We always went to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving, until they started coming to ours. This year our households can’t quarantine enough to mix safely (Edward still has to go to his Remicade appointments, which are not just at a hospital but in a BIG CITY with a much higher infection rate than our small town; Henry still goes to orthodontist appointments; Paul has to go in to his office about once a week), so we’re on our own.
I have considered the idea of…skipping it. It’s three days of cooking for 20 minutes of eating, and I am not entirely sure I know what it celebrates or whether we should be celebrating it. At this point I think of it as a celebration of Thanksgiving Foods: the cranberry-raspberry Jell-o salad, the chocolate-crusted pumpkin cheesecake. I do enjoy being in the kitchen, making the familiar recipes, imagining so many other people in THEIR kitchens making THEIR familiar recipes. And I enjoy the leftovers. But it is a lot of work for one meal. Well, several meals, considering the leftovers.
Or, our local grocery store has a Thanksgiving package: a meal for 4-6 people, with a couple choices (turkey or ham, pumpkin or apple pie), but basically a box of pre-cooked food you pick up and heat up. I have been curious about that (can it possibly be any good?), and this might be a fun year to try it. I floated this idea to family members, who raised issues: we’d still want to make the Jell-o salad and the pumpkin cheesecake, and also we’d need to make our own vegetarian stuffing, and some of us prefer turkey and some prefer ham so we’d want to make the one that wasn’t included in the box—and at that point we’re basically cooking the meal anyway, so what is the point of the box? Except it still might be fun to try.
Another issue is that with more of us home, more of us can HELP COOK. I made this point rather pointedly when people were expressing doubts about doing the grocery pick-up box, and seemed to be thinking it didn’t save THEM any cooking so why would they prefer that?
Well. What are your Thanksgiving plans? Do you feel like talking about recipes, either ones you always make or new ones you’re going to try this year? Have you ever tried buying Thanksgiving dinner from a place where you can just pick it up in a box, and how did that turn out?
I am thinking I’m going to do a box from somewhere too or skip it or phone it in. I’m also thisclose to celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving from now on anyway. American Thanksgiving is at a very inconvenient time of year for our family- Matt nearly always has to work Thanksgiving so we generally celebrate it on a different day anyway and the few times we have done it weeks early, it has been a wonderful relief to have it out of the way.
We did the thanksgiving grocery store pickup one year and it was good! My mom still made stuffing but it was easier.
I’m not sure of my thanksgiving plans. I’ve been attending college football games at 25% capacity and have been quarantining after in order to justify it. There’s one the week before thanksgiving so I’ll probably stay home. But my family is filled with teachers and my 70 year old parents still work, so they will try and convince me to come. We will see.
I’m Canadian and so we already had our thanksgiving. My friend ordered from hello fresh the thanksgiving meal and it was delicious.
The box from Central Market was a disaster. The sides were unpleasant and next time I don’t want to cook, we’ll just have cereal in our pajamas that day. I think the flaw is in the reheating, honestly.
My husband will fry a turkey in the backyard and we will buy pre-made pies. My sister will make broccolli casserole and my kid will make creamed corn and we’re done.
I love Thanksgiving beyond all measure. We have been celebrating with just our family or with one friend family for many years now, so this Thanksgiving will be pleasantly normal. I LOVE cooking the big Thanksgiving meal—it’s such a weirdly satisfying kind of work, and I enjoy the way I use all my senses (in contrast to my very cerebral and all-virtual job). And my husband watches our toddlers all day and occasionally brings them to help me cook for a bit while he does dishes. It’s delightful! And this year Thanksgiving is my birthday!
We have one friend family coming over this year and they are vegetarians. Do I need to make an additional main? Is it rude if I serve a cheese board and then just a regular meal? Everything will be vegetarian except the actual turkey itself, so there will be plenty of food. But I don’t know if it seems ungracious to expect them to just eat the “sides.”
I was vegetarian for many years and I never felt left out with just sides. The sides are the best part of Thanksgiving anyhow. I would say to have Mac and cheese on the menu if you’re concerned since that could be considered a main anyhow. There are also brands that make turkey-less stuffed roasts. They’re not bad at all, but I don’t think necessary either.
I’m not vegetarian, but I am gluten free, and I do not expect someone to make a special meal for me. I eat what I can and enjoy the company! People who know me will make a wonderful special effort to make things as GF as possible, which is great, but I do not expect it. I think your vegetarian friends will be very happy to eat “just sides” and enjoy spending time with you. I’m sure it will be a lot of food, and no one will go hungry. You might let them know that there will not be a vegetarian entree, and then, if they think they will be hungry, they can eat something before they come over.
