Thursday

food prep-9 am -11 am
neighborhood football game 11:30-1:00pm
1:30 turkey goes in
3:00 people arrive
prep appatizers
peel potatoes
bake sweet potatoes
turkey out
saute veggies
mash potatoes
cut turkey eat

12:58 here - I forgot about the cranberry sauce! I'll make that tonight, too. It barely takes any time at all.

Tonight I'll make the cornbread for the dressing and maybe the jello salad.

Tomorrow, I'll do the pies.

That leaves the turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, and roasted asparagus for Thursday. The dough for the rolls is made and in the freezer, so they just need to be thawed and popped in at the end.

The kids are in charge of polishing the silver and setting the table.

Anonymous wrote:Consomme? Really? I didn't think anyone did that anymore.

I originally planned a chestnut soup, but my mom (who has official final powers on the menu) wanted something lighter, vegetarian, and not plain vegetable broth. After carrot, squash, and pumpkin were rejected, we finally had consensus on thai lemongrass consomme.

DH does the turkey - it's thawing now; he'll start brining tomorrow; he's going to smoke it on Wednesday; we'll re-heat on Thursday.

He will do mashed potatoes on Wednesday - we put them in the office to bake/heat on Thursday.

He will make a pumpkin pie on Wednesday. (he's off on Wed)

I am making cupcakes for the kids - will do that tomorrow night or on Wed when I get off work (2pm).

Thursday morning I will make the green bean salad, the stuffing, and do some decorating. DH will set up the extra (kids) table and I'll set both tables. Out of town guests arrive around 1pm; local guests come at 3pm; dinner between 4:00 and 5:00pm.

Others are bringing 2 more side dishes and desserts. Hors d'oeuvres are just veggies, cheese & crackers, and some frozen spanakopita.

I think that's it! (also general clean up and prep for the out of town guests, who are staying over on Thurs night)

Consomme? Really? I didn't think anyone did that anymore.

Note: I do Thanksgiving this way because I enjoy it and hardly ever have a chance to go this nuts with cooking the rest of the year. So my system works for me, but I'm not going to say there aren't a ton of shortcuts that would be possible!

Menu for 16 (half vegetarians) :
Consomme
Brined Turkey with Stuffing and Gravy
Green Beans
Sweet Potatoes
Roasted Vegetables
Biscuits
3 pies

Saturday/Sunday - All shopping complete except turkey
Monday - Chop vegetables for turkey stock, vegetable stock, stuffing, cosomme. Place vegetables in labeled gallon bags in fridge. Pull out all serving dishes, serving utensils, baking dishes - total 4-6 man hours
Tuesday - Prepare three pie doughs, vegetable and turkey stock, pick up fresh turkey - total 4 man hours of work, 4 hours duration (stock has lots of time to boil)
Wednesday - Complete chocolate pie, consomme, brine turkey, prepare stuffing, set table - total 4 mans hours of work
Thursday - Roast vegetables, sweet potatoes, turkey. Make green beans and biscuits and complete other two (fruit) pies. I have this scheduled down to the hour to avoid oven conflicts! Lots of time while things are roasting for clean up, preparing garnishes, etc.....

We're getting close! Walk me through your prep - what you make before & how long. I'm hoping to get the mashed pies done today, mashed poatoes, and green beans (DH adores that cream of soup/fried onion mess) tomorrow, turkey brined and veggies roasted Wednesday....