At last, we have come to the biggest and most stressful night of entertaining: Thanksgiving. You are doing it. You are hosting your first Thanksgiving. Congratulations, and take twenty-seven deep breaths. Everything is going to be fine and awesome and great. Buy yourself a present when you’re done. (Better yet, have your guests get you presents. Maybe you should register for Thanksgiving? Just an idea…)
So perhaps you’re living far away from where you grew up and you want to have a little taste of home. Maybe you’re planning a Friendsgiving and have been put in charge of most of the cooking. Or maybe the Thanksgiving turkey torch has finally been passed from your great-aunt Eunice to you, and on Thursday all the members of your extended family will descend upon your dining table.
Do not panic.
Hosting a Thanksgiving meal is involved, but it doesn’t have to be hard. Organization and a little thoughtful planning are the keys to making your prep go smoothly and your meal go off with as few hitches as possible.
The first thing you have to know is that there is one trick that will make your Thanksgiving vastly less stressful and much more enjoyable: don’t cook everything. Yup, you read that right. Remember your mom on Thanksgivings past, rushing around the kitchen, freaking out about timing the baking of six pies and four kinds of potatoes and the turkey (plus a Tofurkey for your vegetarian brother and his rotating selection of hippie girlfriends)? Learn from her mistakes and keep it simple. This is how.
The first step is to reach out to your most responsible / culinarily gifted guests and ask that they bring:
• Two or three appetizers (a cheese or two and crackers, vegetables and dip, meatballs on toothpicks, bacon-wrapped dates, etc.)
• Two or three vegetarian sides, which will do the additional job of serving as the main meal for any vegetarian or turkey-loathing guests at your table (green beans, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, creamed onions, etc.)
• A few desserts (pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, ice cream, etc.)