My mom was vegetarian for decades and while she was fine with mostly sides, she also did an easy protein as well to go with them at big dinners like Thanksgiving. She sometimes ate fish, so we’d do salmon on the BBQ as a second main protein, but sometimes she’d make vegetarian maple baked beans or just scramble an egg. The main thing to keep in mind is that you can’t put the stuffing into the bird or use broth in it (or any other sides like soup) if you make it in a separate pan. Sorry if this is totally obvious to you, but t’s surprising how many people don’t seem to know that vegetarians don’t eat meat broths. My mom’s neighbour was over for dinner and was going to use the same spoon to stir both the chicken curry and my mom’s vegan dal and was surprised when we told her she couldn’t do that.
Oh and the reason I say “was vegetarian” isn’t because she’s eating meat now, she’s gone full vegan the last couple of years. When we could still eat together safely she would often have a separate dish entirely from what most were eating, though I would often have some too as her food is delicious.
We have two vegetarians in our household, and I don’t make a meat alternative for them: for our regular meals I would, but Thanksgiving just has so MANY good side dishes, plenty to make a good full meal. There are two things I do differently for them: I make the stuffing with vegetable broth instead of meat broth; and I make them a separate cranberry-raspberry salad that isn’t made with Jell-o (because of the gelatin). (If you make the kind of sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows: some vegetarians don’t eat marshmallows. There are special vegetarian marshmallows, though I can only find them at one grocery store in our area, so trying to find them during a pandemic might be too stressful, and I would probably just divide the sweet potatoes into two dishes, one topped with marshmallows and one not.)
As a former vegetarian, it was always a really nice treat if the hosts made an extra effort to keep sides veggie? Like, using vegetable broth rather than meat-based, keeping some stuffing aside for me, not adding bacon bits to things. Extra bonus points for buying some veggie gravy!
I always make this really lovely stuffing, which is already vegetarian (assuming I use veg broth, which I definitely will!). https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/simple-is-best-dressing-51124210
But I had completely forgotten about marshmallows! I appreciate the reminder. I’ll check with them for sure.
I like the idea of making sure there is a main-ish side like baked beans or mac and cheese. Thanks, all!!
I came here looking for a stuffing recipe that doesn’t involve mushrooms or sausage. That looks delicious! And very visually pleasing. Thank you!
As a vegetarian, I only eat sides which leaves more room for dessert – I would not want (or expect of my host!) a vegetarian entree :)
I’m having a hard time figuring out Thanksgiving this year. My dad died a couple months ago, so I think we’re going to have my mom over so she’s not alone on Thanksgiving. But she’d have to bring her dog with her, and our dog doesn’t do well around other dogs, so that complicates things. But we’re going to make all our usual foods, and it will just be a bit quiet than usual. Still looking forward to it, its one if my favorite holidays. (Celebrating family rather than, you know, Christopher Columbus.)
If the box feeds 4-6 people, why don’t you get 1 ham and 1 turkey box and then just have to make a couple sides/desserts? Much less work, and hopefully have some leftovers for the next day.
Exactly what I was thinking. Variety for the win!! Then delegate the making of beloved family recipe sides/desserts to whoever asks for them the most ardently.
Do you have a boston market near you? Their turkey (and cornbread and mac) are really good. We did that last year and made all crockpot stuffing, some sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes and threw some canned veggies in a pan. My mom made frozen pies. She normally hosts us but had just gotten out of the hospital the week before.
This year, we aren’t getting together b/c all of us agree it’s just not safe. My husband is still working and my mom is high risk. So, we are debating one of the deals from Kroger or doing the turkey from Boston Market again. Another option we are looking at is one of our local restaurants has a meal to go that you heat up (not a cracker barrel or anything like that). Maybe there is something like that you would all enjoy? Better food than the box and help out a local restaurant?
We (two of us and my SIL) decided to spend way too much money and get the Thanksgiving dinner take-out from a local restaurant. I think that part of the problem with getting takeout is that you don’t have YOUR family’s traditional foods. We won’t have the mashed potato stuffing, or the turnips, etc., etc. OTOH, do I want to do all that prep for three people? NO I DON’T and it’s always stressful for me, who does all of the cooking (for this occasion, at least). I’m gluten free, so there is a lot in this “box” that I can’t eat but really, it just doesn’t matter and I will save all my holiday meal prep energy for Christmas, when our adult daughter is going to pre-quarantine and then come to visit for a week or more.
We’re going to a rural part of our state to disconnect and hopefully see the Milky Way. It’s been on our bucket list for years and I’m seeking joy wherever I can find it. We’ll food prep some at home, but the cabin we’re staying in does have a kitchen. My husband loves cooking and has already done the meal planning.
We usually have at least 15 people but this year it will probably be just 8. (The 6 of us and 2 girlfriends that live with the boys.) It is going to be very weird but with 2 teachers in the family, I just don’t feel comfortable getting together inside. As for the food, I will cook as usual I think. I like it for all of the same reasons you do. Thinking about all of the other people in the country cooking, leftovers, etc. It is also my boys’ favorite holiday. As for what we are celebrating… I prefer to focus on being grateful and spending time together eating good foods I never cook except that one day a year.
