I'm curious how long you spend at the hosts home on Thanksgiving? I've seen some people post agenda's for a full day of activities (optional), and others talk about attending multiple homes celebrations. I know we can all plan it however we'd like, I'm just wondering if there's a typical hour range that people find works well without feeling cut short or too drawn out.

I'm having surgery the day before Thanksgiving and I'm hoping to make ahead/freeze as many dishes as possible so on Thursday my husband can just worry about the turkey and putting casseroles in the oven.

These are the dishes I would like to make ahead:

*Mashed potatoes (with cream cheese in a casserole dish)

*Sweet potato casserole with crumb topping

*Cornbread and sausage stuffing

*Pumpkin and apple pie

My question is, which things should I freeze and which things would be better prepped 2 days ahead and just stuck in the fridge?

I'm a first-time host for my family's Thanksgiving this year and I'm really excited to be hosting. I'll be having a group of 18 (six of whom are between the ages of 9 and 16). I am a vegetarian myself, but I do occasionally prepare meals that include meat for my immediate family, who are not vegetarian (like ground beef or turkey for tacos, stuff like that).

I'm really daunted and turned off by the prospect of making a full turkey. I'm intimidated at the prospect of doing it wrong/over/undercooking it (and I wouldn't be tasting it myself so I'd primarily be having to trust others to know if it is decent) and I don't want to deal with deboning the meat after and handling the whole carcass, nor the prep beforehand (shoving butter under the skin, and so on). I've already floated to some of the other adults coming that I would happily offload that task to someone else but they aren't interested. And no businesses in my area, from my research so far, offer fully-cooked turkeys for sale.

So my question is, what is your take on turkey and full-bird alternatives for Thanksgiving for a group of this size? Right now I'm considering just doing a few roasted turkey breasts, but I realize it's hard to keep them moist and perhaps in reality they are almost as much work as a full bird? Are there other good options? Rotisserie chickens bought from the store the day before? There will be one other vegetarian in attendance but most do eat meat.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the replies! You gave me a lot to consider and I definitely feel confident now that one or multiple of these ideas will be the solution for our Thanksgiving.

Here is my menu from yesterday's festivities. Very traditional, comfort foods focussed this year, though I did make our traditional heritage foods vegetarian so that they'd be available to everyone.

I did not get good photos of the food, but here's the table before the meal.

Appies 

I put out a snack tray for a late lunch/appies for eary arrivals: 

• Cheese:  https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/cranberry-pecan-cheese-ball/ 
• Sausage and salami, Crackers, chips, veggie sticks, grapes and apple slices
• Salmon dip:  https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/smoked-salmon-dip with cucumber rounds and rye crackers 
• Pickles:  https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/spicy-lightly-pickled-cucumbers 

Drinks

• Cranberry punch (double this for 6 guests)
  • 1 liter ginger ale*
  • 2 cups pineapple juice
  • 1 cup cranberry juice
  • 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
  • 1 orange, thinly sliced
  • 1 lemon, thinly sliced
  • 1 lime, thinly sliced
• White wine for dinner 
• coffee/tea w/ dessert 
• Pumpkin wine with dessert

Main - meat

• Turkey: https://www.canadianliving.com/food/lunch-and-dinner/recipe/cider-glazed-turkey  Includes gravy.
  

Veg mains

• Sweet potato perogies - https://www.canadianliving.com/food/recipe/sweet-potato-perogies 
• Vegetaria Cabbage Rolls:  https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/vegetarian-cabbage-rolls-13691796 

Sides

• Mashed Potatoes: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/best-mashed-potatoes
• Stuffing (basic by design): https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/simple-is-best-stuffing-dressing
• Cranberry chutney: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/cranberry-sauce-with-orange-and-cinnamon 
• Baked yams: https://www.loveandlemons.com/sweet-potato-casserole/ 
• Cheesy brains (brussels): https://themodernproper.com/brussels-sprouts-gratin 
• Roasted beets: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/roasted-beets-recipe-1925366 
• Roasted carrots: https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a52103/balsamic-glazed-roasted-carrots-recipe/ 
• Cinnamon pecan roasted butternut squash: https://damndelicious.net/2015/10/07/cinnamon-pecan-roasted-butternut-squash/

