Thanksgiving Game Plan

I never skimp on Thanksgiving. It is the one meal every year that we get to be frivolous and have gorge on high fat, higher carb, sugary, buttery greatness. Just thinking about it makes my heart skip a beat...of course that could be my heart gearing up for a clogged artery, but it should be worth it. To make up for the expense of this high cost meal, I am going try to look at the meal plan for Thanksgiving and the following four days. By doing this I should be able to avoid spending too much more than I normally do on any other week. This is my game plan.

1.) Nail down how many guests I am feeding and for how long. This is going to allow you to make sure that you have enough plates, forks, and glasses, without having to buy disposable ones. I truly believe there is nothing more depressing that eating expensive food on styrofoam plates

2.) Write down every dish that my guests and I want to have, and include a list of the ingredients that each dish requires. FlyLady.net has an awesome control journal that I use for this purpose every year. It really saves me from finding myself driving 20 miles to the one gas station that's open on Thanksgiving and spending 7 bucks on a small tub of sour cream. And yes, I have done that in the past.

3.) Think of how big each casserole dish needs to be for each item. Doing this in advance gives me time to call mom and ask if you can borrow one of hers. Doing this now keeps me from spending extra money on those flimsy disposable pans, and no more making pans out of tin foil when I figure out that the pan I wanted to use is in the garage with paint stains on it (again, thank you FlyLady!).

Then, for the shopping...

1.) I try to figure out which will require name brands, like the shoe peg corn that I can only ever find in the Green Giant brand, and which ingredients can be generic brands, like the canned green beans in my awesome green bean casserole (and lets face it, it's the sausage that makes the green bean casserole awesome). 

2.) Buy enough to eat for several days. Everyone expects to have leftover turkey the next day, but I try cook enough to eat Thanksgiving for atleast two days after the actual meal, and then to make soup on the third day following. That means that we cook on Thursday (Thanksgiving day) and then eat leftovers Friday and Saturday, and make soup with the dregs of the meal on Sunday. By Monday, my fridge is clear of any straggler casseroles and turkey carcasses and I can start Monday with a clean slate.

3.) I always make sure that I get a few loaves of bread to freeze for the ham and turkey sandwiches, and I want to buy extra potatoes and frozen veggies for the soup. Fixings for a salad and a loaf of french bread will help to make the soup stretch out through Monday. (That way, you don't have to worry about dinner on your first day back to work, and you can spend the time shopping online, right?)

I have a lot of new people in my family and have found out that they prefer some things cooked a little different than I do. I have actually been told that I won't have to cook the entire meal...though that actually makes me a little sad. I LOVE cooking at Thanksgiving! Hopefully, things go smoothly. My next goal is going to be figuring out how to cram 12 people into my one bathroom house...maybe a picnic table outside for the kids would be helpful. Wish me luck!