We are going to have most of the traditional stuff. I’ll just have to make more of it than usual but in smaller quantities. Same number of items to feed not as many people. We will be home without extended family. My husband generally takes leftovers to deer camp, and he will do that this year. I live for the day-after-thanksgiving turkey sandwich. We’ve never done a store meal, but I am very particular about my dressing, so I’m not confident it would suffice.
We are always at someone else’s house for Thanksgiving, and kind of harried, so I am looking forward to not doing that this year. (I finally broached it with my mom that separate tables outside would still mean a whole day of correcting cousins for getting to close to eachother, and she was understanding, so hurray for that). I’m thinking of it as a great chance to let the 8 year old cook something, and if it doesn’t turn out perfect or interferes with the carefully choreographed oven time…so what. That’s not the focus this year. Maybe I will even get to cook something. Or plan a family walk. Or plan a centerpiece for my own table. And I will get good sleep AND leftovers. And we’ll find a day to fly kites or something with the cousins that is a little easier for social distancing. (Cousins are a two hour drive, but this is CA so we’re just starting the part of our year where outdoor fun & good weather is easy to find.)
We have a few sides that have to get made: sweet potato purée but with a tiny bit of spice to it instead of super sweet with marshmallows. Also sautéed Brussel sprouts with garlic. And traditionally we have flan as one of the desserts in addition to pie but my husband’s aunt usually makes it and now I will have to do it because of Covid quarantining. Hers is better but I can hold my own. But I’ve also gotten ham and sides from Honey Baked Ham before and they were great. I think last year we ordered the Tasty Traditions combo of sides from them and each one was very good. And bonus— it gets delivered so its no contact!
I’m very sad that it’s only the four of this year and am trying to figure out what to make/order.
We no longer celebrate Thanksgiving, however, my general policy is that if I am doing all the work, I call the shots. No one in my family had a problem with discontinuing Thanksgiving, though. If I was still doing it, I would have no qualms about trying a pre-made meal.
I am sort-of wishing we didn’t have to go visit my MIL, but we haven’t seen her since March, and as of right now my husband doesn’t feel it would be overly dangerous to do so. I’m not so sure… cases are going up! I had kind-of hoped for Covid to be an easy excuse this year, as terrible as that sounds. We’ll see.
I’ve never ordered a meal kit but I do think it would be easier and that appeals to me greatly. Our Thanksgiving includes a time-intensive sausage dressing recipe, but I do it because we all love eating it. And making it is part of the day/weekend that we cherish. I could take or leave turkey, although last year I finally bought myself a good roasting pan, so I’m happy to get to use it. I also have some gift cards from Honey Baked Ham and want to use them — but early. One year I waited until the Tuesday before Tgiving and the lines were OUT THE DOOR to pickup. Never again.
Chocolate-crusted pumpkin cheesecake sounds amazing. But I am the only one in my house who likes cheesecake.
We’ve done the prepared Thanksgiving meal from the grocery store before (plus cooking additional dishes that weren’t included in the box that are our Must Haves) and it was an enjoyable experience, we got some of the fun of cooking the meal without actually having to do all of the work. There did seem to be much less food leftover, though. (This could be a Pro or a Con, depending on how you/your family views leftovers. I thought it was a Con. I love leftovers!)
The grocery store food was good (we would normally get a larger turkey, though) but it wasn’t the quality of a home made meal. For example, I prefer home made pumpkin pies to store bought because I think the store bought pies use too much of the spice mixture and it overwhelms the flavor of the pumpkin and the crust, but I think store bought apple pies are perfectly fine.
It will be my parents along with husband and son and possibly my sister and BIL (they’re both doctors so, who knows. Would need to get double tested before coming). Since we’ve been living at my parents, will probably do turkey and maybe homemade stuffing (we just got a bread machine!). And then…be done eating in half hour and…online shopping? Who knows.
We are skipping it this year. While my sister and her family have been safe, my brothers are both going to work 5x a week. My mom has had two mini strokes since August and needs heart surgery the first week of December and my dad needs surgery mid December. Thanksgiving is always at my house and I cook it ALL since no one else can cook to save their lives. Since I’ve been working from him since March and my youngest is virtual (so we can stay germ free for my parents whom we have to help care for), and I’m a solo parent I was “happy” to cancel Thanksgiving. I am….drowning. I thought about doing a small meal for just the three of us but my girls don’t eat any of the good stuff so it feels pointless.
To Jess: It sounds like you have a lot on your plate. Just know that a stranger on the internet sees you and whatever you decide this year is just fine.
XOXOXO.
We live in a big city. So we have options.