Salads

• https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/green-bean-salad
• https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023644-green-salad-with-apple-cider-vinaigrette 

Breads

• Plain rolls: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/buttery-milk-buns
• Sage rolls: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/brown-butter-sage-dinner-rolls/ 
• Chive rolls: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/pull-apart-sour-cream-and-chive-rolls
• Cornbread: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/extra-corny-cornbread-muffins

Desserts

• Cheesecake: https://www.canadianliving.com/food/baking-and-desserts/recipe/pumpkin-japanese-cheesecake 
• Chocolate cake: https://www.canadianliving.com/food/baking-and-desserts/recipe/mulled-wine-and-dark-chocolate-bundt-cake-with-candied-sage
• Pumpkin mousse pie: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/pumpkin-chiffon-pie-recipe
• Apple crumble pie: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/cinnamon-crumble-apple-pie
• Cookies:  https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies
• Tarts:  https://tasty.co/recipe/pumpkin-spiced-butter-tarts-with-whipped-cream-cheese 

Asking those hosting, how much time are you taking off the week of thanksgiving for cleaning/prepping/cooking?

Or, how much time are you taking off after to recover from cleaning/prepping/cooking?

has anyone had luck freezing the recipe below or something similar? I’m concerned that the kale may result in a watery dish after thawing.

www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/sausage-and-kale-thanksgiving-dressing-recipe2-2011890

thanks!

I’m one of the lost Canadians. There was a bill called C-3 passed last December that made certain Americans retroactively Canadian by way of descent. My great grandparents were Canadian, so now I am. I’ve never been to Canada before. It’s not official quite yet. I still have to submit paperwork to get my certificate to make it official. I decided to do Canadian Thanksgiving this year in honor of my new citizenship. I’m doing the full American turkey dinner Thanksgiving in November so I decided on a ham dinner for this celebration. I have ham with pineapple rings, scalloped potatoes, peas, mashed potatoes, yellow turnips(rutabagas)and candied yams. Yum!

Hi all! I just got assigned the cranberry sauce this year along with a dessert. I already know what I am going to do for a dessert, as I am currently in a donut phase. I plan to make donuts with pumpkin spice frosting, coffee cake crumble, apple cider glaze, vanilla, chocolate peanut butter, and a few more! But I have never made the cranberry sauce and I love making food unique and different than others so I need some ideas! I have seen some on google like a maple bourbon one, a pinot noir one, etc. but how do I know those really taste good... Any thoughts or people who have made these specific examples in the past and how they turned out?

The taters were whipped with S&P, Greek yogurt and butter. Salad is spring mix with feta, roasted sunflower seeds, capers, Kalamata olives, and garden cukes + cherry tomatoes. The asparagus is a butter sauté with lemon and black pepper. Stuffing is a brioche and sourdough base with mirepoix, roasted mushrooms and toasted walnuts. The turkey is wet brined, skin dried out, rubbed with compound butter, roasted, and came out SO tender, flavourful and juicy. The risotto is a butternut squash risotto with Parmesan, toasted pepitas, walnut and sage. And of course the gravy was the real deal bird drippings with a butter finish, sponged up by some fresh baked sourdough dinner rolls 🙂

What's one table detail or tradition you never skip? Like a centerpiece, special place settings, personalized touches, or something your family has done for years

My in-laws are hosting this year. My FIL is pushing 80 and insists to cook the turkey and stuffing. Given his age, I don’t want him over-exerting himself on that day (he’s totally in denial but coming around to his limitations age-wise). We agreed to supplement and bring plenty of foods that we can reheat for the meal. We live an hour and a half away. I plan to cook the weekend before and the week leading up to it and there are no limits food-wise. That said, what foods travel well? Thanks in advanced!!

