Help! It’s Our First Thanksgiving

We have to have sausage stuffing and homemade cranberry sauce. I was raised eating the canned cranberry sauce, but now love the homemade one, because it gives such nice tartness to the meal. I’m from the South, and we love a really yummy sweet potato casserole too. My parents are organic sweet potato farmers in Oklahoma, so they provide us with them! I think this year we are going to make a sweet potato pie too, with lots of whipped topping.

That sounds like a plan wish you luck :)

Shruthi
http://nyambura.co

I loved reading all the comments from your readers! I’m excited to be hosting Thanksgiving this year for my own family of five plus my son’s basketball team from Middlebury College! They have a game on the Sunday after Thanksgiving so we will host the whole crew at our place in Cornwall, Moxie Hill Farm. We have a great party barn and a shuffleboard table that I can convert in to a long harvest table. I try to make as much ahead as possible and the pioneer woman’s mashed potatoes are a big hit as well as a sweet potato dish and lots of stuffing. I buy my gravy from a local high end grocery store which is a lifesaver and I usually order a few pies from the bakery. I also am cooking a feast for my two vegan daughters so I usually make most of the sides vegan friendly. Check out my photos of the day on my instagram @mamanaughton. Have a great day and good luck in the kitchen!

I’ve never hosted an official Thanksgiving, but the past two years we’ve hosted a little vegetarian Friendsgiving (AKA a meal full of things I can actually eat!). We don’t do tofurkey so it’s mostly a meal of sides. Last year was rotini with butternut sage sauce (got the recipe here, actually!), vegetarian stuffing, roasted veggies, green beans with butter and garlic, corn pudding, salad (greens, cranberries, walnuts and feta cheese in a raspberry vinaigrette), Hawaiian rolls and pumpkin pie. All my favorites, so delicious.

make this!!!

https://food52.com/recipes/19730-butternut-squash-brussels-sprout-and-bread-stuffing-with-apples

i made it for a pot luck friendsgiving last year and multiple people brought it to their family thanksgivings…its a winner.

Sweet potatoe casserole!

Thanksgiving is my family’s biggest affair! We gather in Palm Springs every year with aunts, uncles, cousins, the whole shebang. Wine is poured at noon, and scotch served shortly thereafter (and long into the night). Kids and adults always sit together and much to my husband’s dismay, football is NEVER on. Instead the day is full of music, stories, food and, ahem, scotch. Most importantly, right before eating we gather in “the circle.” Everyone stands outside holding hands and anyone is invited to speak. Sometimes a person will give thanks, another will share a struggle, or one of the kids will talk about the birds in the trees. There are no rules, just one moment during the year that we are all profoundly connected. The circle is one of my earliest childhood memories, and a cherished tradition my cousins and I are now passing on to our own littles. Cheers to starting your own beloved traditions this year!

We’ve hosted Thanksgiving in our Brooklyn apartment a few times and always relied on Fresh Direct, which is FANTASTIC! This year we are hosting in our new home upstate and will be making everything ourselves from scratch, which will be nerve-wracking but fun! And I agree with Sifton about the (heavy) appetizers. I want guests showing up to the table hungry!

My sister and I hosted our first Thanksgiving meal about 5 years ago. I love to cook whereas she…..tries. It was such a huge undertaking, but it was so rewarding in the end! Everyone stuffed their bellies full & she and I had the best time. Make lists of your lists & make Pinterest your best friend! Good luck!

xo

Sam Sifton knows best! Also, please try his cranberry sauce recipe! I didn’t like real cranberry sauce until trying his. It’s so simple, so easy, and so good! And you can make it in advance!

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/11/sam-siftons-basic-cranberry-sauce.html

The best thing my family ever started doing was making the mashed potatoes (or sweet potatoes, or squash) TWO NIGHTS before. We make the potatoes with an irresponsible amount of butter, (and the trick is 1/2 of block of cream cheese for a 5 lb bag of potatoes) and then put them in the fridge to wait. Thanksgiving morning we scoop them into a CROCK POT, drizzle a little milk to help them soften, as well as help disperse the heat from the sides and keeps it from burning. Turn it it high to get it going, stirring occasionally, then to low and keep them covered. There is no exact science. It just keeps them warm and ready for whenever you are. The crock pot keeps them way from where the work is happening on the busy morning. We’ve even put them in another room just to keep the chaos at bay.

While I don’t think appetizers need to be crazy, I do think they are important while guests are waiting for the main course. I usually do a cranberry brie puff pastry tart, which is easy to throw together and some veggies and dip.

What helps me from going insane is doing as much as I can ahead of time.

Outsource as much as you can! As expats with a tiny over, we always order from a hotel for the big bird (or multiple turkeys). Then we focus on homemade sides and dishes important to us. Instead of wine, we just serve champagne and a signature cocktail or punch. Good luck!

We had a side dish with a Blue Apron meal recently that we plan to recreate for Thanksgiving. It was diced baby potatoes, butternut squash, and apples, all roasted together with olive oil and S&P. It was seasonal, simple, and delicious!

Stuffing is my favorite part! The smell of onions and celery cooking in butter always makes me think of Thanksgiving and my mom. This last year was my first time making the stuffing by myself because I live across the country from my mom. But she hand wrote my grandma’s recipe on these gorgeous recipe cards (which still exist and which I bought for her) so I could recreate it. I also called her at least three times to make sure I had it right.

If you do want an appetizer, I always do cranberry jalapeño dip. Sounds weird, tastes so good and is festive and pretty! It’s always requested again and again. http://www.melskitchencafe.com/cranberry-jalapeno-cream-cheese-dip-sugar-rush-reinvented-7/ (Not my blog, just the recipe I use.)