I am 41 and have literally never cooked a Thanksgiving meal; either his mom or my mom has always done it. I am sure I could manage one just fine, so I asked him what he wanted to do, and the agreed upon action was to buy a full meal from a restaurant. So that is what we’re doing. I feel 100% okay with this; it’s a restaurant we’ve eaten at before and loved.
Our Thanksgiving is over so here is what we did: a bit over a week before Thanksgiving I looked at all the options to order from a restaurant or a grocery store, and even before I could make follow-up calls to see if they would be safe for an egg-free household, I could see that most meals included HUGE whole birds (like 12-15 lb turkeys) and were very expensive (like well over $150 Canadian), and all the smaller options were already sold out. There are only 4 of us and while I like leftovers, that was just too much turkey to imagine dealing with. Then it turned out that Swiss Chalet (I don’t know if they have them in the US, but it’s a rotisserie chicken chain) had quarter chicken meals available with stuffing and cranberry sauce, and we know we can order food that’s safe for the egg-allergy kid from there, so we just got a family meal pack and each family member could opt for whatever sides they wanted. I think the total was less than $50 for all four of us. I made a dessert of some sort. Maybe cookies?
I’m very conflicted about Thanksgiving. I do love Thanksgiving food but all of the work right now seems… hard.
One recent-year revelation for me: many of us in my family like the stuffing the best, and we use my mom’s (aka an old Gourmet from the 70s) recipe that includes the turkey liver, but given you only have a small amount of liver per turkey it always limited the amount of of stuffing we could make. One year the turkey I bought had no giblets in it, so we sent my dad out at the last minute to buy chicken livers… which I then realized meant we could make AS MUCH STUFFING AS WE WANTED. We were no longer limited by liver quantity! So perhaps this year I’ll just buy livers and make only an enormous, gluttonous amount of stuffing. And mashed potatoes.
YUM.
We are far from family, so it’s just the two of us. I have a duck in the freezer, so we’ll have roasted duck with a wild rice mix, homemade cranberry sauce, french beans and a green salad.
We have done the grocery store option a couple of times, from two different stores, and it’s always FINE. Not the same as homemade, obviously, but it scratches the turkey/stuffing itch.
I hate Thanksgiving food, except for the mashed potatoes. So I am GLEEFUL at the thought of maybe making a turkey breast for my husband and some mashed potatoes and gravy for myself and calling it a day. Well, my husband and daughter also like the sweet potatoes with marshmallows, so we could make those, too.
Thanksgiving has at some point turned into A Big Hassle, so I’m fine with taking a year off. Especially if it means everyone is at home, safe in their own little bubbles.
Some relatives have floated ideas of doing Zoom get togethers for the holidays. But I don’t really know what that would look like? Just a big conversation (which sounds frustrating and difficult)? Or would we do something Thanksgiving-y, like going around and saying what we’re each thankful for (slightly better)? I wonder if anyone has any ideas for making Zoom get togethers, with a bunch of people including kids, fun for all, especially the kids, while not dragging on forever? Are there any good family games that work to play via Zoom? We once did a game night via the Houseparty app; it was fun, but the games were limited, so I don’t think it would work again for the same group of people. We have also tried the app Together for the kids, which is fine for one-on-one child/child or child/grandparent gameplay, but I am hopeful there is something Out There that is better for a group.
We are doing it, everyone is quarantining, and my kids really need to see other kids and miss their cousins terribly. I love the thanksgiving food, but I am REALLY looking forward to the turkey trot. I know I sound like an insufferable person saying this, but we do it every year. We get dressed up! This year we have running shorts with turkey tails on the back! It soothes my anxiety on an often anxiety producing day. And this year because it is virtual the ones of us who like to run can do the longer distance while the littles do the shorter distance without inconveniencing anyone, and everyone can get back in time for the Macy’s day parade and dog show.
What is a Turkey Trot? It seems like some sort of run? Is it just your family running around your yard or a neighbourhood course, or are you participating in a larger organized event? Enquiring minds want to know!
It’s a fun run, at least all the ones I know of.
Our local one has always been put on by a church that gave the money to charity, and it still does, but in the last year or two it started giving money to Young Life, which is anti-gay, so a lot of my friends have stopped doing it and miss it.
I hate running, and that really paid off for me.
(I do think it would be more fun to dress up like turkeys and just run around the neighborhood)
We are 100% team Wegmans or Wholefoods pre made meals. Both are seriously more delicious than we could pull off, and there is zero work involved. Win/win. You can order enough for leftovers if that’s your thing. There are also a bunch of restaurants near me offering fully cooked meals to go this year, so there are options.
It’s going to be just the three of us this year, instead of the 60+ people we hosted last year, so…different!
