Thanksgiving Schedule
My timing for getting Thanksgiving on the table by noon on the big day.
A must for me on Thanksgiving morning is watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I love seeing each float, the commentary and fun facts, the marching bands and the Broadway performances. I must be camped in front of the TV, cuddled between the kids, taking in the brilliant spectacle. When I look at planning for Thanksgiving Day, I want to prep enough to enjoy 9-10:30 from the couch, then post parade 10:30-12 spending dedicated time in the kitchen to get everything on the table.
I have decided a noon Thanksgiving is best for our family, I enjoy a light breakfast and being good and hungry at lunchtime. I do not serve appetizers with a noon meal, keeping the focus again on the full spread to come. A noon lunch opens up time for an afternoon walk, and leftovers for dinner, which is let’s be honest the best part of Thanksgiving Day.
A Simple Breakfast
The morning of Thanksgiving I will bust a loaf of sourdough of the freezer (thinking of pre-slicing a loaf for easy toasting), plain yogurt, berries, walnuts and honey for a simple build-your-own breakfast. Keeps the pressure off of the cook to also plan breakfast, and stay focused on the main event.
Leading up to Schedule
In order to have the slower paced Thanksgiving morning I hope to have, I pace out everything weeks in advance. There are a few dates on here that are in the past - the real idea is giving myself a task or two a weekend - some could be lumped into one weekend instead of two, it truly just comes down to how much time I have to dedicate to Thanksgiving that Saturday or Sunday. We do have one full size fridge and one mini fridge that I am able to leverage for storage, so you will see the fridges being used quite a bit (I keep the raw brining turkey in my mini fridge to separate my in process dishes as well).
Sunday, November 3
De-thaw bread pieces saved for stuffing, cube and refreeze.
Saturday, November 9
Make pie crust dough.
Roast pumpkin for pie, freeze.
Roll out pumpkin pie crust and shape into the pie dish, wrap in foil and freeze.
Make the full cherry pie, wrap in foil and freeze.
Saturday, November 16
Make sourdough rolls (fully baked), store in the pan or a bag and freeze.
Saturday, November 23
Put turkey in the fridge.
Chop pistachios.
Harvest, wash and de-stem kale. Chop it for salad and store in a paper towel lined bag.
Tuesday, November 26
Cut up turkey by separating the leg quarters and wings from the bird.
Make stock from the wings and giblets.
Make gravy.
Dry brine the dark meat according to the confit recipe.
Dry brine white meat in a roasting pan in the fridge (This can brine for up to 2 days).
Make cranberry sauce.
Make the kale salad dressing.
Prepare the pumpkin filling and bake the pumpkin pie.
Wednesday, November 27
Confit the dark meat, once cool store dutch oven in the fridge.
Bake the cherry pie.
Bake the sweet potatoes (do not add pistachios), store it in the fridge.
Prep the stuffing, do not bake it, store it in the fridge.
Prep green bean casserole (do not add onions), do not bake it, store it in the fridge.
Dethaw rolls by setting them out of the counter Wednesday night.
The Big Day’s Schedule
I break my schedule down from wake up to sitting down at the table. I try to plan for 9-10:30 for this to be the time items are baking in the oven for longer, so I can enjoy the parade.
The stuffing filled pumpkin is an experiment, so I am buffering my time there to trouble shoot if needed.
Some things will be room temp - white meat turkey can be warmed with a good drizzle of gravy or forkful of mashed potatoes, so I don’t look for this to be piping hot. I do ask for help - my husband Caleb is an amazing sous chef and we work well together preparing the meal.
7:15 Take the roasting pan of white meat out of the fridge to come to room temp.
7:15 Carve the pumpkin (may do this the night before if fridge space allows), bake it at 400 for 30 minutes until par-baked (it can be pierced with a fork, but still firm). Remove from oven, add cheese and stuffing, place back into the oven and bake for another 30 minutes.
7:30 peel and dice potatoes, place them in a pot of cold water on the stove.
8:30 bake Turkey at 450 for 30 minutes.
9:00 bake Turkey at 300 for 1 1/2-2 hours until breast registers 160 (cover in foil if browning too much)
9:00-10:30 parade!!
10:30 boil and mash potatoes. Put mashed potatoes into a baking dish to easily warm before serving.
10:30 make kale salad.
10:30-11:00 rest the turkey breast.
10:30 warm confit.
10:45 sear turkey confit and plate.
11:00 put green bean casserole and stuffing-filled pumpkin in at 400 and bake for 15-25 minutes.Â
11:30 carve white meat.
11:30 warm sweet potatoes, potatoes, gravy, rolls, corn.
12:00 eat!!!
Oh I cannot wait for Thanksgiving Day. I hope you each enjoy your own planning, and sharing the peek into my own approach gives some excitement or relief in your own planning. All the best :)