What I’m Cooking for Thanksgiving
I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time in 2022. I cooked for six that year, the most people I’d ever made a meal for, the most complex meal I’d ever cooked, and the first time I’d ever roasted a bird. Every single recipe I cooked was brand new to me, and fully tooting my horn here, it was a delicious dinner. Now with three Thanksgivings under my belt and serving as many as fifteen guests, I’ve come to love the tradition of cooking and serving dinner.
This year, we’re looking at just seven family members making the trek across state lines to visit. I opened the doors up to others in a service group I’m a part of, offering a seat for anyone who isn’t spending the holiday with family to join ours for the night. So I’ll be cooking for ten, expecting seven with plenty of leftovers.
New to the Menu: The Breakfast Buffet
Growing up, we always watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade every year. The first year after C and I first moved in, I went back to my parents’ house early to watch the parade! Since then, we had settled into a nice routine of morning tea, eggs, sausage, and fluffy (mostly) homemade cinnamon buns, and enjoying the parade in relative peace before the cooking commenced. This year, we’ll be hosting my sister and her boyfriend in our house, so breakfast is going to be a bit more of a spread than usual!
Our mini breakfast buffet will include: fluffy cinnamon buns, blueberry lemon muffins, English muffins, toast, sausage, bacon, and fruit. Plus coffee, tea, apple cider, orange juice, and prosecco.
Appetizer Spread
Controversial: I don’t believe in having a big appetizer spread if dinner is the center of the gathering. If you put out a big spread of apps, most folks will go to town on them, leaving little room for dinner and none for dessert. I don’t want my guests to leave my house feeling either overstuffed or craving dinner when eleven o’clock rolls around. I keep my appetizers pretty limited and simple. Apps are limited to a large but basic charcuterie board and a spinach dip wreath. The spin dip wreath is not basic and a real pain in my neck to make, but I made it for one Christmas, and it’s been requested for every winter holiday since!
Main Course: Thanksgiving Dinner!
The pièce de résistance of my year! I always opt for simpler, classic dishes for Thanksgiving. It’s just not the day to try wacky recipes on folks, everyone likes a simple, classic Turkey Day meal. For the past three years, I’ve also had to plan for vegan dishes, gluten-free dishes, and top 8 allergen-free dishes. Last year, everything I made for dinner was safe to eat for all my guests. Well, except the bird, obviously, that wasn’t vegan. Almost everything was made from scratch to make that happen: dinner rolls, bread for my stuffing, veggie broth, etc. It was a lot of work, but very satisfying to see all my hard work come together for a beautiful meal. This year, I don’t have to be gluten-free, so I’m really cutting corners by buying store-made bread for the stuffing.
For 10 people, the rule of thumb is 15 lb turkey, 2 starchy sides, and 2 veggie sides. I know our family, though, and we are all big side dish people, so I can skimp out on the bird a bit. So here’s what’s on the table for our Thanksgiving dinner: 13ish lb turkey, make-ahead roasted potatoes, stuffing, garlic roasted green beans, Chelsea Fagan’s Restaurant-Worthy Brussel Sprouts, homemade cranberry jelly, my highly requested 1 Hour Dinner Rolls, and a double batch of gravy made without drippings.
Dessert: The Best Meal of MY Day
Dessert is both the best and worst part of my day. Best: it means I’m D-O-N-E done for the day. Nothing else to put in the oven, no more serving spoons to hunt down, no more careful dances of into and out of oven, and I don’t have to touch tin foil for at least a day. On the other hand, Worst: no one ever eats the desserts and I’m stuck with seven to fifteen people’s worth of sugary desserts that I can’t help but eat! Seriously, no one ever wants the leftover desserts. Add on to that, I’m fairly picky about what desserts I like, and I’m often stuck with desserts I don’t really want. Usually I just keep them, we eat what we want, and then just toss everything else when it goes. This year, I’m mixing it up, I’m making all the desserts.
Potentially crazy? Yes. Overwhelming? Hopefully not. Here’s what’s on the menu for desserts: Homemade Apple Turnovers, Rosemary Shortbread, and maybe Beatty’s Chocolate Cake (Ina’s iconic recipe!).
The process has already started for me, the hour-by-hour schedule for Thursday is done, the first dishes to prep are already in the fridge, I sold my soul to Costco to get all my groceries. All the prep is done, and all I have left to do is cook and clean every last inch of my house. No sweat!
Follow along on Insta for this weeks progress and a live tracking of Thanksgiving Day as it rolls out!