My in-laws live very close by and are also strictly isolating, so we’ve been talking about doing a swap: they cook a big turkey and split it in half, I bake a bunch of pies and split them in half, and we do a quick driveway swap (with festive waving and masks).
Beyond that, my plan is to cook all the sides and desserts that I either really enjoy cooking or really prefer my own version/recipe, and order in whatever else we want/can’t do without.
We will have Thanksgiving in our own home this year, just the three of us, which is not what we have done for many years; usually we either spend it with friends or take a fun trip (last two years we spent it at Disney which is the BEST for TG). It is a lot of work for me to make a wagonload of food for my small family but I’ve had a long-enough reprieve that I don’t mind it terribly and this year my daughter wants to help which will reduce any possibility of my standing in the kitchen simmering with resentment as I cook for hours while everyone else lounges and then inhales the meal in ten minutes or less. Anyway, my Thanksgiving meal is not elaborate and I like the food a lot which somewhat offsets the labor. If it were entirely up to me, I would probably skip the turkey altogether and just make sides, but the other two members of my household have outvoted me and I will allow it.
I have had a grocery store turkey dinner before, and it was fine! Like others have said, it lacks whatever personal spin you are accustomed to, but it is also a LOT easier.
We usually go to my mom’s or have my SIL come to us. This year, I’m getting a box sent to my son at college, and I’m making a duck breast and some sides for just my husband and I, and we are going to probably Zoom with family.
I did a trial run of the duck breast the other night. Very Thanksgiving-y. https://www.marthastewart.com/956350/duck-breasts-port-reduction-sauce
The sides are roasted sliced delicata squash (https://eatwellenjoylife.com/roasted-delicata-squash/)
and roasted baby potatoes with garlic (peel the garlic cloves and smash them a little, toss them and the potatoes with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast for an hour or more). We will probably have cheesecake made in the Instant Pot for dessert.
Going to go see my mom who has been careful. Going to have to figure out my sister and BIL… my BIL is working in person. Maybe we all eat outside (we are in a state where that could legitimately be an option). We are likely skipping traditional thanksgiving foods and doing Hawaiian, which is a food type we all love. Hawaiian style curry, mac salad, white rice, and more. We all need a little aloha right now.
We are having Tgiving at our house, with our quarantine bubble (in-laws and cousins) for a total of 9 people. I hosted Christmas dinner last year, but have never done Thanksgiving. We asked about can’t-live-without dishes (honestly, Tgiving food is not my favorite. When we used to go to my parents’ for Tgiving when our song was a toddler, we’d go out to dinner. I would order lobster ravioli. YUM!).
Has anyone ever tried mashed potatoes in a crockpot? Do you think you could taste the cream cheese in this recipe? https://www.thecountrycook.net/crock-pot-million-dollar-mashed-potatoes/ Or does it just make it creamier/richer? (I’m not a cream cheese eater). I’m trying to do a side dish or two in a crockpot for ease of cooking. Maybe I should just stick with stovetop boiling?
My uncle has made cream cheese mashed potatoes before. You can taste the cream cheese a little – it makes them creamier and a little tangy. I don’t’ like them as much because it decreases the potato taste, which is what I like about mashed potatoes.
This is exactly what I needed to know. THANK YOU! (not gonna do the cream cheese)
Try sour cream. (I didn’t look at the recipe, so I don’t know if it works, but when. I make mashed potatoes I often put in sour cream)
I tried a make-ahead mashed potato recipe that had cream cheese in it (Pioneer Woman, maybe?) and I could taste the cream cheese and preferred not to. It wasn’t STRONG or anything, but I felt like they were Not As Good as regular mashed potatoes, when they should have been VASTLY BETTER considering how much butter and cream and cream cheese was in them.
I don’t want to have this sort of disappointment. Now I know for sure not to try this recipe. THANK YOU! (and thanks for providing a space to chat about this! Reminds of the days I like to check the Martha Stewart discussion boards like 15-20 years ago, holy crap that is a long time)
When it’s just us and Nick’s parents, we have ordered from Cracker Barrell and I heartily endorse not cooking and just throwing money at the problem.
I like baking an apple pie and I want to learn how to make my mom’s/grandma’s Thanksgiving dressing because I look forward to it all year long. Plus, honestly, I’d be just as happy with a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store as a turkey. I think the sides are my favorite parts.
I’ll be on my own this year. My family is being quality South Dakotans right now, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to drive there for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’m planning on making a half batch of Grandma’s rolls, mashed potatoes, a small batch of spinach maria (which I always want but can never talk anyone else into), and a 1/2 turkey breast from Trader Joe’s if I can snag one. I already stashed a few slices of pumpkin cheesecake in the freezer. I will probably make the sausage stuffing I like too, because it will be good for leftovers/breakfast for a long time.
My extended family has ordered a Christmas meal for 20+ people from the grocery store multiple years. It works well. If anyone has something they really want, it can be added, but we don’t have to delay dinner waiting on things to cook or try to time things out when people are also traveling.
