The Best Way to an Easy Thanksgiving Dinner

When I was a newspaper food editor, every Thanksgiving was a challenge. What new way can we roast a turkey? What new recipes can we feature?

In fact, the reality is, when you’ve cooked as many Thanksgiving dinners as I have, you learn to rely on your tried-and-true performers. It’s the best way to ensure an easy Thanksgiving dinner.

That doesn’t mean I won’t introduce a new dish or two–I just won’t try to reinvent the whole meal, year after year.

Tip #1: Shop Early

Plan your menu early and begin grocery shopping for all the pantry ingredients a few weeks in advance. Nearer Thanksgiving, when the supermarket is bedlam, you’ll just be picking up perishables and your turkey.

Tip #2: Stick to a Set Menu

Codify your menu. I rely on certain well-loved family favorites from year to year. This saves time since, I can can speed through cooking those familiar recipes.

Tip #3: Make a Thanksgiving Cookbook

Make yourself a Thanksgiving cookbook. By that, I mean, gather all your recipes. Print any that you plan to make from websites, then photocopy the recipes you’ll use from your own cookbooks or magazines.

Hole-punch the recipes and put them into a folder, with index tabs for categories. Now you have everything you need in one place. Bonus points for putting those recipes in plastic sleeves.

I use the same homemade cookbook from year to year, adding more recipes as I develop new favorites, and discarding any that no longer appeal.

Tip #4: Make a Centerpiece that Works

As with my menu, I stick with the same table setting idea each year (unlike Christmas, when I do a different table setting each time). Instead of a florist, I visit the farmers market.

My go-to centerpiece is a table “runner” of produce–pumpkins, squash, apples, pears, pomegranates, persimmons, gourds, Indian corn…. Check out my Grandma’s Guide to Thanksgiving Table Setting, where I elaborate on how I pull the look together.

This centerpiece is simple, doable, and mostly edible afterwards.

Tip #5: Color-code your Shopping List

Make a master shopping list. Probably everyone groups ingredients by categories so they’re easy to find by location in the supermarket.

But here’s the extra thing I do: I color code the ingredients by recipe when I type up my list. That way, if, at the supermarket, a particular ingredient is found to be too expensive or unavailable, it’s easy to eliminate the dish from my menu. Steve, who is our master shopper, knows which ingredients NOT to buy by the recipe color.

If you run out of colors to identify each recipe you can do the rest using different color highlighters on your computer.

This may take a bit of time to do, but if the shopping list is your master, used from year to year, it’s well worth the investment.

Tip #6 Clean out the Fridge

You know your turkey is going to take a lot of space. Plus, you’ll need room to store the ingredients for the Thanksgiving dishes and the leftovers afterwards. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to shove more ingredients or dishes into an already-crowded fridge.

Tip #7 Encourage Child Labor

Last year Miss T, then nine, spent the night before Thanksgiving at our house, working with me to make pies, cranberry sauce, and setting the table. Not only was she a real help, it was a chance for me to teach her about cooking and setting the table, while we spent more quality time together.

Because it’s such a busy time in the kitchen, you can only take on a child who wants to help and who can follow instructions. It should be a fun opportunity–you don’t want it to be a chore for the child. Here’s how to make it work.

Tip #8: Set a Table Setting Staging Area

Gather everything for your table ahead of time. I put all my centerpiece ingredients, silverware, serving utensils, candleholders, etc. in a Costco cardboard tray so they’re all together and ready for setting the table.

This way, I know in advance if I need more candles, if the silverware needs polishing, or if I have enough napkins ironed. I also decide on my serving dishes and put post-its so I know what dish will be used for which food.

In addition, I have a staging area for ingredients along the back counter of my kitchen so I have everything at hand, without having to rummage through the pantry or spice rack as I’m cooking.

Tip #9 Have a Plan for Leftovers

I make sure to have plastic containers so guests can take home leftovers. Sometimes, our family will get together the next day and enjoy a post-Thanksgiving lunch of leftovers.

However, rich Thanksgiving flavors can get tired fast. Change it up by using the turkey to make Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches. Pickled vegetables, cucumber slices, and sprigs of cilantro give leftover turkey fresh appeal.

Here are some ways to use leftovers:

• 12 Turkey sandwiches — from international flavors to all-American favorites.
• Turkey porridge — a delicious rice soup that can be your breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Tip 10: Evaluate

After the meal, do a post mortem of the menu. Decide if any new dishes you tried are keepers. If a new dish didn’t work, eliminate it from the master shopping list now, so you are primed for next year.

My own big trial each year is the turkey. I keep experimenting with how to roast it for the best flavor and texture. I’ve tried brining–actually employing an old technique my mom used in Hawaii. But I don’t like the texture of a brined turkey.

One year I spatchcocked a large turkey and when butterflied out, I found it was way too big to fit the pan! (I had to cut it in half and roast each half separately.)

The past couple of years I’ve been dry-brining the turkey, which imparts the seasoning deep in the flesh. And, unless some new, better technique is discovered, I’ll probably do this again.

I’m getting excited about Thanksgiving, already. Aren’t you?

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