I’ve been hosting Thanksgiving for my family and friends in my home for the past 20 years. Year in and year out we all gather around my dining room table (which has changed numerous times throughout the years) to celebrate, scream, cry, give thanks and measure each others heads.
So I’m pretty well versed in all that is Thanksgiving dinner related. I like to think I put on a nice spread, but the fact that each family member brings a side dish means my role is mainly reduced to setting the table, turkey duty and keeping a soft measuring tape on hand.
Table of Contents
Thanksgiving Tips
- How to Carve a Turkey - Learn how to carve your turkey & reassemble it so it looks like it did before you put it in the oven. I use an old school electric knife.
- Make Pumpkin Pie from Real Pumpkin – Making pumpkin pie with a real pumpkin. WHAT a revelation. My favourite pie pans are dark. It helps with an even golden crust.
- Beautiful Centrepiece ideas just for Thanksgiving. – My best centrepiece ideas for Thanksgiving. Some easy & simple, others more difficult and elaborate.
- The Kids’ Table – Believe it or not kids like to have a grown up table, not a cutesy kiddie one. It makes them feel special and grown up.
- The Brussels Sprouts recipe for people who hate Brussels Sprouts.– The only way I’ll eat those gross little devil heads.
- Make potato pancakes – A delicious way to use up leftover mashed potatoes. And you should make those potatoes with a ricer. The cheap Fox run one is actually my favourite.
- Make gnocchi! – Don't love potato pancakes? Make gnocchi with your leftover mashed potatoes. You can use a gnocchi board, but a fork is fine.
- Make chicken/turkey broth – DO NOT THROW OUT THAT CARCASS. You can even pressure can it to use all year.
- Only the two fo you? Please don't let that stop you from doing it up. You're luckier than most because you're going to have a fridge and freezer full of delicious leftovers that all freeze well. (turkey, gravy, stuffing, cooked vegetables ...)
- Carve butter with a toothpick. This post has many more Thanksgiving tips.
Hosting your first Thanksgiving dinner?
Top Tip
Don't be fooled into thinking everything is going smoothly when you pull the turkey out and marvel at how everything came together so easily.
Thanksgiving dinners are notorious for this.
Potatoes are mashed, side dishes are done ... you think, it APPEARS as though it all came together easily.
Within 5 minutes you'll wonder what the hell happened. You're making gravy, the turkey is running juices everywhere, the stuffing needs to be removed, the bird carved, and yup ... you're going to forget to serve something.
Food Safety for Beginners
- A stuffed turkey takes longer to cook. Account for this.
- Do NOT stuff your turkey in advance. You can prepare the stuffing and put it in the fridge. When it's time to cook the turkey, stuff it then.
- Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C). That means the leg, breast AND the stuffing inside should be at least 165 °F (74 °C).
- Wash your hands after touching raw meat.
- Run & empty your dishwasher before people arrive so it's ready to fill again.
- Wine and/or beer is fine, you don't need a signature cocktail - cooking your first Thanksgiving dinner is going to be enough of a challenge.
I always get a little bit jealous of my American friends in November. Being Canadian we celebrate Thanksgiving in early to mid-October. The smells of delicious stuffing, crispy roasted bird and rich gravy are long gone by the time everyone in America is celebrating with their feasts.
Most years I get so envious I recreate a mini Thanksgiving dinner on American Thanksgiving for myself by cooking up a roast chicken dinner with stuffing, gravy and all the rest. Just to get me over the hump until Christmas you understand.
I draw the line at making a pumpkin pie for my secondary Thanksgiving dinner but one year I did manage to find a Krispy Kreme donut in the back of my freezer that was an adequate substitute. Actually it wasn’t adequate, but two Krispy Kreme donuts were.
2 years ago, due to a sudden death in the family, my niece and niece in law decided to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Neither of them cook. The highlight was the two of them discussing why the turkey wasn’t browning and throwing more and more seasoning on it. My brother in law wandering through the kitchen at one point witnessed this and informed them that they actually had to cook it for to to get brown. At least no one got food poisoning.
Lol! Had the opposite problem. One time on parents date night, it was the brothers turn to cook dinner for the kids and he put the biscuits in the oven for 24 hours instead of minutes! Luckily we noticed that the timer wasn't moving in time... Lol!
In my household, the day after Thanksgiving, leftover turkey is used for a delicious turkey biryani with pomegranate seeds and cilantro atop the one-dish concoction. Delicious and so far removed from traditional Thanksgiving flavors that one doesn’t mind eating turkey again the next day. (And yes, don’t waste the carcass! Frozen turkey broth comes in very handy.)
I love a pomegranate seed concoction! That sounds good. ~ karen
I have done the same thing ( mini thanksgiving) for years. The roast chicken, stuffing, etc…. people that I told would often think I was from the US. I watched the Macy’s parade, while decorating my tree, then roast chicken and trimmings for dinner! Great to know I’m not the only one!
We're like a gang! I didn't know anyone else did it either. We'll have to come up with a name and handshake. ~ karen!
I didn’t know that there was a cranberry sauce war but i’ll fire the first shot- ONLY from a can- NONE of this fresh cranberry/orange/onion/who knows what “ chutney” or whatever. Straight from the can.
Agreed, but my vote doesn't count since I don't really use it. ~ karen!