It will be me and my mother for dinner, as we live together and I am playing the heavy about us going to anyone’s house. A friend of hers invited us to join her, and her three (adult, non-local) grandchildren and possibly their significant others, who are all coming to visit her, and um, no! Have some germ exposure for the holiday? No thanks. We don’t have a set plan yet; I’m trying to find a meal package we can buy that includes both white and dark meat, but won’t give us a week’s worth of leftovers, and so far, that is a challenge. We may end up having grilled cheese, and that would be fine, too. This is a year to get through, however we can.
My husband and I usually skip Thanksgiving travel and have a quiet dinner with just us or with a few local friends, so we have done the Whole Foods heat-and-eat Thanksgiving dinner a bunch of times and think it’s great! I do love cooking usually, but I find the Thanksgiving marathon of cooking a million dishes for a very small group to be more of a headache than I’m looking for on a holiday. So I’m all about picking up most items and making a few supplemental favorites.
This year, our plan, weather permitting, is to meet up with our two closest friends for a walk and a pre-dinner drink and snack on their patio before having separate dinners at home. We’re going to make it extra-easy on ourselves this year and pick up dinner on our way back from a local restaurant that’s offering a special Thanksgiving menu.
When we celebrated Thanksgiving with my mom (who hated to cook and also hated people cooking on her behalf) we discovered an amazing butcher shop that sold pre-stuffed chickens. AMAZING. You did have to cook it yourself, but you just put it in the oven and that was that. It was SO GOOD and easy, and with the main dish + stuffing taken care of, we could focus on just cooking the fun sides and desserts. So if you decide against the grocery, you could see what local restaurants or shops are offering “take it home and warm it up” options.
I have no idea what our Thanksgiving plans are. I am back to school teaching face-to-face and the baby is in daycare, so there is no way for us to effectively quarantine and go visit my elderly dad and stepmom. I *think* they understand that, but we have not explicitly discussed it. So it will probably just be us for Thanksgiving. I don’t know what we’ll cook yet. That is a good distraction to think about today, so thank you!
I just let our family know that we will not be hosting this year. Both of my older children and their spouses are working and their kids go to daycare. There is no way we can have people over when my husband is at a high risk because of his heart condition. It’s bad enough that I work outside the home five days a week. I am planning on cooking almost the whole big meal though. I like that I can cook one big meal and we can eat leftovers for the next week.
For various reasons we are skipping family thanksgiving this year. I asked my daughter what she needed to still make it feel like thanksgiving, and she said “turkey, rolls, pumpkin pie”. Done, Done, and Done. I have all the stuff to make a pie, brioche rolls in the freezer, and we can get a turkey breast at the ham store. I have some boxed stuffing, potatoes, and green bean casserole stuff for the adults.
Confession: I hate Thanksgiving. It is my least favorite of the holidays because in my married life it’s caused so much stress than it’s worth. I was really looking forward to skipping it this year, but my mom will be completely alone if I don’t do something (I’m an only child and she has no other family near). Also, however, my mom is the the reason we can’t made quarantining work well enough to have it inside my house (she will not stop going to the gym, to the pool, having a care giver over two days a week without masks even though that person also caregives other people 3 days a week). We started on the process of getting a cover built over our back patio in SEPTEMBER but every contractor is so insanely busy that they still can’t start until mid-November and it won’t be done by TG. I suggested we all celebrate TG when the cover is finished and my mom was hurt because I won’t have it inside my home on the arbitrary day in November that America decided was the only day to stuff ourselves with foods I don’t normally eat and sit around feeling gross. At this point we’re going to end up eating in our garage or something? I just want to ignore the whole thing. (Sorry for the rant, it’s been a tough week)
Usually my mom comes to our house but I’m not sure if she will want to this year. If she doesn’t then it will be the 4 of us, 1 of whom does not eat any of the Thanksgiving foods. So really I’ll be cooking for 3 (or maybe I can get my daughter to help). I do a mix of from scratch and box/can stuff for Thanksgiving depending on what I feel like actually making that year. Right now I’m trying to decide if I want to make mashed potatoes or just buy a tub or 2 of the Bob Evans mashed potatoes you can find in grocery stores.
Thank you for posting the link to your cranberry/raspberry jello salad. I think I will try that this year for our cranberry and fruit side. No one in my family really *likes* the various cranberry relishes but still seems to insist on having something cranberry because cranberries are Thanksgiving-y. And I always feel like I should have some kind of fruit or fruit dish as a side but never really know what to do. Have you tried adding whipped cream to the jello salad? I’m wondering if I could jazz it up even more by making a layer with whipped cream in it.
I should add turkey to my grocery list this week and maybe a few other things so I’m not trying to do a big shop the week of Thanksgiving.
