Preparing for Thanksgiving Dinner

There are several helpful techniques to consider when getting ready to host a Thanksgiving dinner. Many people shy away from inviting guests to their home for a prepared meal or event because they think that it will be too much work. On the contrary, in fact hosting a meal for your family can be as easy as pumpkin pie.

The biggest, most important thing to do when preparing for your family’s Thanksgiving dinner is to prepare for it! You must plan ahead. I’ve been checking recipes online from my favorite food websites, and I’ve been monitoring the sales at my grocery store to determine when it will be least expensive to purchase my ingredients. I started planning my meal by making a list of what food I want, such as turkey, potatoes, green beans, cranberry, pumpkin pie, and then I sought out recipes in each category. From there you can use the recipes to help you create your shopping list. Don’t forget to incorporate the number of people plus leftovers to your recipe and grocery list. You’re halfway there!

An old trick of organized people is to do things ahead of time. Several of my menu items can be prepared the day before, such as the brine for my turkey, my homemade rolls, and my delicious pumpkin pie. Preparing some of your food ahead of time will spare you stress and some space in your oven. One thing I don’t like about the holidays is the crowded supermarkets and malls. Consider shopping early in the morning or late at night to avoid crowds and lines.

After you decide what you are able to prepare ahead of time it is important to create a timeline for Thanksgiving Day, as far as when you need to put everything together and get it in the oven so it comes out at the appropriate time. It helps me to put this all on paper so I can have something to reference as to what I should be doing at what time. This technique will be your savior come Thanksgiving Day. When preparing your timeline, I would suggest that you decide what serving platters to use. Set everything out onto your buffet, table or counter where it will be on Thanksgiving to make sure you have enough space, and more importantly enough serving platters to put all of your food in.

Other things to consider are: having entertainment for children, set out a deck of cards or get out some board games so your family has entertainment too, purchase some extra reusable food storage containers to send your guests home with some delicious leftovers, get your cleaning done ahead of time so you don’t have to worry about it on Thanksgiving Day, absolutely don’t forget to thaw your turkey if you purchase it frozen, consider making an extra pie or extra dessert so you can send that home as leftovers for your guests, too.

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