ColonelSpecial

What preparation do you do the day before?
My family goes to my aunt and uncle's for dinner. My family is in charge of desserts. We make the pies and dirt cake the day before. We also make cranberry salad (cranberry sauce, mandarin oranges and walnuts) the day before.
What time should guests arrive, so they're not sitting around watching you cook?
Watching the cooking is part of the appeal to me. We usually get there about 1 and eat about 6. Around 4:30 the finishing cooking starts. We cook and mash potatoes, make the creamed corn in a crock pot and put the rolls on the pan. When we take the turkey out about 5ish, one of us finish the potatoes, one of us makes the gravy, one of us puts the rolls in. More hands help in this case.
How do you serve the meal - does everything go on the table at once, do you set up a side table with a buffet, or do you serve courses?
We start by passing everything around at once and the put it on the buffet. One of us, usually me, is the designated passer of seconds.

The easiest way to a stress-free Thanksgiving is having your guests help. Have them bring a dish, appetizer, drink or dessert. This is what my family does and that means my aunt and uncle only have to make the turkey, stuffing and potatoes. It isn't too bad then! Plus, cooking is a good way to socialize.

Also, we all help clean up after dinner. That way, things are done and we can get on with playing poker without having to look at a mountain of dishes.

The one good story I can think of is when my cousin was mashing up something like 5 pounds of potatoes (large family to feed) with a hand mixer. This mixer was very old. It was a wedding gift for my aunt and uncle who were celebrating 30 years of marriage that year. My cousin was adding milk and butter and all of a sudden the mixer starts smoking. It did that for a minute and then tripped the breaker. We unplugged everything, turned the breaker back on and had to mash all 5 pounds of potatoes by hand. Fun times!

Not cooking related but several years ago, we were having Thanksgiving the day after because one of my cousins had to work at the hospital on Thanksgiving. I was working at a catalog data entry job and worked the day after. I got off work and started to drive the hour to dinner. I must have been going very fast and singing along to the radio because I saw red and blue lights in my rear view mirror. I was pulled over by a very nice highway patrolman. He said he clocked me going 95 when I pulled around him. I didn't even realize my car could go so fast! He asked where I was going and let me off with a warning and told me to have a good holiday. It would have been awful to show up to dinner with a ticket.

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