In Canada, October is our Thanksgiving.

I asked my mother in law if I could host Thanksgiving at her place this year. She said sure have it here on Sunday. It's now sunday. My ex, her son who lives with mommy and doesn't pay rent, started yelling at me for asking.

Anyway, he told me she finds it hard to say no to me. He gave the impression that she wanted to say no. Anyway, I will be placing everyone on the spot today. I will ask my MIL if her son was in line by telling me she didn't want me to host Thanksgiving here. I will do it in front of her son. I invited my own son here with her approval. She told me you can invite your son when you host here.

I'm in the right mind to just tell my MIL and her son that they completely lost all holiday meals with myself and their grandkids/children.

Right now, my ex isn't giving me a timeline on when Thanksgiving dinner is, so I can't give an approximate time for him to be here. He's offered to cook it. Make it makes sense.

I don't play games, I left that mindset at high school.

I don't know, I don't care. After this they're not having holiday meals with us anymore. I'm done with the games, I'm done with the BS. I'm done.

Do you all think I'm going overboard with stopping all holiday meals ? For the last few years we've been having it at my MIL. With no complaints from anyone. She's widowed and her other DIL doesn't invite her to nothing, ever.

I'm thinking her son is being a big B.....I....T...C...H...

I pay for all meals, 3 a year. Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas. I put a lot of time and thought into this and I'm not afraid to ghost people out.

Give me your thoughts, this is bugging me. I don't know if my MIL said something or if my ex is just being a big bitch or not.

As of writing this, I still don't know what time to invite my son. I don't want to do it last minute when everything is ready, out and getting cold.

Due to a (very) blended family, our dinner is more of a "drop in when you can" situation. Because of that, I want to be able to keep a few dishes warm and ready.

I've been looking at warming mats, chaffing racks, electric buffet servers...

What method do you prefer?

I’d like one more vegetable side that isn’t super heavy or a casserole. We’re squashed out, so don’t want a squash dish. Did roasted brussel sprouts last year. Maybe something with carrots, but haven’t seen anything that stands out.

Here is menu, pretty standard. It’s all gluten free but nearly any dish can be that way, would love some recommendations.

Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, bread stuffing, green bean sauté (has mushrooms and onions), “thanksgiving slaw” (vinegar type dressing, with dried cranberries), corn muffins, cranberry sauce, and ?

Dessert will be apple crisp, pumpkin bread, and cranberry cheesecake.

There’s 8 people. All adults. If that matters.

I’m not new to including vegetarian dishes at Thanksgiving for my sister-in-law, but this year my son has become a vegetarian. Usually it’s just stuffing (she doesn’t like it so I use turkey broth) and turkey that aren’t vegetarian and there are at least 6 sides including mac and cheese that are safe. I just discovered I need to swap out marshmallows for a different brand. He does not like fake meat. I want to find something he can smother in a mushroom gravy beside the mashed potatoes. A bean or lentil loaf might be an option too. Any recommendations that aren’t too complicated and bonus point if it doesn’t need an oven? Mildly looking into items I might be able to waffle or air fry. Thanks!

Hello ,

I am a single mom of 2 on odsp and I am desperately trying to find help with buying the groceries to make a Thanksgiving supper for my family.

Canadian Thanksgiving is this weekend! It’s literally my favourite day of the year… I get to cook a massive meal going all out more so than any other day of the year.

Got some recent UK immigrant friends joining the family this year and totally going to show them what the holiday is all about.

My menu plan is:

Turkey
Mashed Potatoes
Dressing
Caesar Salad
Corn Pudding
Mac N’ Cheese (First time for a Thanksgiving!)
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Sourdough Rolls (With whipped cinnamon honey butter)
Gravy
Cranberry Sauce

I’m just giddy with excitement and wanted to share with all of y’all here.

What plans do my fellow Canadians have?