Consolidated recommendations for Thanksgiving food prep?

[Anonymous]

Hi,
We are hosting 20 for thanksgiving but my spouse is travelling arriving back late Wednesday night.

So i'd love to be able to 'cheat' by purchasing some items from restaurants / other vendors.

We are looking for higher quality than one might expect from Wegmans/Costco/Whole Foods.

Any suggestions for delicious prepare dishes that we can purchase and simply put in the oven? Or other cheats/hacks to make it much easier...

Or (seems less likely) a chef who might come to the house and work for four hours or so preparing a bunch of items?

[Anonymous]

Some restaurants will do takeout Thanksgiving meals. Where do you live?

[Anonymous]

balduccis

[Anonymous]

Founding Farmers

[Anonymous]

Can some of the guests bring dishes on the day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Founding Farmers

As I have noted on several other threads, worst Thanksgiving dinner of my life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some restaurants will do takeout Thanksgiving meals. Where do you live?

+1. This year we are ordering from a nicer local restaurant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Or (seems less likely) a chef who might come to the house and work for four hours or so preparing a bunch of items?

I can't do it this year, but as someone who loves to cook, and is good at Thanksgiving type food, how much would someone pay for this?

I am cooking for two gatherings this year. Next year it would be easy to add a third and do it assembly line style.

[Anonymous]

Here’s what we are doing

..buying a precooked Turkey from a local small grocery chain that makes really good food. DH’s grandmother got one for Christmas a few years ago and we’ve never gone back. We’re not in DC the store name won’t help. We buy the gravy too.

..you can actually make mashed potatoes ahead of time, put them in a zip lock gallon bag or bags. You can heat them back up by putting the bags in a pot of simmering water.

…for veggie side dishes, we actually grill them. I prepare and season them or glaze etc, put in large ziplocks. With 20 people someone will be happy to escape the nonsense chatter and grill them. One popular dish is grilled carrots and sweet potatoes in a honey glaze. Cube and half cook the sweet potatoes the night before, peel the carrots, put in a ziplock with honey glaze and grill the next day.

..buy your pies from a good bakery.

..pre stage your salad. Make your dressing, chop the toppings and put in a zip lock. All you have to do at the end is wash the greens and combine, a job you can give to a kid.