A few years ago I spotted a holiday timeline in a magazine and clipped it for future reference. I finally got around to reading it this year and realized it’s an 8-week guide to planning out the holidays. Eight. Weeks. That’s two months. I’m a planner and all, but planning two months for two days of the year is a little extreme. For Thanksgiving, they suggest planning out your menu a month in advance, shopping for nonperishables two weeks in advance and making place cards a week in advance. Place cards? It seems to me like someone has too much time on their hands! Or has staff. You’re talking to someone who didn’t have time to read the article for several years, let alone have time to make place cards.
Eh-em. Thanksgiving does not take four weeks to plan. Seriously. It’s a meal for goodness sakes. It’s roasting a bird and making a few sides and several desserts. Throw in an appetizer and some after-dinner coffee and you’ve got yourself a nice feast.
This year Henry and I are hosting his family. There will be 12 of us. That’s 3 more people than I cooked for on a regular basis in high school. It took me longer to figure out how to cook for 2 people when I got married (instead of 9) than it did to figure out how to roast a turkey. And the nice thing about Thanksgiving is that everyone pitches in and helps. I’m not stuck making all the food…. or setting the table by myself.
There are tons of resources out there to tell you how much bird to figure – 1.5 pounds of meat per person… so an 18-pound bird should do us. If you don’t want leftovers, figure 1 pound per person.
The Butterball Turkey website has a lot of information on choosing the right bird for your group and how long to cook it. Whole Foods has a few delicious sounding recipes if you want to mix it up a little this year. We’ll go the traditional route since we’re set in our ways.
I might live on the edge and try a couple new dessert recipes out on the gang. How about you? Are you staying local or headed somewhere? What’s your favorite dish? Do you help cook?
(c) 2016 Leighann Marquiss
Comments (7)
Wow…2 months in advance. I am lucky if we prepare 2 days in advance. Of course, we had to order the TurDucHen in advance to make sure it was here on time. I also have to get the Honey Baked Ham early or the crowds will drive me crazy. We will also have a 10-12 pound turkey that I still need to get. I am kind of waiting to see if they get a little cheaper this week. We will have around 30 people on Thanksgiving, so we are making enough food for 100 (or so it seems). This is only our second year doing Thanksgiving…we usually go to my relatives and then my husband’s, but no one seems to want to host it this year.
Two months seems a bit over the top for planning a meal…
I will be heading to my parents house, just a few hours away. My job has always been to make the deviled eggs.
I have been looking forward to it for two months….does that count? 🙂
This post reminds me, that because I am NOT a planner, each year on the day of the making-the-feast I discover that I am missing a key ingredient, so I am off to check my spice cupboard and write a list. This may be the first holiday ever when I have everything needed on hand.
thank you for being the only “normal” person around here! all the planning i’m hearing about is TOTALLY stressing me out – because i don’t even have time to plan NORMAL meals these days!
seriously. your post calmed me down. thanks!
I usually have the kids make a small craft over and over until they have enough to become place cards. Over the years, we have made pilgrim hats, painted little flat wooden turkeys etc…and then we try to include what we are thankful for about the person who the place card belongs to. This is always a hit since it’s the kids doing the thanking of their aunts/uncles and grandparents.
We are just having a few family members over for a small meal. Last year I forgot to get a turkey, yeah, I don’t know how that happened! So last minute (think Wednesday 10 minutes before the market closed) I ran to buy a turkey. Well of course they didn’t have any turkeys left. So I got turkey drum sticks. I rubbed them with spices and roasted them and all in attendance asked that I make turkey legs every year! They were easy, took less time, and no arguing over who got the drumsticks!