I can’t imagine that I’m the only one staying home for thanksgiving. Or only having a meal for a few.
This year it’s only my husband and I. I’m sort of debating what to do. I’m not really finding a restaurant offering a menu that I like. No Whole Foods here to order a meal from. I thought about ordering from Blue Apron but I think you have to sign up for a plan to do that.
I do have plenty of bakeries to order dessert from lol
So should I make a turkey meal for just the two of us? Do I order a meal that doesn’t look great? Or should I call it a day and grill a steak?
What are your plans?
Since this is difficult could we please be sensitive to those of us who are just a few this year. I’m jealous of those of you who are having a houseful even if it’s less that usual. I’d like to hear from those who are basically alone or only a very few.
Two of us. Never really liked turkey. Green bean casserole shared on FaceTime with D’s at two different households. Probably with chicken & mashed potatoes. D’s wanted to do the green bean casserole idea.
We are only 3 this year, the same 3 we have been for the past 8 or so years.
I cook a Turkey breast and make homemade mashed potatoes, stuffing, roasted brussel sprouts (made in the air fryer), stuffed mushrooms, baked sweat potatoes, and shrimp oreganata. The gravy and cranberry sauce we get from a can. We enjoy our time together cooking the few days before and then eating for a few days after. We also basically eat all day on Thanksgiving - starting right after the parade and ending when we are completely stuffed.
I think you should make your traditional food (just in smaller quantities).
Just me and DH this year. He doesn’t like turkey, and I don’t like cranberry sauce, pumpkin anything, or most of what appears on most Thanksgiving tables, so we’re looking at this as an opportunity to make a feast of our favorite foods. We thought we were going to skip the whole thing, but our favorite part of any holiday is preparing the food and it would be too sad not to be in the kitchen on TG, music playing, beverages flowing. So far, this is what we’re planning:
My in-laws have been just the 2 of them for several years and they order (and rave about) the Thanksgiving dinner from Wegmans. Not sure if they have a store near you but I would order that for us if we had a store closer than 3 hours away!
You could do a turkey breast or even a roast chicken and as many of the traditional sides as you wanted. Stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberries, gravy and rolls would be I would choose but do what you like.
It will just be the two of us; we will video meal with our son. Thanksgiving makes a year since we were last together in person :(.
We are ordering a gourmet traditional turkey meal to go from a local upscale restaurant (one of Brian Malarkey’s places, if you’re a Top Chef fan). I’m picky about what goes into stuffing so had to contact several places to narrow down the options.
Husband also wants us to make my cranberry baked Brie, butternut squash soup with creme fraiche, and Lawry’s creamed corn (recipe from the Chicago restaurant). I will break out one of my last three bottles of German white wine that I got from a local import shop, now permanently closed.
My mom and stepfather (understandably) didn’t want to join our very scaled down six person Thanksgiving. I got the two of them a turkey breast, potatoes, a vegetable, a box of stove top stuffing, applesauce, and gravy. We’ll FaceTime during the day. It won’t be the same but safety is paramount.
It’s just the 3 of use this year and since we like traditional Thanksgiving foods, we are doing what is our traditional menu. We will have WAY too much food but we plan to eat lots of leftovers. D will just be coming home from school a day or 2 before and likes to cook so it will be fun to do it all together. She hasn’t been home since early August and I’m really looking forward to it just being the 3 of us!
I haven’t cooked a full TG dinner in many years. There will just be two of us, but we are having a traditional TG dinner. I got a 12 pound turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce. Will make a sweet potato dish, mashed potatoes and some green veggie…we are thinking asparagus…I know…that doesn’t exactly fit. I’m baking a small pumpkin pie.
We figure 1/2 of that turkey will get frozen. The other half will get eaten TG day and as leftovers.
Setting the table with all the good linens and tableware.
Just the two of us here as well. We will still make the usual things but do more shortcuts than usual-Bob Evans mashed potatoes instead of the usual homemade mashed potatoes. Pepperidge Farm stuffing and will add celery and onion. Already bought everything including a small frozen Butterball turkey breast ( we usually would make a whole turkey if more people were involved), Heinz gravy,Ocean Spray whole bean cranberry sauce instead of homemade since it’s just the two of us. There has been so much talk about green bean casserole that I’m going to make it for the first time in decades! Mrs. Smith’s pumpkin pie and whipped cream for dessert . Keeping it simple but traditional. Lots of leftovers for Friday! Happy Thanksgiving!
I think you should so whatever sounds wonderful to you! If you are not a fan of traditional thanksgiving fare, make whatever you want! If you don’t like to cook, order ahead from Wegmans etc.
It is only the 4 of us and 2 of us are vegetarian. I like to cook and everyone has one “must” dish, so I am making a turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and something green for sure. And pumpkin pie. But I like eating leftovers for a few days.
However, if I did not like to cook, I would not think twice about ordering takeout or whatever.
Just 2 of us at home, but I’m cooking for 3 since we’ll put together a meal for S2 and drop it off to him (he lives with roommates so we don’t want to have him here).
We’ll have most of our usual: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, 2 vegs (haven’t decided what yet), pumpkin pie. Not everything will be made from scratch.
I’m not worried about too many leftovers. DH would be very disappointed if we didn’t have leftovers, plus we’ll send quite a bit to S2.
We got a free turkey from the grocery store, but none of us want it for thanksgiving. Right now it is just taking up room in the freezer. My daughter gets a free gift card from Honeybaked ham she’s giving us, and although we grew up on starch starch starch (potatoes stuffing rolls green bean casserole) on the TG table, we’ve learned it is much better to have a salad and Rachel Ray green beans and roasted Brussels sprouts. My mother makes really good cranberry sauce (I grew up NOT eating the jelly stuff in a can that was on the table).
My only disappointment is with 3 people there won’t be 4-5 kinds of pie for dessert (and breakfast and the weekend). I love pie.
Wow so many 2-4 “of us.” I live alone and kids can’t come. I am not going to cook anything different than I do any other day. Will probably have soup. Will Zoom with kids but food will not be discussed. It’s just one year. Everyone should do what they want.
Our local grocery store (part of a very local chain not a big one) has on display a boneless turkey breast wrapped around stuffing. I might get that or make some version of it myself. I don’t think I can get a turkey small enough for just the two of us. I could also just get a bone in breast and do the stuffing on the side. I’ll make cranberry sauce, cook some sweet potatoes. I’m thinking about putting a divider down the middle of the pie pan and making apple pie on one half and pecan on the other. We’ll do zoom with the family and probably play some board games. The green vegetable will probably be brussel sprouts.
We will be 4 rather than 16 so D and I have decided that we will make a scaled-down meal. I’ll get a 10-lb turkey (still need leftovers!), make extra garlicky-mashed potatoes, gravy, cider-glazed brussels sprouts, and roasted carrots. She wants to learn to make my grapefruit-cranberry sauce so we’ll make that together. We tend to eat late so we’ll have some champagne and cheese/crackers for lunch with perhaps some butternut squash soup. And in our family it’s really all about the pies but with just 4 of us I think we’ll cut it down to 2, probably. Usually we can have up to 5-6, just for variety! Zoom will be our friend to connect with the other 12!
