and gatherings, and learned along the way that anything that can be done beforehand needs to be done beforehand. Give yourself a break on the actual holiday.

First, try to have the menu planned well before today. With Thanksgiving, this means the core dishes everyone expects, plus a few surprises here and there. Here, there is always a turkey, a vegetarian option, mashed potatoes, gravy, squash, cauliflower with cheese sauce or there would be a revolt, Mom’s creamed onions, and stuffing (cooked outside the bird, so I guess it is a dressing). There are the side dishes and garnishes – pickles, olives, cranberry sauces, breads, and one obligatory salad no one really eats. Each year, I experiment with at least one or more new or forgotten side dish, and there are always unexpected offerings brought to the feast.

            And, of course, there are pies. Lots of pies because everyone needs to have their favorite! That means next to the pumpkin and apple pie are strawberry-rhubarb and Key lime! Any left over will be packed up and sent home with them. This year, there is also a request for strawberry shortcake, and I’m glad my freezer is stocked. A lot of work, yes, but not a lot of stress if you don’t try to do everything in one day.

            

This might seem like a lot, but if you do a few tasks every day, you will save considerable chaos when the holiday arrives. Spreading the tasks out is a way to make these tasks more enjoyable too, and ultimately reduce stress on the big day.

Monday

            If the menu isn’t set, now is the time to do so. I actually put a schedule on my computer and it is saved from year to year, and my first step is to copy last year’s menu and change the dates! By now, I’ve asked for special requests and needs. Is Charlie still a vegan? Did Susie find out if she was allergic to eggs?

            My family has quite a few dietary needs: nut and some fruit and vegetable allergies, gluten and dairy intolerances, heart-healthy needs, and it seems like it is always a moving target. Don’t forget the vegetarians when planning! A special dish for them is a touch of love, and often becomes quite popular with the meat eaters as well.

Make a shopping list and a schedule. Making lists save lots of time and keeps us organized. I have a ritual for this: nice music playing in the background, fresh pot of coffee, menu at hand. I pull out the family recipe box, my treasure chest, with mom’s handwritten cards, and even a few from my high school home economics class. I check for special ingredients, and start my shopping list; in Vermont, that actually means multiple shopping lists since I usually end up going to a couple of farm stands, a co-op, a small grocery and a supermarket before I’m done! That’s part of the fun too, as long as you go early and avoid the crowds.

   

         The schedule keeps me on track. Plus, I love checking things off the list as the days progress! Sometimes, I even put things on the list I’ve already done just to check them off. I know that is silly, so don’t tell anyone.

Find and clean special serving dishes and serving flatware. I make a copy of the menu, increase the font size, and create labels that I place in the serving dishes, and arrange the dishes on the table or sideboard where they will reside. This saves an immense amount of time on many fronts. I’m not scrambling to find serving dishes at the last minute, and when people are offering to help and you need a special plate or bowl, just ask them to get the dish marked “Onions.”  If you don’t have a separate dining room and need the space, stack your serving dishes with labels inside.

Inventory your dishes. Glasses and flatware just to make sure you have enough, napkins ironed if using cloth. Are you short on anything?

Clean out the refrigerator. This is a good time for a purge of all those jars of stuff tucked away in the back that probably should have been tossed. Refrigerator space this week will be valuable real estate.

Make whatever you can ahead of time. This means pie dough and cranberry sauce. The pie dough is easy, but if you are making five pies, it can be a little more time consuming. It is also messy. So get the dough all prepped on Monday, make your flour messes, and tuck the little discs of dough in the refrigerator. Done.

Thaw the turkey! If you are using a frozen bird and haven’t thawed it already, you need to work on this immediately. Never place it on the counter to thaw at room temperature. Safe thawing of turkey instructions here from the CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/features/turkeytime/index.html

Tuesday

Tuesday morning is for shopping. This is why you purged the refrigerator yesterday. Usually it is good to do your shopping for staples (canned pumpkin, cranberries, herbs, etc.) the week before and finish with the perishables today. After the busy weekend, stores and shops will be all stocked up, and Tuesday morning is a quiet time – the earlier the better! By shopping this early, you’ll know if you have to go to a specialty or out-of-town store. I try my hardest not to go near the stores later in the day or the day before Thanksgiving or Christmas. 

Clean. Any special cleaning that is going to happen, happens on Monday or Tuesday, or it’s probably not going to happen, and guess what? Your family and friends don’t care if theres a dust bunny under you bed. 

Special touches. This is a good time to make room in the coat closet, dust off your boot caddy if you haven’t already, sweep the front porch or walk, check your lamps where you usually don’t sit for burned out light bulbs, and survey your takeaway container collection for packing up leftovers. Don’t forget this last one, and in a pinch canning jars work great, and you’re not stuffing your food into plastic.

Buy and arrange your flowers. If you are having fresh flowers, get something long lasting such as Oriental lilies or carnations. These will keep for over a week, so you can get them arranged and set out ahead of time. To make them last even longer, store them in an unheated room or cool area until the morning of.

If you are brining your turkey for 24 hours, and then letting it dry for 24 hours, start the process this afternoon.

Wednesday

            This is a busy day and every family will have different tasks, so plan your schedule accordingly! It’s also where a lot of fun resides, especially if there are little kids in the mix.

Make pies and other baked goods. I make my pies when the kids will be around because they love to help, so that might be any time of the day. Let them work with all their creativity, and clean up just once after they are done. Nothing is better than a kid-made pie. The holiday is not about perfection, it’s about being with each other and making memories.