I popped over to read the head-measuring blog (so intriguing!). Found this invaluable gem: “ It’s a lot better to have your head measured than have it explode. “ great subtitle for your memoir.
Thanks for all the great info and encouragement over the years. Can’t wait to hear what living room furniture you toss in the front lawn next!
Yr faithful reader,
LyP
Thanks so much LyP! Oh boy I just got home from working in my big vegetable garden, the dog needs a bath and blow dry and the house is a disaster. I might just throw EVERYTHING on the front lawn. Monks have the right idea. The less you have the less you have to clean up and put away. ~ karen!
I am half Canadian (live in USA) and never thought to have a mini Thanksgiving in October. Thanks for the idea! And those brussels sprouts are at the top of the list.
I hate to admit it because my normal response to brussels sprouts is GACK but they really are good. ~ karen!
20 some years ago, I bought my turkey too late and ended up with one so large it wouldn't fit in my tiny turquoise 50's oven. Cue the emergency Julia Child deconstructed turkey. Now it's the only way. Benefits -- 1) you can make turkey stock for gravy in advance using the backbone. 2) Roast the breast over a giant mound of stuffing. Since the stuffing is in contact with the bottom of the pan, it gets hot enough to avoid salmonella poisoning. 3) The elegance of the thigh with stuffing slices, and the dark meat is not overcooked.
Turkey/chicken over the stuffing in a pan is GREAT. I've just started doing it this summer when I cook a roast chicken in my outdoor wood oven. ~ karen!
Amen!! Plus, when it's in pieces, you never embarrass yourself by serving meat that's just a tiny bit under or over cooked as you can take all the time you want. And you can have an attractive smaller platter of all dark meat and one of all white meat. (and yes!! the stock is made up ahead of time.) However, I usually serve the meat in big bowls of gravy so there's plenty of that and it can be heated up without the meat being dried out.
Years ago I decided to streamline my turkey dinner events (thanksgiving and Christmas) . I usually host a large number of guests due to my large family , 12-16 or so depending on everyone’s plans. I started making turkey pot pie. With a side of salad and stuffing and of course pickle beets. My sisters beets to be exact. It works perfectly,everything in one dish and easy cleanup .I can be part of the festivities ,I just stick everything in the oven. We all love it.
Are you still using my pot pie recipe? That's part of the reason I love doing the turkey, I get the leftovers for me to make my winter pot pies. It's also a way for me to mandatorily clean my house so that's a bonus too (I guess).😆 ~. karen!
Actually we have it fairly easy - there's usually only about 8 of us and because our son-in-law is allergic to poultry, I do a ham. Don't particularly like turkey anyway, so why bother with the mess and fuss. Seems like EVERYONE likes the sides I always make (they vary every year) because there's hardly ever any leftovers. Nobody likes pumpkin pie so I make a few other desserts - different every year. It's always a nice day for us.
Growing up in the 50's and 60's we knew that Turkey Day wasn't Turkey Day unil the croissants were burning in the oven. I will refrain from entering into the whole berry vs jelly cranberry sauce wars.
Sometimes my sister makes it from scratch, sometimes I blob out a jelly. Nobody seems to care one way or the other. ~ karen!
My families new tradition , came after a gluttonous thanksgiving feast was labored over for 8 hours and consumed in 10 minutes. When we looked up over our distended bellies and saw no one ate the turkey, we all admitted we actually don’t like turkey. The conversation turned to what do we actually like, PIE , was the answer. So now we make everything for Thanksgiving in pie form. Beef Wellington being the star player. Puff pastry and phyllo dough, corn flour crusts, crostata and quiches, tartlets, rice crusts, cookie crust, cheese crusts… are all on the table. We are once again excited about cooking all day together. For us, Thanksgiving is to give thanks and spend the day together, creating something wonderful to share. PIE, is it! Deb
You inspire me! I would eat everything in pie form if I could!
That's just sensible. ~ karen!
I spatchcock mine. I never have enough stuffing if I do it in the bird so I do mine in a crockpot. Spatchcocking just means you remove the backbone and lay the turkey flat onto a large pan, sitting on top of onions, carrots fennel… or nothing at all. It browns nicely, cooks more evenly and less mess. At the end you still have lots of carcass to make stock. Of course you need a really large pan or a smaller turkey, I have only done up to an 18lb bird this way.
I spatchcock chickens to cook in my wood oven, it's delicious. I mound a cast iron pan with all the stuffing then lay the spatchcocked chicken on top. Works perfectly! ~ karen!
Just a comment for those "newbie cooks" of Thanksgiving dinner. When I buy my turkey, I have the butcher cut it into parts (think chicken). The parts usually all fit into a foil covered 9"x13" pan, cook uniformly, and much faster, in its own juice. Add some butter and flour to the juice to make a delicious gravy. Easy Peasy. No messy cutting of a whole bird at the table and/or scooping stuffing out of that "cavity"! No basting! No watching! No problem! Pop that bird in the oven and then concentrate on the sides and dinner rolls. And maybe a glass or two of the bubbly of your choice.
Nope . Just nope
Ok Auntiepatch, this is brilliant! (Why have I never thought of this??) I'll be thinking of you in November when my meal comes off seamlessly! Thank you.