I think meals like this get so much pressure put on them, but in reality, it’s a time to enjoy the company of friends. I hope you can enjoy some wine and the process. Good luck!

We do a turkey and big tin casserole containers of these: mac & cheese, sweet potato mash, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and of course Hawaiian rolls. Lots of them. We like to keep it simple!

Oh and for dessert, usually just 1 or 2 apple and pumpkin pies.

Good luck!

I spent the year after I graduated from college in Tours, France, teaching English at the university there. It was my first time living on my own, and I was determined to create a Thanksgiving feast for my non-American friends who had never experienced the glory of turkey day. I went back and forth with my mom over email for several weeks beforehand, gathering our classic family recipes and getting notes on how to cook the bird, make the gravy, etc. I then spent 3 days cooking on one electric hot plate. I had 2, but if I used them both at the same time, they would short out the entire 17th century century building I was living in. I made 2 desserts which had to be trekked across town to a friend’s convection oven and then the whole meal (minus the bird) had to be carted down to a country house an hour away. The bird had been entrusted to a young Frenchman, and on our drive south, he called to ask whether frozen would be alright (NO!) or, if not, pre-stuffed (NO! NO!), or then a rabbit? NO! NO! NO! Finally we agreed upon a capon, a castrated coq, which turned out to be a good thing as the tiny oven would never have accommodated an American-sized bird. The house was freezing with a capital F, the capon took forever to cook, and the gravy was so gloppy (note to future self: add flour gradually) it clogged the ancient farmhouse plumbing. But there was a fire, great tunes, and plenty of wine to go around, and we were all having so much fun that it didn’t matter. I’m also proud to say that Mom’s recipes and the little kitchen that could back in Tours turned out a remarkably delicious and memorable dinner, one that I’ve replicated in more recent years. The menu consisted of my grandfather’s fabulous smoked oyster stuffing, balsamic glazed pearl onions, crispy sauteed brussels sprouts, a purée of carrots and parsnips, homemade cranberry sauce (with orange zest and sometimes ginger), a spiced pumpkin loaf, and an apple walnut upside down cake. (You’ll note that there were no potatoes, mashed or otherwise, on the plate. This is mostly because my mom, who despite growing up in the thick of Elvis and cherry Coke, was famously anti-Americana. So the ubiquitous mashed potato was out. A glaring omission for some, but she sure made a mean Thanksgiving dinner.)

my tip is to pre-order the bulk size of banana pudding from magnolia bakery in advance – everyone loves it, and then you can skip that part of the menu!

Thanksgiving is super fun to host! My tips: Hand your guests a cocktail as soon as they arrive (wine is fine too if you run out of time to mix something up), then I do a very simple appetizer. That way, if dinner is few minutes late, you’re not stressed. I usually do veggies with a delicious homemade dip I’ve made a day or two before, or a homemade cheese ball with veggies and crackers (so easy). I also live by Ina Garten’s hosting advice for all parties I throw: 1) make as much beforehand as possible (aforementioned dip, Pioneer Woman’s mashed potatoes – which are really wonderful, and you can do a day or two before Thanksgiving, pie crusts, cranberries, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, etc…) 2) buy a few high end items to supplement (my favorite Kale salad from a local deli, maybe a dessert such as cake or cupcakes, if I’m doing homemade pies for those that don’t like pie (what??). Then it’s down to the early morning work – bake the pies, and then get the turkey in the oven (I do it in a Reynolds turkey bag and there is literally no labor once it goes in). The only thing I do once my guests arrive is the gravy (listen, I make mine and I find it easy, but I’ve also had, and really enjoyed, the bottled pre-made gravy from Williams Sonoma), my husband carves the turkey, and we both get everything on the table. My only other little tip is to give yourself time to get ready because after all that work, you deserve to bask in the Thanksgiving afterglow and look good in the pictures!!

I was responsible for Thanksgiving for about 15 people for about 10 years. I didn’t know about mashed potatoes in a slow cooker at that time but it would have been a lifesaver

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-mashed-potatoes-in-the-slow-cooker-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-212550

Plus they are the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever had and is the only way I make them now.

Regular old stuffing with bread cubes (Martin’s Potato Bread Cubes!), celery, onion, poultry seasoning and a crap ton of butter (seriously, double that amount). Similar http://www.food.com/recipe/classic-bread-stuffing-with-onions-celery-and-herbs-323402

This corn casserole http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016998-baked-corn-casserole

This pumpkin cheesecake with gingersnap crust. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/pumpkin-cheesecake-with-caramel-swirl-2635
People still talk fondly about that. And is even better if made ahead.

Pickles and olives! Even though I was the only one that ate them.

Good luck!

If in future years you host and own all the food, do the turkey in pieces! It’s easier, faster, and always comes out great.

I do this turkey: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/deconstructed-holiday-turkey-with-sage-gravy-236317

With this MAKE AHEAD gravy: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015197-make-ahead-gravy

The Cook’s Illustrated green bean casserole is time intensive but delicious and such a fun throw-back that involves no can of anything (I lie, still a can of fried onions on the top. Requirement.)

Last year I did mashed potatoes in the slow cooker and it really helped with timing: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-mashed-potatoes-in-the-slow-cooker-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-212550

But most of all: get prepared the day before with getting out all the serving plates/bowls/utensils, napkins/plates/glasses/utensils for guests for dinner AND for dessert. It’s all fun and games until you’re ready to put out the food and there’s no spoon for the mashed potatoes …