I have not tried adding whipped cream to it, but that sounds really yummy!
I have NO IDEA what to make for dessert, it’ll be just our little family and hubby doesn’t like cinnamon, so that excludes anything seasonal. Maybe sorbet? Is that blasphemous?
If anyone wants to try a new pie recipe, I highly recommend this Apple Pie with Cranberries which also has orange and cinnamon and tastes like CHRISTMAS.
Last year I did a lot of food prep the day before Thanksgiving- brining the turkey has to be done ahead, but I also chopped a bunch of vegetables and I remember thinking that the stuffing/dressing was way better as a leftover, so I will make that in advance, too. Frees up the oven day of, anyway.
We are going camping for Thanksgiving. We will eat whatever version of Thanksgiving food I find worth preparing ahead, give our list of gratitudes around the fire (instead of the table) and unplug for four days. I can’t wait.
I like Thanksgiving food, but I am insufferable about wanting to have just the right sort of dressing and mashed potatoes and so on. So I wind up being difficult about delegating tasks and then I’m tired on Thanksgiving. I’m not that way on any other holiday, it’s odd.
The first year my sister was dating her now ex-husband, they celebrated Christmas with his family in another state. Since Christmas had always been my mom and my sister, I wanted to do something completely different on Christmas Day. The plan was my mom would come to my house and we would eat the special Christmas meal my favorite restaurant was offering. On Christmas Day, my mom cancelled because she was too tired from the Christmas Eve party she hosted the night before for her neighbors, which I had attended. My boyfriend saved the day by coming over. We ate the whole four person meal ourselves and watched “Die Hard”, a Christmas movie I’d never seen before. It remains one of my favorite Christmas memories.
The reason I share this Christmas story is because the meal we got from the restaurant was fantastic. This year dozens and dozens of independent restaurants are offering take and bake meals. If you have any in your area that are doing the same, I think their quality might be better than a grocery store.
Because I don’t feel comfortable being inside, maskless with my 72 year old mom, we are doing a Thanksgiving swap. We’re meeting up masked, outdoors to exchange food. My mom will make turkey, stuffing, gravy, and green bean hotdish, my sister will make deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, and jello salad, and I’ll contribute roasted Brussels sprouts, roasted sweet potatoes, and pies (current requests are for apple, chocolate, pear cranberry, and pecan). My sister purchased Bingo cards so we’ll do a video chat in the evening to eat pie and play Bingo.
We always celebrate Thanksgiving with extended family but my husband and I both work outside the house 4 days/week and we will not eat with my high risk in laws this year. We will stop by for a masked visit in their heated garage. My mom will be joining us because she is quarantining and doesn’t want to eat alone. My husband and I go only to work and have everything delivered or pick up curbside so she is comfortable being around us to eat. I haven’t cooked full Thanksgiving in years but am looking forward to planning the menu. My mother in law never allows anyone else to make dessert, so I am especially looking forward to that!
Last Christmas we decided to skip the big turkey dinner until extended family could make it up for a visit a few days later, so we had make-ahead brunch and then spent the day nibbling on finger foods and Christmas chocolate and candy and it was so relaxing we decided it would be the new tradition… and of course everything is all up in the air this year. We’re thinking of trying to fully quarantine for two weeks before Christmas so we can actually spend the full day with parents, which will mean likely a return to a traditional big meal cooked together since it’s the only chance we’ll have for one until maybe next summer, after not having a proper chance to get together since last spring when the lockdown started.
I’m almost afraid to hope for it since my husband owns his own business so him being able to quarantine for 2 weeks would be a Christmas miracle!
I have not tried a Thanksgiving meal in a box, BUT I did buy an Easter meal in a box this year and it was totally worth it. So much less work. And if other people find the specific special Thanksgiving recipes necessary, than they should definitely be making them themselves or at least helping to make them.
Oh dear. I have not been keeping up with your blog (among other things) and am therefore (very) late to the discussion. Also, I’m sorry you’re needing to navigate this with your large household and that others in said household not jumping in to volunteer to Make Thanksgiving Great!!
But! I have what I hope is an excellent, if unusual, answer to this question. First, the entire household (me, hubby, our son, my mother, 3 dogs) are piling into the truck (ours)/car (mom’s) and taking the camping trailer and going to a state park for Tues. — Sat. We are leaning toward buying a smallish turkey and taking the turkey frier and doing a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in a non-traditional (well, maybe going back to the perhaps mythical origins of the holiday, but not otherwise) setting. So! We will see, but I am pleased we are planning to do something holiday-ish, even though it does mean we are abandoning others in the family we might otherwise visit outdoors. Mind you since the pandemic started we have left 2 out of 3 camping trips early because of bad weather (ceaseless rain), and … it really has to be pretty bad not to be fun in the camper. But apparently it is possible, and not infrequent what with it being 2020 and all.