Make your stuffing. I make the stuffing the night before the event and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight. If you are using a stuffing with milk and eggs and dried bread or croutons, the overnight actually makes it better! After you take your turkey out of the oven, there will be plenty of time to cook it. Save the onion and celery trimmings for the stock the next day.

Cook anything else that can be reheated! I make the cheese sauce for the cauliflower, the mushroom gravy for the vegetarians, the filling for the June Cleaver toasts, dips, cocktail sauce for the shrimp, etc. This is why refrigerator space is so dear! Done a little at a time over the course of the day is pretty much stress-free, while doing it all the day of can be quite frustrating.

Prep anything you can’t cook. If I’m having a crudité platter, I cut all the veggies up the day before so creating the platter the next day takes only a few moments, or can be delegated to someone else; kids love this task, encourage them to be creative. Label everything so you can enlist help in a rush!

            I don’t prep my potatoes, but some folks precook them, then reheat and mash them just before eating. I do prep such vegetables as butternut squash and Brussels sprouts especially because they are tedious and don’t want to deal with them in the middle of everything else.

Calculate how long you need to cook your turkey. If you have 22 people coming for dinner at 2 and you have a 30-lb bird to cook, you don’t want to realize at 11 a.m. (sorry mom) the turkey should be half-cooked by now. I’ve learned this one from experience. Check a turkey-cooking guide, and remember you will need to let it rest for at least 30 minutes and up to an hour before you carve it, so calculate that in as well! Not only necessary for easy carving, this gives you wiggle room. I always plan on the full hour’s rest so that gives me plenty of time to pop things in the oven to cook and reheat, and to make the gravy from the pan drippings.

Set the table the night before. As soon as you are done with the table for the night, set your table for your holiday dinner! Make it beautiful. If you only have one table in your house, set it anyway and eat breakfast the next morning wherever you find space! If you are using new candles (unscented please), light them and let them burn for a few minutes; they will light easier the next day. 

Set up your beverage station. This will save you lots of time tomorrow. If possible, set this up anywhere but the kitchen. On a mild day, I’ve been known to set mine up outside on the porch.

Thursday

First things first, get the turkey cooking. Since you’ve already calculated how long the turkey will need to cook and rest, pop it in the oven at the appropriate time, with whatever prep you use to get the bird in the oven. Everyone has their own way of cooking the turkey, probably how your mother cooked it, and I won’t mess with that routine!

Turn on the parade! Let’s not forget what’s important!

Simmer some stock. If you are not using prepared stock or broth, and there really isn’t any reason to, start a pot going. Your kitchen will now start smelling like Thanksgiving. Use the neck and giblets, plus any vegetable trimmings you have on hand from your prep. Add some Bell’s Poultry Seasoning and a couple of bay leaves and start simmering. Use the stock in your gravy along with turkey roasting pan drippings, and to moisten the stuffing. Any leftover can be added to a soup base.

Set out appetizers. An hour before people are due to arrive, get any appetizers ready and set them out. Pour yourself a glass of wine, nibble an appetizer, turn up the parade background, and take a break, you deserve it. Find some good music once the parade is over, by then you will want something that is a little more soothing than a marching band. Mellow jazz, perhaps, or something classical.

Bread and salad. The bread can be cut a good hour before eating, just lightly dampen a paper or tea towel and place over the top. This keeps bread (or sandwiches) remarkably fresh for a long time.

            The salad can be set out, just don’t dress it, and don’t add sloppy ingredients such as tomatoes.

Once the turkey is out of the oven place it on a cutting board to rest. Set up a guard if necessary so the crispy skin is not ravaged. Now the oven territory can be used for cooking the stuffing, roasting vegetables, and warming anything you cooked the day before. 

Reheat your prepped items. Reheat any sauces or gravies you made yesterday and keep them warm. Crockpots are great at keeping mashed potatoes and gravy warm! 

The gravy. Occasionally, if I have a really large crowd coming, I’ll make a second turkey or turkey breast the day before and use the pan drippings to make the gravy ahead of time. However, if you didn’t make gravy the day before, make it at the last so it is nice and hot. If you let the turkey rest long enough, there will be plenty of time, no hassle, and a full hour’s rest and your turkey will still be hot. I have someone else carve the turkey, while I make the gravy, usually my son and son-in-law. 

Designate two helpers and kick everyone else out of the kitchen while you are filling your serving dishes. This is important. They all will be hovering around the turkey, and they will want to help, but a crowd in the kitchen at this point doesn’t work so well. Send them all to the beverage station to fill their glasses for the meal, and to find their places at the table.

Check your menu and list! I can’t tell you how many times something was left in the refrigerator and not placed out! 

Leave the stress behind. If you screw something up, so what? It’s really only a meal, and one with lots of components. Just think about is as a good story later on, like my leaving the giblets in the turkey. A few years ago, I was cooking in my daughter’s kitchen for Thanksgiving and left the roasting pan on the burner for a bit too long and the smoke detectors went off, complete with an obnoxious voice telling us all to Evacuate! Evacuate! My granddaughter wrote one of her first stories, a little book, about “The Thanksgiving when Meme burned the turkey.” No matter how many times I’ve told her the turkey wasn’t burned, her memory is different than mine, and she will bring it up again this year. Actually, she brings it up frequently with a very broad grin on her face.

Of course, last year, somehow a potholder got left in the oven at basting time, started smoldering, and filled the house with smoke! I’ve yet to live that one down too…

            Light those candles, pour the wine, put on some good music, and enjoy the feast with your tribe! We’ll all worry about dessert later, if there’s room, and remarkably, there will be if we wait long enough, after about the second showing of A Christmas Story…

Happy Thanksgiving to All!!!!

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