Getting an early start
 

Tomorrow I roast our 20# turkey. When it’s done, I wrap the entire roaster in a heavy blanket for about 30-60 minutes. Juices go into the meat and gives it great flavor. I’ll cut it up then reheat on Thursday with broth. Some family will come early and need to leave after we eat, so this frees me up to see more of them. A friend told me it’s not the same as turkey made that day but I’ve done it before and nobody said a peep about it. There’s plenty of other things to attend to on Thursday. May you all have a Blessed Day !

I too, cook my entire turkey dinner the day before and re-heat on Thursday. I did this for over 25 years when I was working just so I would have a day off as i worked on both Wednesday and
Fridays. Nobody complained and the food was always very good.

And as the old story goes, if anybody complains then they get to cook next time.

So true. My SF used to follow my mom while she was making dinner after he was retired giving her advice on how to cook. I suggested that when he did that to say, “It sounds like you have it covered” and leave the kitchen and let him finish dinner. She only had to do this a few times before he realized he was better off leaving her alone. :D

I put several small turkey breasts in my roaster and in about 2 hours they are done. I buy the other basic sides pre made from a caterer All I have to do is pop in oven to reheat. Put in pretty dish and serve. It's my holiday too so why should I be in the kitchen? When my kids were home I cooked daily, so being in the kitchen is not my idea of a holiday. I use all disposable dishware too. The pretty kind used at weddings I truly hate after meal clean up so try to not make any.

Coordinating the cooking of the bird and the other dishes is really the hardest part of the Thanksgiving meal. I mean you need the oven for all the other side dishes! I was just talking to my mom about this the other day as she is cooking this year and we agreed that she should cook the bird earlier in the day and it will be just fine later with all the warm side dishes and gravy. Work smarter not harder :-)

I've just looked at a number of sites that plan most all of the sides to be cooked the day before and heat them up before the meal. Looks like a good idea to me. I even saw a website that showed how to make the mashed potatoes the day before.

Since it is my job this year to make to different pies, the stuffing and the yams, I am doing them all today. We'll see if that frees up time for tomorrow. Tomorrow I have to help cook the turkey (19 lbs.) at my friend's house, so I'll be glad to do my cooking today.

As a chef that cooks for a lot of people at a time, we do all our turkeys days before and then reheat with stock and melted butter just before service in hotel pans. Always super juicy and tender and lots of time to work on everything else.

Watson

My job this year is to make the sauerkraut, the glazed carrots and the creamed spinach - I'll be doing that after work today and driving it all for 5 hours to the dinner tomorrow. It's so nice to just pop stuff into the microwave to reheat, isn't it? What on earth did we do before microwave ovens to reheat stuff!

My mom had a wallhanging with the following:
"Sit down to the table and have a look,
The first one complaining is the next meal's cook!"