How Did You Prepare for the Thanksgiving Meal?

I love to cook and I like to cook big meals, but I’ll admit, it can be a little over-whelming to cook something like a Thanksgiving meal and get everything out on the table at the same time. I didn’t want to fix the mashed potatoes and have to serve them cold because I was waiting on the gravy. Luckily I had my mom here to help this year and we got everything out and ready to be served - nothing was cold. Maybe I was a tad bit behind schedule, but all in all, our lunch went really well.

I really planned out the meal this year and that helped tremendously. Here’s what I did that made the day go by smoothly:

• I made a list of everything that I wanted to make.
• I decided which days I needed to shop for what. For example: I waited a couple of days before Thanksgiving to buy some of the fresh vegetables.
• I made all the desserts the day before Thanksgiving. The kids got in the kitchen and helped and we made pumpkin, pecan and chocolate cream pie. Oh, and the kids did the turkey cookies pictured below. Those were a lot of fun.
• I knew what time I needed to put the turkey in and how long it would take to cook.
• I also knew what order I needed to cook everything. (Although I misjudged how long it would take to boil, peel and bake the sweet potatoes. Oh well, my mom helped out with that part and came to my rescue. )

All in all it was a great meal and everything tasted wonderful. I was happy to eat leftovers that night and the next day and well, the next day too.

So, the moral of my little Thanksgiving story here is - planning out the Thanksgiving shopping, desserts and meal made my holiday a lot less stressful and more fun.

Do you have any tips to getting a Thanksgiving meal on the table?