Planning a Low-Stress Thanksgiving Dinner

Ever since becoming an adult, Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday for a number of reasons:

• No gifts--No pressure to find the right gift for the right person--or go broke trying.
• Harvest Food--I love cooking (and eating) the traditional foods of Thanksgiving, from the turkey and stuffing to the mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. Bring it on!
• A sense of history--I'm a serious student of history, and Thanksgiving is dependent on a rich tradition of Native American and Colonial history.
• Family & Friends--Thanksgiving involves an inclusiveness not found in religious holidays, Valentine's Day, postal holidays, or Mother / Father's Day. The only one to match it would be Independence Day. Do you live here in the States? Great! Then come celebrate with us the hard work and sacrifices of the Pilgrims and the great sacrifices of the Indians to help create the infant colonies that became our country.
• Football--My favorite sport. Our boys play junior tackle football, we love college football, and we're life-long Chicago Bears fans. Thanksgiving gives us a great football fix!

Between cookbooks, food magazines, the Internet and TV, an overwhelming number of resources exist for planning your holiday dinner. The same planning you do for Thanksgiving can be used again for Christmas. 

• Try to have a firm estimate about the number of guests at least two weeks before. 
• Order your turkey at least one week ahead of time! A fresh turkey makes all the difference. You butcher will be happy to work with you on how much to order based on the number of adults and children you are expecting and whether or not you want leftovers. A good rule of thumb is one pound per person, if you want a moderate amount of leftovers.
• Go through your recipes, cookbooks and online resources at least one to two weeks ahead to plan out your meal. As host, you should definitely plan on making the turkey, the stuffing, cranberry sauce or gravy, the mashed potatoes, a vegetable dish, beverages and some wine / beer. Depending on how many different households are attending and their cooking preferences, you may also need to plan on making the pies and an appetizer.  
•  If you have guests coming who volunteer to bring something, be sure to keep track of who is bring what. Options for "What Can I Bring?" include the dinner rolls, the salad, wine, an appetizer, ice cream or pies. I'm not shy either. If I have a huge group of people coming, I might politely ask, "I'm in a bit of a pinch. Can you pick up the dinner rolls for me?
• Non-perishables and any frozen goods can be picked up throughout the month as they go on sale.
• Plan to do your fresh produce shopping at least the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Every smart Thanksgiving cook plans on a couple of dishes that can be made a day or two ahead of time.

Cranberry sauce can be made the weekend before and stored in the refrigerator. Transfer to a serving dish on T-Day. Cranberry sauce recipes abound, but my favorite is the Cumberland Sauce found in an old issue of Bon Appetit. A similar recipe is on the epicurious.com site: Cranberry Cumberland Sauce. Some sweet potato recipes can also be made ahead. 

I have a family recipe for a Mashed Potato Casserole. This is my Official Mashed Potato Recipe. I sometimes double it and make to pans. Now that we have three kids, the leftovers have gotten really skimpy!

Mashed Potato Casserole
serves 8-10

• 10# Idaho potatoes
• 1-2 sticks butter (yes, that's right. This is not low fat--but you'll love it.)
• 8-oz container low-fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• 2% milk (do not use skim)
• 3-4 green onions
• 3-4 cups Kraft shredded Sharp Cheddar or Colby Jack (do not use low-fat cheese--it doesn't melt right)
• Pepper, to taste
• Paprika

One day before serving, peel and boil your potatoes in a very large stock pot until fork tender. While boiling, chop up your green onions into 1/4-inch slices, white and green parts.
Once potatoes are fork tender, drain and put back in stock pot. Mash with a potato masher or wooden spoon, adding slices of the butter. Once one stick of butter has been added, get out your electric hand mixer and beat. Add milk to create smooth whipped potatoes. Add the entire container of cream cheese. Add more butter and milk as needed until you get creamy, smooth peaks. Add green onions and stir. Add black pepper to taste.
When satisfied with seasoning, stiffness and smoothness, scrape out into 13 x 8 inch rectangular baking dish, sprayed ahead with Pam. Even out your potatoes, then liberally sprinkle on the grated cheese. Top with paprika.
Cover and refrigerate.
On the day you are serving, cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes covered and for 30 minutes uncovered.

Each year, I struggle with whether or not to use the good china or our everyday dishes, the silver or our stainless steel.

For small groups (less than 10), I use our china, with children under first grade eating off the everyday dishes. Since I only have 10 place settings, we have to start combining dinnerware with larger groups. I usually have the youngest people use the everyday ware (a seniority issue here, not a competence issue). But more than 15 people? Heck, let's bring out the melamine seasonal dishes from Target or Kohl's along with the everday dishes and serve buffet style because our dining room table doesn't expand to infinite proportions.

When our kids were little, we set up a separate children's table in the living room, using their little art table and child-sized chairs. Now that they are starting to reach larger and larger sizes, I am actually wondering what will happen in the coming years. We may need to go back to a separate table, or let them go buffet style after we say Grace. Teens really don't want to eat with anyway, do they?

I learned long ago from my mother-in-law that a nice light-weight black tablecloth does wonders for any table. It matches any place settings, is elegant and also coordinates nicely with the foods being served. To liven it up, I like a pretty--yet small--fall centerpiece in the middle of the table and small votive candles lit before we start serving.

Whether it is china or melamine, sterling silver or stainless, I have the table set the night before, with serving dishes and serving spoons laid out. We also have a large turkey platter that we received for a wedding gift 17 years ago. I use it every year, for Thanksgiving and Christmas. But most years, there is a wild hunt for the platter. "Where is it?" "Has anyone seen the turkey platter?" "Check the linen closet! Is it under your bed?" For a couple of years, it was missing completely, then suddenly reappeared. We like to blame the ghosts of past relatives playing jokes on us. Whether you have mischievous spirits in your home or not, you do not want a frantic hunt for a pivotal serving dish on Thanksgiving, as your gravy boils away to nothing.

Now that you've planned your meal, have your to-do list scheduled and delegated some cooking to other households, it is time to tackle the issue of what to do with your guests between the big, heavy meal and the dessert.

This depends on what time you are eating. Is it before, during or after most of the football games? Do you have an active crowd that should get outside and play their own football game? Be sure to have some coffee and alcohol ready for those who don't like football. Playing a movie on a second TV is a good option--or going for a walk if it is a nice day.

Older kids usually take care of themselves, dispersing into each others' rooms. Little ones might need that TV more than the football fans--or some time to play outside. SpongeBob, Disney movies, and the Peanuts all are great entertainment. Even adults love SpongeBob and Snoopy!

Finally, you might be able to round up non-football playing/watching, non-SpongeBob viewing guests to play an old fashioned board game or game of cards. This is a great time to bring out those old Trivial Pursuit games, Clue, or the newer Apples to Apples. And if no one is using the TV, toss around some Wii remotes and ski those calories off!