Cooking your first Thanksgiving feast? I might have some help for you!
Update: I was going to choose two winners of the McCormick spice kits today, but nobody who left a comment on this entry said they needed them. So I’m going to revise this a bit and ask, does anybody actually WANT them? If you would like to have one, please leave a comment. I’ll include those who have already left comments and will give this contest a bit more time – until noon on Tuesday. Thanks. End update.
I remember the first time I hosted Thanksgiving dinner at my house. After experiencing what was essentially the same wonderful gathering with my family every year since I was old enough to remember, I felt so out of sorts. But I also felt excited, because I was proud to show off my home and set a beautiful table for our mixed group of guests.
I was lucky that my dad was there to help me with the turkey, which was an expensive local bird I certainly didn’t want to screw up. I was also lucky that some of my guests brought side dishes, but it was still left to me to cook the bird, make mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and a few other accoutrements.
If this will be your first time cooking Thanksgiving dinner, I’d like to offer a little help:
1. For advice on how to brine and cook your bird, check out these archived blog entries here and here.
2. If you want to know how to make what is, in my opinion, some really awesome stuffing, click here.
3. You can also search the PlateUp recipe database for all sorts of recipes for side dishes and dessert.
4. Finally, if you are lacking some of the seasonings needed for the big dinner, I’ve got TWO nice Thanksgiving dinner kits from McCormick that I’m going to give away right now.
These kits include rubbed sage and poultry seasoning for your turkey and stuffing, ground cinnamon and ground ginger for your sweet dishes, a packet of turkey gravy mix (gravy, crazy enough, is sometimes the one thing you’re waiting for when everything else is done), and a bottle of peppermint extract to give you a head start on your holiday cookie planning.
To enter to win these kits, please leave me a comment and tell me why you desperately need some holiday help. I’ll choose two winners on Monday based on the merit of the comments. Meanwhile, check out this recipe for Double Chocolate Chunk Mint Cookies. I’m trying to figure out what to take to a cookie exchange this year… these might be the ticket!
Have a great weekend! Don’t forget that I’ll be at the Stocked Market on Saturday, so come by and see me.
November 11, 2011 - 6:13 AM
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I really could have used some help on my first Thanksgiving…I had only been married a week when my then husband decided to invite his friends for dinner. I had never cooked a turkey in my life. Surprisingly, the turkey didn’t turn out bad but while I tried to transfer it from roaster to plate, it fell to the floor…Well no need to carve that bird…LOL Since then I have become much better with that bird.
Many years ago, in 2004 I believe, it was also the first Thanksgiving my wife and I had since getting married. We were cooking the meal at our house at the time, and taking it to her parent’s house, about 15 minutes away. We cooked in our place because we had a larger kitchen that was easier to use, and they were cooking several items as well. Our biggest part was the turkey, and since it was just the 4 of us, we went with a turkey breast rather than a whole bird. It came out of the oven looking beautiful…well seasoned, cooked, and still very juicy. So, we work on transferring it to the transport container and thud…the container and the bird hit the floor. We were mortified, but we put it back into the container, gave it a healthy look over to make sure nothing unseemly got stuck to the turkey, brushed it off and put on a new coating of seasoning…and went on our way. We never mentioned what happened…and we were complimented that it was the best Thanksgiving turkey they had ever eaten (they still haven’t had my smoked turkey…yet). We never told them, and never will…
I need to add that it definitely was 2004…I’m still not quite fully awake today! And since then, we’ve gotten much more adept at careful transfers of finished turkeys to their serving platters. It was one heck of a learning experience to be sure.
This year we’ll be hosting them in our home for Thanksgiving, and since it’ll just be the 4 of us again, I’m strongly considering another turkey breast as compared to a whole bird…because I can fit that on our portable charcoal grill that I can use to smoke things with.
Next year though, I go all-out on a charcoal/wood combination grill/smoker.
Now, for advice on the meal itself…one of the biggest helping ideas we’ve done is pre-cooking as much of the meal as we can manage the day before. We make a lot of the sides, the pies, etc on Wednesday evening and keep them in the fridge overnight. Then come Thanksgiving Day, we have the turkey to cook, some fresh bread, and minor things like gravy to prepare…while things like mashed potatoes and stuffing get re-heated, pies get set out, and veggies go from freezer to microwave to heat up. It makes the stress a whole lot lower, makes coordinating the finishing times of the entire meal MUCH easier, and clean-up is already more than halfway done.
Another thing we’ve done is use compostable/biodegradable plates and flatware so there’s no serving dishes to clean up…just the stuff used to cook the meal. That makes it a snap after the fact, when you’re fighting off a turkey-induced coma!
OJ, do your relatives read this blog? If so you are busted! LOL. That reminds me of a time my mom baked a birthday cake for Dad and left it on the stove top to cool. We later found that one of the cats had licked some of the top crust layer off. She shaved that part off with a knife and frosted it anyway. I think it was years before we told Dad.
Thanks for the great tips about de-stressing the holiday meal prep. Great ideas.
I want to confirm what OJ said – precook everything you can. Have as much set up beforehand as possible. I’m normally the King of Wing It, but preplanning and pre-everything else is a major part of having everything go smoothly.
