We were supposed to visit a neighbor’s home for this year’s Thanksgiving feast, but they were scheduled for overtime. My local besties both already have plans – one in Arkansas and the other in Vegas – and both kindly invited us to join. However, my kiddos overheard hubby & I discussing options and were throughly overjoyed at doing our own Thanksgiving – so that became the plan.
I haven’t hosted a traditional Thanksgiving meal since undergrad, and I knew this experience would be drastically different than hosting 20 dorm-residents that had stayed behind for work. On those occasions, I had made a turkey and a ham, bought paper plates, and assigned everyone a side to bring. Somehow, assigning my seven year-old stuffing and my five year-old rolls didn’t seem like a solid plan. I’m pretty sure my three year-old would eat the cranberries raw if given the option. Delegating some of the work to them just isn’t in the cards for their current ages. Channeling all my pent-up, type-A personailty energy, I got to work making a menu and a schedule. Here’s what I came up with:
Menu: crockpot turkey breast, mashed potatoes & gravy, cornbread stuffing, sweet potato casserole, rolls & cinnamon honey butter, sautéed green beans (from my garden!), cranberry sauce, Costco pumpkin pie (my only pre-made item this year, but too good to pass up)
Sunday: grocery shop & double-check all ingredients, clean out fridge
Monday: put turkey in the fridge to thaw, make cranberry sauce & cinnamon honey butter to store in fridge
Tuesday: make mashed potatoes & put in fridge, make cornbread for dressing
Wednesday: make sweet potato casserole & put in fridge, continue dressing prep – cube & dry cornbread, toast pecans, chop onions & celery
Thursday morning (6am start – serving 3pm): turkey breast in crockpot FIRST, then make cranberry orange muffins for breakfast, make & bake rolls, finish dressing, bake sweet potato casserole (in oven at 2:15pm), sauté green beans, and make gravy
The morning of, I plan to hand my kiddos muffins & printed booklets of thanksgiving coloring pages, crosswords, color-by-equations, and word finds while I get to work cooking. We’ll have a grand time listening to Christmas carols and doing a puzzle while eating Costco pumpkin pie in the evening.
Whether you’re hosting or attending, cooking or ordering out, eating alone or at a table of forty, I hope you feel the gratitude and contentment of the season. Happy Thanksgiving!
Disclaimer/Reality Check: I fully expect to burn at least one dish, and that’s ok. This column will be about motherhood, parenting, and homemaking for the most part. The best few columns will likely be heavily focused on Christmas, because that’s a big part of who I am as both a person and a mom. Most importantly, I don’t ever want this column to make another mama think she’s not doing enough. If you’re reading this, I want you to know that you are, you’re doing great, keep it up. Sing it with me: no-one is doing it allllll!
