Making a meal and planning out the day for Thanksgiving ahead of time is the greatest way to spend the holiday with your family!
For many years, I’ve been preparing Christmas feasts. Many, many years have passed, and there have been many, many vacations.
Thanksgiving supper for two, served on top of a cardboard box “table” with a bath towel as a tablecloth, was our very first-holiday meal. We roasted the turkey on a disposable foil pan, boiled the potatoes in our single pot, and served the salad in a plastic popcorn dish. It was a sad sight, yet we were content.
Be prepared to serve on Thanksgiving Day.
I’ll just say it: you’ll be working for most of the day while the rest of the family plays. You’ll be less likely to sink in a pool of sorrow and self-pity if you go into the day expecting to work hard and grateful for the opportunity to shower your family with love and plenty of food.
Allow Visitors to Pitch In
Accepting help when you need it might be difficult, but if one of your visitors asks what they can bring, tell them! Even if you wish to create the major elements of the dinner yourself, allowing your guests to bring items like rolls, dessert, beverages, ice, disposable cups, or nuts and chopped veggies for snacking can help defray the expense and give you one less thing to worry about.
Make a Day’s Worth of Snacks and Other Meals.
Even if they’ll be having a feast two hours later, kids will still want to eat something for breakfast or lunch. They’ll also have the chutzpah to want an evening meal as the adults struggle to sit down without pressing a button. For convenient snacking throughout the day and evening, stock up on nuts, chips, raw veggies, cheese and crackers, and sandwich ingredients.
Don’t Experiment With New Recipes
It’s tempting to flaunt your culinary prowess by whipping up some fancy new dishes but refrain. Please, please resist. Rather than experiment with new dishes in the kitchen, Create a thanksgiving menu list with the items that you going to serve on tables.
Plan Week Before
The day before the meal, prepare the vegetables, bake the bread, and prepare the pies. Create a menu list that contains all the necessary grocery items and other food items, so you don’t miss out on something.
Furthermore, some jobs (like baking pies) always seem to take twice as long as you anticipate, and leaving things until the day of the feast leaves you with very little room for error.
Make a List of Serving Dishes and Utensils
Set out all of your serving plates the day before the big meal (earlier if you believe you’ll need to borrow things), and label what will go in each one with a sticky note. When there are a lot of hands in the kitchen attempting to help dish up all the food at the same time, this is really useful.
Create a Detailed Timetable
Making a daily calendar that covers prep work, cooking times, periodic clean-up, and even family needs helps keep the day going smoothly, helps you remember all the details, and ensure that everything is done and served.
Making a large dinner, especially on a holiday, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to express your love for your friends and family while also establishing special traditions and memories. Accept it and revel in it!
