Re: Is anyone cooking for Thanksgiving?

Posted by LoveyQ

Posted by JennB

I am! Ill be 36 weeks but I figured I wont be doing this again until we get a house (we're in a little co-op now)
Im having 12 people. My mom is cooking the turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes and I am making everything else.
I am trying to make some things ahead of time, like last week I made and froze the lasagne.
The rest of my menu is:
mashed potatoes
stuffed mushrooms
green bean casserole
cranberry compote
biscuits
cheese platter (for appetizer)

ETA: Another ay Im making it through....I told everyone I am NOT washing all those dishes by hand so they will have to deal with eating off paper plates (my family HATES doing this, but oh well), but i actually found cutlery that looks like silverware and plastic plates that look like crystal.

OMG, for a second I thought you were cooking for 36 people!

This is my menu:

Turkey
Spanish rice (we're hispanic, you can't have a holiday meal without spanish rice)
Sweet potatoes with marshmallows
Creamed spinach
Green bean casserole
Stuffing
Salad (greens etc)
Homemade flan
Storebought pumpkin pie

My mom is making a Pernil (pork) and my MIL is making potato salad.

ETA: Oh, we are SOOO using disposable dinnerware after I spend that whole day prepping and cooking!!! Did you get those at Costco? We get the same thing - utensils that look like silverware and plates that look like crystal! Voila!

Re: Is anyone cooking for Thanksgiving?

MIL always hosts Thanksgiving (my family is not local and not American so they don't really do Thanksgiving anyway). I always make dessert because my family and therefore I not believe in store-bought pastry (at least not for holidays) and DH's family does not believe in baking - I'm still making dessert this year (3 pies and chocolate cake). Even pregnant, I would be willing to host the entire meal but she'd never let me. My advice would be to do as much as you can ahead of time - a lot of prep work can be done the day before and you can even bake two days before. Even when I'm only doing desserts, I still make them ahead of time. For example, the apple pie recipe I use precooks the filling - I make it after apple picking in October and freeze it. All I have left to do is thaw and pop it in the crust. I often use pre-made crust, but this year I'm going to try homemade again and will make the dough over the weekend. Tuesday, I'll roll out two rounds and make the pecan and pumpkin pies (the pecan filling is very fast to make so I make that one first and work on the pumpkin while it's in the oven). Wednesday, I'll roll out two more and bake the apple pie. I'll probably bake the chocolate cake over the weekend too and freeze the rounds; then make the PB filling and icing Wednesday and put it together Thursday morning. If you plan your menu ahead of time and think about what you can do over the week before, you'd be amazed and can make that day a breeze! Good planning is key. Good luck!!