Reply to All of a sudden, hosting 28 for Thanksgiving!

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[quote=Anonymous]Definitely rent folding tables and chairs. Think about what you like to cook and what you don't, and how far away people are coming from before assigning things to bring: wine and soda and such are easy with even a long drive, but if someone is flying in it's not a good option.

Make a spreadsheet ahead of time and make notes for the following year as soon as possible afterwards. Consider where things will go in your fridge, freezer, oven, and stovetop; think about if anything can be made in another way (I've done queso as an appetizer in the rice cooker, and baked brie in the toaster oven a different year). If you have a crockpot or can borrow one, that helps--you can also cook things on the stove and use crockpots to keep things warm.  Also think about what baking and serving dishes (including serving spoons and spatulas and such, plus trivets and other heat-protection items) you'll need for each food. It would suck to have 3 things you were planning to cook in the same pyrex casserole dish!

I've never done 28, but have had as many as 16 in what is likely a smaller house. My spreadsheet columns are:

* Food (divided into "appetizer" "main meal" "dessert" and "beverages")
* Do ahead tasks (I try to do a lot of the chopping and prep work the day before--my inlaws usually come over and help with this. Note that onions should be sliced the day of or else they smell up the fridge.)
*Needs oven on Thanksgiving?
*Needs stovetop on Thanksgiving?
*Other way to warm on Thanksgiving (toaster oven, rice cooker, crockpot, served room temp, etc.)
*Who is bringing?

I then use this list to generate a grocery shopping list (which I try to put in order by section of the store, with separate lists for items I'm not buying at the usual store).

Try to get your fridge as empty as possible before you start shopping and cooking. Eat up what you can. Throw out the stuff you'll never use again.

Have a plan for cleanup. My plan is that people carry their things to the kitchen and then my spouse or a sibling takes anyone who's interested on a walk around the neighborhood before dessert. That gets them out of the house, which actually makes cleanup easier with fewer people around. A few of us stay back to package leftovers and load the dishwasher (I always start it before dinner so I can empty it and re-load after) and set up for dessert. I am super lucky that my mother in law is very eager to do dishes so the kitchen is usually pretty clean by the time we sit down for dinner, making cleanup not so bad. If you have relatives who are willing to station themselves at the sink, TAKE THEM UP ON THAT.

Here was my menu from last year, in case it helps:
APPETIZERS [my father in law likes preparing all of this and laying it out ...it keeps him busy and then he and his brother go watch football and eat it with other guests who prefer not to hang out in the kitchen. We put the newspaper there as well for those who like to look at Black Friday circulars]
* Cheese board with crackers
* Cut veggies & dip
* Pickles, olives, and chili lime almonds from Trader Joe's
[I also listed popcorn in case we ran out of snacks--we have a popper--but we didn't need it]

MAIN MEAL
* Salad (brought by mom)
* Turkey [we did a smaller turkey plus a spare breast]
* field roast "vegan celebration roast" (bought at whole foods for 2 vegetarian guests...it was pretty good though)
* Gravy--meat & mushroom [we buy it jarred]
* Crockpot yams (brought by uncle in his own crockpot)
* Canned jellied cranberry sauce 
* Fresh cranberry sauce (made several days ahead)
* Potato-cauliflower mash
* dressing
* roasted carrots and parsnips and other root vegetables with mustard and rosemary (note: another thing we've made in the past is the Smitten Kitchen butternut squash and chickpea salad, which is great to make ahead and can be served cold or room temp).
* red cabbage and apples (made on stovetop 1-2 days in advance and reheated in crockpot)
* rolls and butter (brought by parents)
* green bean casserole (brought by sister in law)
* corn (sibling's bf is from the south and requested this...I think we just bought a can and heated it up or maybe he did? I'd forgotten about this until I looked back at the spreadsheet and am glad it's written down because I never would have remembered for this year)

DESSERT
* chocolate cake (made & brought by brother)
* sweet potato pie (brought by sister)
* cherry jello salad (made by mother in law)
* apple dump cake 
* reddi whip

BEVERAGES
* wine, hard cider, beer (sister brought beer)
* fizzy & still water, diet ginger ale
* hibiscus-cranberry punch (made at home...this was a big success and it was super easy, and less caloric than the apple cider we usually buy)
* tea, coffee, cocoa
* milk

Good luck OP--it's a lot of work but I really like hosting (definitely prefer it to traveling).
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