Thanksgiving Dinner: Menu Plan

If you love cooking, putting together a plan for your Thanksgiving Dinner menu can be a great start to the holiday season. On the other hand, if you hate cooking, your plan consists of either making a restaurant reservation or ordering the entire menu, appetizers to pumpkin pie, from one of the services so eager to do that for you.

Let's assume you love cooking and go from there.

Start with the basic outline of the feast. Roast turkey will be the centerpiece, of course, with some sort of stuffing (a.k.a. dressing) and gravy on the side. A second type of stuffing is a good idea if you are feeding an army with many different expectations. Then create a check list for the rest of the meal:

Appetizers --  Couldn't be easier. Ask a guest to bring a cheese ball and crackers, or whatever. Maybe Cousin Rita just took a cooking class at Williams-Sonoma and will offer her Curried Pumpkin Chowder. But if she doesn't, no worries. Honestly, everyone prefers a cheese ball.

Optional green salad  --  Who looks forward to a green salad for Thanksgiving? But if a guest offers to bring tossed greens, or more likely, a gelatin mold to set on those greens, you won't refuse.

Bread -- You could show off your freshly baked Daily Bread or hearty Oatmeal Bread. Alternatively, you can save your energy for trussing the bird and ask your bachelor uncle to bring brown-and-serve rolls.

Main course -- You're already roasting the turkey. Now plan the side dishes according to color:

White potatoes / Sweet potatoes  Either of these can be rubbed with olive oil and salt and baked whole alongside the turkey, while the other can be mashed or whipped and combined with something; butter, garlic and cheese for whites; butter, pineapple and walnuts for sweets.

Green / Yellow / Orange Vegetables: one of each color.

Green: Green beans, asparagus, broccoli, spinach or other greens, Brussels sprouts or cabbage.

Yellow: Corn in some form: on the cob, creamed, pudding, or with butter and onions or chile peppers OR yellow zucchini squash, acorn or other yellow squash. We'll also include onions or cauliflower here.

Orange: Carrots in any form, along with any of the orange squashes such as butternut and pumpkin. If you already have a sweet potato casserole (above) that can count here.
 

Red Relishes: This is cranberry relish, of course, which comes in many varieties. My husband's favorite is Mother Stanford's Cranberry Relish, which is a close approximation (and misspelling!) of Susan Stamberg's cranberry relish of National Public Radio fame. The simplest possible cranberry relish is found on the back of the Ocean Spray fresh cranberry package and here.  

Dessert course -- Pumpkin Pie is the standard, and a second type of pie underscores the general feeling of abundance and pleasure. If Pumpkin Pie seems too mundane, Sweet Potato Pie is a  tradition in the American South that makes a nice alternative. It's also smart to have some fresh fruit on hand just in case someone suddenly remembers they are trying to lose weight and already feels the guilt from all that stuffing and green bean casserole. Fresh or frozen berries and peach slices, citrus sections and pineapple wedges could be combined with a splash of wine earlier in the week, ready to appear as you bring out the pies. Vanilla ice cream or a Zabaglione Sauce nicely top both the pie and the fruit, as would whipped cream, as long as it is actual whipped cream, not fluffed up chemicals.

Now that you have the general plan for dinner, figure out how many places you'll be setting and how many cooks plan to be there. Then contact those cooks and determine what they will contribute. If you have mutual history, that conversation might be: "Everyone will be expecting your pecan pie. Can we count on you to bring it this year?" Otherwise, a safer approach would be: "I'll be doing the turkey and dressing, of course, and Bob is bringing the brown-and-serve rolls. But we need a green vegetable, some sort of potato and a dessert. Which one of those would you like to bring?"
 

You want to give your victims guests a choice, so if they really don't want to cook, they can pick up a pie at the supermarket. But if you have someone coming whose sense of self-worth is based on her famous spinach souffle, you want to give her the opportunity to shine.

What if Aunt Ruth announces she is bringing Green Bean Casserole, and Grandmama is already committed to Spinach Souffle? Oh, dear, two green vegetables! No worries, variations on the plan make life more interesting. As long as Ruth and Grandmama are not BOTH bringing green beans, you're in good shape.