So, you’re having people over for Thanksgiving, huh?
By Elizabeth Edwards of http://momcooks.net
Hosting Thanksgiving for the whole clan doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Our six easy tips will keep you cool, calm and collected this holiday!
My number one tip: Ask other people to help. When Aunt Mary calls to ask what time to show up at your house, she will probably also say “oh, and can I bring anything?” The answer is YES. Don’t be afraid or embarassed to simply say “sure, could you bring a few 2-liter bottles of soda, or how about that great spinach dip you always make?” Relatives LOVE to hear flattery where their cooking is concerned, I find. Keep a master list of who you have asked to bring what, so you don’t end up with four bags of potato chips and no dinner rolls.
Tip number two: Keep the food simple. Unless you are a gourmet chef or come from a family of them, don’t try to make anything with 35 ingredients and 10 preparation steps. I recommend easy before-meal munchies such as:
Chex Mix
Mixed Nuts
Spinach dip in a bread bowl
Potato Chips and onion or ranch dip
Barbecued or Sweet n Sour Meatballs
To make the appetizers even easier, I suggest BUYING THEM AT SAM’S CLUB OR COSTCO. Seriously, you can get two big bags of Chex Mix or potato chips for four dollars, a large bottle of barbecue sauce or sweet and sour marinade/sauce for around three dollars, a 96 oz. bag of frozen meatballs for around nine dollars, and probably the spinach dip too. Unless you love making everything from scratch, make it easy on yourself.
For the main meal, you can also buy premade trays of stuffing and mashed potatoes, large containers of cranberry sauce, and dozens of dinner rolls at Sam’s Club. You can get whole turkeys or turkey breasts frozen or already cooked. Thanksgiving should be about getting together with family and enjoying the day, not worrying about lumpy mashed potatoes. You can always jazz up premade stuffing with sauteed giblets from the turkey, or add garlic or cheese to the mashed potatoes. Oh, and you can buy huge cans of gravy there too, with no lumps!
For help with Thanksgiving recipes, including how to actually cook a turkey, I recommend the following sites:
The All Recipes site (an EXCELLENT recipe site in general)
These are just a few of the more than 3 MILLION sites I got doing a Google search for “Thanksgiving recipes”.
Tip number three: Don’t serve more food than you need. It has been a tradition in this country to treat Thansgiving as if it is our only chance all year to eat turkey with all the trimmings. We pile our plates with light meat, dark meat, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, squash, gravy, vegetables, rolls, salads, relishes, and then have pie with whipped cream afterwards. I say STOP THE INSANITY! Let’s say you’re having, like me, 16 people total for the meal. You don’t need to necessarily have 16 servings of every single dish. Not everyone is going to want a whole serving of everything. In fact, it might be the one day in the whole year where people actually eat LESS than a serving of any one food. The one exception I would make is with your dinner rolls. Chances are pretty good that everyone will take at least one roll, so I would have enough for everyone plus a few seconds. Don’t forget to put a stick of butter or margarine out to soften!
Tip number four: Besides the appetizers and the meals, you’ll need to provide beverages. Again, I say ask people to help with this. Personally, I asked everyone coming to my house what they like to drink. If they said something unusual that I don’t normally buy, I asked would they mind bringing some with them. For example, my stepmother drinks Dr. Pepper, and will be bringing a few cans with her. I see nothing wrong with this, I can’t be expected to provide a dozen different kinds of soft drinks. Also, the alcohol issue-my husband and I rarely drink alcohol, except for the occasional beer (well, except for *cough*BlogHer*cough*). So anyone who wants to have beer before dinner or wine with dinner is being asked to bring it with them. With the meal, we will serve ice water, and coffee with dessert. The kids are having chocolate milk.
Tip number five: Where do you put everyone? That is a really good question. My house isn’t tiny, it’s around 1700 square feet, and it’s ranch-style so we won’t have people eating on a whole different floor. But there is the question of where do 16 people sit while they wait for dinner, and where do we put enough tables and chairs? The answer is, we don’t know. Our couch sits three people comfortably and four people who really like each other, plus we have a wingback chair and a rocker/recliner. Grandparents get first pick of those seats. Everyone else will have to sit on dining chairs, folding chairs or on the floor. There’s just nothing we can do about that. Our dining table seats 8 people with both leaves in, plus we are borrowing a large folding table from my friend’s church, and a card table and folding chairs from my Dad. That should seat the other 8 people, and if not, the kids can sit on the floor and use our low, large coffee table to eat on. Yes, it will be crowded, and noisy, and feel like we’re stepping all over each other, but we will be together.
Tip number six: Stock up on disposable food storage containers for the leftovers. Most people love Thanksgiving leftovers, from the cold sliced turkey breast and mayo on white bread sandwich to plates of leftover turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing drizzled with gravy, but let’s face it-eventually you will get sick of leftovers, and still have 3 pounds of turkey in the freezer. Remember, this is NOT the only time of the year you can make this meal! Put the leftovers in Gladware or Ziploc containers and send them home with people. They will appreciate having them, and if you get a craving for turkey and stuffing next week, you can always make it again. Don’t forget, you’ve got Christmas dinner coming up in just over a month!
So, to sum up, ask people to help with bringing beverages, appetizers or dishes for the main meal, borrow tables and chairs if you need to, keep the meal simple, and send home the leftovers. Then, after everyone has gone and the house is quiet, or at least quieter, you can eat your turkey sandwich and pat yourself on the back for hosting a great Thanksgiving dinner.
Elizabeth Edwards, a 40 year old Michigan Mom, is married to her High School Sweetheart Chris and raising three terrific children-Ryan, age 10, Nathan, age 8, and Kaitlyn, age 1. In addition to maintaining three blogs, she enjoys looking up new recipes online and shopping at Target. Read Elizabeth's Blog on PreciousMoms.com