I’m not sure what we are doing. We see my parents and MIL regularly because they are our childcare. Some extended family wants to celebrate with us and I’ve offered to host an outdoor meal on our patio but I’m hoping it just fizzles out. I am not a Thanksgiving fan and would be totally happy spending the day with my parents just eating whatever. I imagine we will cook a few things for tradition’s sake but I’m looking forward to having an excuse not to do the whole extended-family-big-meal thing.
We usually travel to see (older) family, which just isn’t possible this year – for obvious reasons. So, we are staying home. When I informed our four teenaged children, they VERY QUICKLY requested that I not fix “Thanksgiving” food. WTH?!? Apparently it’s not really their favorite. We usually travel, stay in a hotel, spend $$$ on eating out (except for the Thanksgiving meal). It gets a little pricey. SO, this year I am going to spend MONEY on food. I am still going to cook, but I am doing either beef tenderloin or prime rib, with garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus, etc. FANCY Thanksgiving dinner, hopefully still with leftovers. BUT I am making dressing, because that is MY personal favorite. I’m actually looking forward to the changes!
Every year we spend Thanksgiving with my mother-in-law and she makes a too big, wasteful meal. However, she’s been seeing friends, having people in her home etc.. so we are only social distance visiting with her (masks, 6 feet apart, no hugs or sharing food, under two hour visits). Since it will just be my husband and I and we hate the too full feeling and the waste of food and time so we simplified the menu. My husband and I decided we like pumpkin pie, butternut squash soup, fresh baked bread and a salad I make with toasted walnuts, Gorgonzola and pear so we’re just going to eat that. I’m a vegetarian and my husband isn’t but he’s not a big turkey or ham fan and he can add chicken to his salad if he wants.
I have hosted Thanksgiving for the last 5-6 years. Some years my in-laws come, some years my neighbors come over, but, honestly, I am looking forward to having a good excuse to make it just my immediate family this year. That’s my preference and this year I’m glad I can do it guilt free!
As far as food goes, several years ago my husband wanted to fry a turkey and I didn’t want to burn the house down so I compromised and said if he could buy a fried turkey from somewhere we could eat it. He ordered one from Popeyes (yes, Popeyes) and, shocking, it is was delicious! We have had a Popeyes turkey ever since and plan to order another one this year. I like having the pressure off as far as the turkey goes (I just heat it up) and then I can focus on sides, which is my favorite part.
My apologies for ruining the comment count by moving it to 70. Also, too, I’m trying to keep myself distracted from looking at CNN or my local news webpage.
Anyway, I wanted to come back and mention that I usually cook a larger than really needed turkey for Thanksgiving. I keep some of the leftover turkey in the fridge for anyone who wants another round of Thanksgiving dinner later in the week. But I usually take most of it and freeze it in 1 cup portions. Then I have cooked turkey ready to go for any recipe that calls for cooked chicken/turkey. That’s the only reason I cook a turkey. Well, that and my family seems to want the traditional turkey for T-day.
We have a Wegmans and they do a WONDERFUL cooked spread. My friend buys it every year, throws out the packaging at a nearby school and presents it as her own. It’s genius and I could not love her more for it, it makes me laugh every year. Her mother in law still complains.
We are doing the first non annual, never again, outside dinner. It’s likely to be 30 degrees and snowing where I live, but that’s fine. We are hearty. Thanksgiving is my husband’s Superbowl so even if it’s just the four of us, he will cook and it will be an occasion. I’m fine with it as long as the out of towners stay out of town. That’s up for debate.
Thanksgiving food is my favorite, so I am going along with it and will bake fewer pies.
Swistle, if I were you I would do the whole shebang. The reason I say this, you don’t know if this might be the last time you are all together like this. Not like anything bad will happen, but maybe someone will go to a girlfriend’s house, or there is a blizzard and they can’t get home. But right now-you are all together-and hopefully you will have many years of celebrating like this, but just in case. My daughter lives 300 miles away, the last time she tried to get home for Thanksgiving, there was a blizzard and they crashed the car. Then she graduated, she got a job in retail-and hasn’t been home for Thanksgiving since. I guess I’m saying-all the chicks are in the nest-if they are expressing interest in traditional Thanksgiving? You could think in your mind “this could be the last time”.
Maybe a combination? Do the Turkey and trimmings from the grocery store, but get a ham and do your family favorites. Do your kids cook? Seems like you have a whole pool of workers-just waiting to peel potatoes :)
You should do a family potluck- every member is in charge of contributing SOMETHING. They can pick a traditional favorite or get creative. Or maybe pick a non-traditional theme. Commit to “Swistle will make a turkey (or whatever, one big main) and everything else is on y’all.”
Or- think of a local restaurant that might be doing holiday carryout and support local business :)