Lindsey, I’ll never forget a certain WDBJ-7 Thanksgiving Dinner we had for those who were working on the holiday. A certain weather girl had the holiday staffers over for an early dinner, her first Thanksgiving at her place. We were going to eat at noon, and all be ready to work by 2:00 to prepare for the newscast.
Only problem is, she thought starting her turkey at 11:a.m. and giving it one hour in the oven would be plenty of time. I think we all ate out of the vending machine at work that day!
Since 1972, we have shared Thanksgiving with our best friends. This tradition started when we lived beside each other, we all four worked, lived away from families, and had to work on the Friday after. We have never missed one together, raised families and moved several times (work related). As a result, we have had Thanksgiving in 14 different homes,10 different cities and in five states. There was always four and at times as many as eight of us. We look forward to grandchildren joining and continuing this tradition. Obviously, there a lot of memories, but the funniest was when the wives boiled the bones, etc to make a wonderful broth, poured the contents in the colander in the sink, then looked at each other and laughed – they forgot to put a container under the colander. We have always stuck to the basic Thanksgiving meal, but probably most enjoyed item is the turkey, dressing and cranberry sandwich on Friday.
Lindsey, I don’t think so…hopefully they don’t!
I don;t recall if we just stumbled onto the stress-busting tips on our own, or if I got them from family, but they work. It also gives more time for watching the football, which as a Lions fan…is a staple of the day like the turkey or homemade pie.
And glad to know we’re not the only ones who have done a kitchen cover-up…
A few weeks ago, I was preparing chicken for the grill and I had the breast cuts sitting on a plate with the spice rub, while I raked the coals down to start cooking. I wasn’t outside for a minute, and when I returned, one of our cats was on the counter, licking the chicken. She ran off when I came back in. I figured it was no harm, no foul (no pun intended) since it wasn’t yet cooked, so I wiped that part off, re-seasoned it, and let the flames take care of the rest. And just the day before, I had remarked at how well-behaved our cats were about not jumping on the counters…
Agree with OJ on the prep thing. Anything that can be peeled, chopped, steamed, parboiled or otherwise addressed ahead of time will make your life infinitely easier on the day itself.
One of my biggest tips for any holiday dinner is to make sure the food is far enough back from the edge of the counter that the dogs cannot reach it! In the rush of things I have forgotten this several times, and have had to scoop out and rearrange potatoes au gratin in the dish, and re-bundle asparagus wrapped in proscuitto because several were eaten!! Needless to say our pooch likes her holiday dinners too!
Maria’s advice is good for every day, not just holidays.
Last week, while I was busy making grilled cheese sandwiches, a few spare slices of muenster cheese that I left too close to the edge of the counter just DISAPPEARED.
One tall, needle-nosed hound looked very pleased with herself while one short, stubby terrier was chewing on the paper from between the slices.
It’s funny, when I’m working with chicken I suddenly have two new furry friends. Both cats hate the smell of onions, so a freshly-cut onion on the counter is about the only way to keep them away.
Hi Lindsey! We’d LOVE to have one of those McCormick kits! We’re (my wife) going to cook T’Giving dinner at home for the first time in a while and I don’t think that she has everything here that she will need. SO, we could put that kit to good use here! Thanks!
Lindsey, It was a pleasure to meet you at the Stocked Market on Saturday.
I have quickly thumbed through my new cookbook and have seen some recipes that I will be trying very soon.
I am so spice challenged, I would love to have the spices and always appreciate the tips and info I pick here! Doing a vegetarian Thanksgiving is a challenge all by itself.
Sandi…I wouldn;t think it would be too terribly challenging, since realistically the only dish needing to be replaced would be the turkey. Ok, that’s a big hole to fill, but the rest of the meal would still be largely the same! So, what do you use to replace the turkey anyway?
BTW, we got our turkeys yesterday at Kroger…about $7-8 a piece with their current sale of $0.59/lb with a $25 purchase. We divided the order up to get 2 birds…and could have gotten a third if we wanted. That’s a great sale. Food Lion is running a similar deal too, but with a $35 purchase.
Yes! I really need spices. I don’t know what to use even after all these years of cooking.
Why didn’t I find this wonderful article sooner?? I’m making my very first Thanksgiving dinner this year and could use a kit like that to make it easier. ^^ I’m in a panic and looking up all sorts of things for help!
As I was researching How to cook your first Thanksgiving meal I stumbled upon your advice
This will be my first year holding Thanksgiving what a terrifying and exciting event! I decided to hold Thanksgiving at my house this year because we just moved to a new home and we have a 17 month old little girl. I thought hey I can show off my new house and I don’t have to run around everywhich way to meet family. What I didn’t think about is all the preperation that really goes into cooking a Thanksgiving meal ahh help! So of course I turned to the internet to find the best advice for your first time cooking a Thanksgiving meal. Have I mentioned I have never cooked a turkey before YIKES! So this is my official cry for help what have I really got myself into!! I could desperatly use some seasoning mixes that you know would make my Thanksgiving a success 
Thanks for all your great advice as well. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!