Stress Free Thanksgiving

HOUSEKEEPING

Set the table the night before, or earlier. All of it — glasses, centerpieces, pitchers for drinks, etc. Take out every serving platter, bowl and utensil you will need, and create a little label saying what will go into each dish. Post-it notes are great for this.

In the lead-up to the big feast, refrigerator real estate is precious. Clear out those space-hogging bottles of dressing and pickles, and stow them in a cooler filled with ice packs. Set it aside out of your way, maybe in a bedroom.

Use another one as a warming drawer — it's insulated, after all. Line it with aluminum foil, add some folded towels and fill it with hot dishes as they come out of the oven. (Employ common sense here and don’t melt your cooler.)

 

Make a Menu and Stick to It. There are lots of great ideas out in the world that you could add to your menu a few days before the big day, or even as you’re cooking. But don’t do it.

Write down what you’re going to cook, what you’re going to ask others to bring, and forget the rest. This will be a big stress-reducer and will also help you work through what you have to do to prepare.

According to a 2019 Instacart survey, 46% of Americans find canned cranberry sauce to be “disgusting.” The Harris Poll asked more than 2,000 U.S. adults about their Thanksgiving food preferences and the canned cranberries were at the bottom of that list. While the poll received information that 68% of Americans hated cranberry sauce, they did admit that they’d still eat it as part of the meal. But there were a staunch 29% who said that they will not touch it.

It was discovered that other side dishes a lot of people seem to dislike are green bean casserole which polled at 29%, candied sweet potatoes coming in at 22%, pumpkin pie polling at 21% dislike, and even 19% dislike turkey.

 

Well here we have a great easy to follow cranberry sauce that IS likable and a great new version of green bean casserole! Here is even a different take on the old candied sweet potatoes! Sorry you are on your own with a turkey substitute.

Make a Shopping List. Do not head-out shopping until you’ve got that list in hand. Write out every ingredient for every item on your menu, then split the ingredients up into separate shopping lists for those items you can buy a week out and those you have to buy a day or two before. This will help reduce (I didn’t say “eliminate”) the number of emergency trips you’ll be running to the store.

Write out a timetable and Schedule a Break. If things are going well, you can actually take that break, but if you’re totally running behind, you have a few minutes to catch up.

Prep all your vegetables a day or two ahead and keep them in the fridge.

You can peel potatoes and carrots, chop onions, wash greens, and do basically any other prep steps called for in the recipes you're using.

Place & label (masking tape & magic marker) in zipper bags and squeeze out the air.

This is the kind of thing that will feel crazy when you're doing it, and AWESOME the next day when you realize you already did.

Be sure to mark what it is and what recipe it is to used in. Use different bags for different recipes. ie: onions for dressing, onions for gravy, onions for casserole, ETC.

Print out recipes and tape them at eye level on kitchen cabinets.

              

The star of the show is the turkey. Here we are using a 3 lbs boneless turkey.

When ready to thaw: Place the turkey in a large dish on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator. This will prevent the raw turkey juices from ending up all over your fridge and other foods. Even after thawed, it can stay in the fridge an additional 1-2 days before cooking.

Plan on putting it in the refrigerator on the Sunday of Thanksgiving week.

By the way: Buy some store made gravy in a jar, use the gravy packet that is in the turkey to supplement. Spoon in any yummy turkey pan drippings if you can and add a spoonful of regular soy sauce!

Do as much as you can ahead of time!

Here are some dishes that you can get out of the way before the day!

Cranberry sauce

Broccoli salad

Pumpkin pie

Cutting for the green beans and the dressing and store in bags.

Write out the timetable!

Make sure your pans fit in the oven.

Top shelf for muffin pans of dressing and sweet potato stacks

bottom shelf: turkey and green bean casserole.

Most of all relax and have fun!