Preparing for an event as massive as Thanksgiving requires some dedication and planning. Whether you are going to prepare your food completely from scratch or only partially, you need to make sure you have enough time to get it all done and consider how many dishes need to use the oven, what can be prepped ahead of time and when you want dinner on the table. Large meals like Thanksgiving put a lot of stress on the cook, whether or not there are helpers in the kitchen. So make sure you write down your own game plan based on your recipes and the schedule of the day so you can be on top of everything.

It’s best to do as many things as possible in advance so you’re not trying to get everything done on Turkey Day. For starters, it’s nearly impossible to bake pies, the turkey and other side dishes all at once unless you’ve got a professional kitchen or a few neighbors are willing to lend you their ovens.

Because we live in Germany and Thanksgiving is not a holiday, we like to celebrate on Saturday with our friends. Sometimes you just have to be willing to bend a little and if your family just can’t make it work on Thursday, find a day that does work for you. That might even be a week early or late…it’s your time to spend with the family so make it whenever you can enjoy it.

By this time most of your house should be clean and decorated. Don’t wait until the last minute to dust everything or make luminaries for your front walk. DO give a once over with the vacuum and mop on Friday. And in our house, we need another vacuuming on Saturday morning to get rid of the evidence of dog.

This is my schedule for the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Yours may be a bit different depending on what you’re preparing. I literally wrote this all down as I assembled my recipes in order and wrote down my shopping list for the farmers market and the supermarket. Now I’m ready to bring on Thanksgiving! Well almost…need to bring out my fall decorations in the next few days and start sprucing the place up. Just found out our guest list grew from 6 to 8. I’m actually pretty excited about that since there should be tons of food and plenty of people at Thanksgiving…and I’m know for cooking way too much most of the time. Can’t let the folks go hungry! 😉

2 Days Before Thanksgiving

• Thaw your turkey in the fridge – If you’re using a fresh turkey, you might go pick it up on this day…or only 2 days before. I like to brine my bird for 24 hours (some prefer to do it up to 48, especially with frozen birds) so if you’re not going to do that, you can start this process later. If you forget, you can still quickly thaw your turkey by putting it in the sink with cold water (NOT warm) and you’ll need about 30 minutes thawing time for every pound of turkey.
• Make your game plan – By now you should have selected the recipes you will be using so now you need to make sure you know what is coming up and write down how much time each item will need to prepare and cook (especially if it needs to be baked in the oven.) I like to write mine out by hand every year and then save them to reference again. Also don’t forget your last minute shopping list for fresh items (buy everything else as far in advance as you can to beat the rush).

1 Day Before Thanksgiving

• Brine the turkey – This basically involves putting your turkey in a water bath for 24 hours (we do this in an electric cooler) with salt, pepper and whatever other spices you like. Here’s my turkey brine recipe along with how I make the turkey, without stuffing inside. It produces the most succulent, meat-falling-off-the-bone turkey EVAH! Take the neck and other innards and put them in a small pot, then cover with water. Boil th
• Make pie crusts and pies – Some years in the past I have gone all out and made multiple pumpkin pies plus a cheesecake. One of our friends is a die hard cheesecake fan and they’re not only easy but insanely delicious so I love making them. Plus you can freeze any leftover cheesecake if you need. 🙂 If you do make a cheesecake, remember that it needs to cool for 5-6 hours in the oven (to prevent cracking) so I always try to make this last.
• Put together something for breakfast that can just be shoved in the oven. I love to make cinnamon rolls the night before which only requires you shove them in the oven in the morning…and oh the smell! But if you’ve got a favorite breakfast casserole, do that instead. You could also recruit someone else to cook breakfast, but you might want all the counter space you can get on Go Day so having someone mixing things up and leaving a bunch of stuff behind would just make me insane.

Thanksgiving Day

• Make rolls – I use a recipe that I just love for sweet dinner rolls that can be started in the bread machine. The rolls need 3-4 hours to rise (thankfully your kitchen should be warm with all the activity and cooking going on) but they are very simple, only need about 15 minutes to bake and are just absolutely delicious.
• Mix together stuffing, peel carrots, prep corn and sweet potatoes, prep sprouts, make cranberry/currant relish, etc. – Whatever sides you are making, put together as much of them as you can before everyone arrives. If you can just have things in a pot or casserole dish ready to shove in the oven when the time comes, DO IT! You want to be able to enjoy your guests, not turn them into slaves or watch you start to melt down as you race around the kitchen.
• Set the table
• Cook the rest of the stuff in the last 30 minutes – Get the stuffing in the oven, cook all the fresh veggies like corn, sprouts and so on. And bake the rolls once the turkey in done since they only take about 10 minutes and you’ll want the bird to rest a little before you carve it.
• Feast!!