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The most celebrated meal of the year shouldn't also be the most nerve-racking. Prepare to be prepared with updated classics, no-bake desserts, and more in our Thanksgiving 2015 guide.
The hours between when your guests arrive and when the turkey hits the table might just be everyone’s favorite part of the day. Here are 20 smart ways to kick-start your meal.
How many times have you starved yourself before Thanksgiving only to find that you eat way too much when the actual feast rolls around? (Not to mention that you’re grouchier and more susceptible to those predinner cocktails.) Skip lunch if you like, but do everyone a favor and make yourself some cheesy scrambled eggs with bacon, avocado toast, or oatmeal the morning of. We promise you won’t run out of room.
Kitchen prep can be all yours, but don’t forget to delegate other tasks. Ask the kids to draw place cards for the table. (That way they won’t sneak pie before dinner.) Everyone helps, everyone wins.
Charades, gin rummy, touch football, Scrabble, Balderdash, soccer, kick the can, Catch Phrase (there’s an app for that!), Cards Against Humanity (or Apples to Apples if Grandma can’t handle it): There’s nothing like some good old-fashioned competitiveness to stimulate the appetite.
Can it be a party without dip? No! But for this special meal, ranch or blue cheese ain’t going to cut it. Try our Lemony Smoked Trout Dip and serve it with our favorite crackers (see #5).
You know what you absolutely don’t have time to think about right now? Which of the 10,000 varieties of crackers at the store are going in your
cart. Fortunately, we’ve made the choice for you: Carr’s Table Water Crackers. Delicately crispy, plain without being bland, they’re a good platform for just about anything on your hors d’oeuvres board—and aren’t compelling enough solo to risk snacking on their own (looking at you, Ritz and Triscuits).
You remember the opening Thanksgiving scene in Hannah and Her Sisters? Take it from Woody Allen: A big family meal is no place for challenging your in-law who doesn’t believe in climate change or rehashing the juicy details of your hot date last Saturday. Get all that stuff out in one-on-one conversations beforehand, and restrict the dinner-table topics to your last vacation, the weather, and how Mom’s sweet potatoes really are the best on the planet (even if they are not!).
You want a drink in hand and perhaps a slight buzz, but getting blitzed before the meal is just bad form. Our Sherry-Tonic Punch is flavorful but low-octane, guaranteeing hours of easy-breezy sipping.
Because when all else fails, nothing says party like a bottle of bubbly.
By now your fridge looks like a round of Tetris—perfectly, precariously organized, without a millimeter of space to spare. Which is why you need to put all of your drinks in a separate fridge or a cooler filled with ice. Because if your thirsty mother-in-law spills your turkey stock looking for cold Pinot Grigio, things could get really ugly really fast.
Can’t find your uncles? They’re over by the cheese plate. Always. So be strategic about your nosh placement. Don’t want people crowding the kitchen? Then don’t put the nuts there! Spreading out snacks in a few places both encourages movement and keeps your guests right where you want them—and not where you don’t.
It’s not who starts, it’s who finishes. In other words, keep your eyes on the prize—stuffing!—and don’t overload company with carbs before the main event. On this day, they are the enemy. Forgo the baguette and the pigs in blankets but do try one (okay, two) of our Seeded Buckwheat Grissini with Parmesan, a.k.a. killer breadsticks.
You can discipline the kids all day, or you can create an oasis for them, a place where they can build with Legos, watch cartoons, color, or, you know, just be kids. As for the adults, you may hate football, but someone coming over will definitely need to watch the game, so put it on someplace where the sports fans can gather.
Not only does a little cardio exercise make you feel better about the quantity of mashed potatoes you’ll inevitably consume, but it’s the best way to connect with dear old Dad and get a breather from the crazy full-on family situation.
You could open a can of store-bought mixed nuts and the world would not come to an end. Or you could show everyone you care by making these Sweet-and-Spicy Mixed Nuts.
It’s not just about the food. Set the table the night before. (Never wait until the last minute.) Wash china and wine glasses. Pull down all of the serving platters and bowls and decide what food goes where. Figure out the perfect locations for your candlesticks. It’s probably the most dressed-up
your table will get all year, so really turn it out.
Eat your veggies. Not the kind you’d pack in a fourth-grader’s lunch (no baby carrots, thank you very much), but rather these Pickled Vegetable Lettuce Cups.
Give the kids something fun to drink—San Pellegrino sodas or some fruit-juice spritzers. It makes them feel special, too.
By arranging eight nubbins of fatty dairy on a plate, you’re inviting your guests to (yeah, you guessed it) try all eight and then—oh, why not?—have another piece of that one, and that one…. You get the picture. It’s an appetite deathtrap. So serve cheese, but follow these rules. Buy one small, whole wheel of cheese (3–4 pounds should do it), because whole anything says festive. Something hard, salty, bold—the kind you nibble, not the kind you schmear. And make it American because, well, they don’t celebrate Turkey Day in Savoie. Our pick? The nutty Manchego-esque San Andreas from Bellwether Farms in California ($33 per lb.).
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