Maybe have Whole Foods or some other place do the cooking @musicmom? I’d cue mom that NO ONE issued invitations to your place but YOU!
I’m so sorry, KKmama.
The Fang family was going to a friend’s house for a big Thanksgiving, but instead on the spur of the moment (sort of) we decided to fly cross-country to be with my family. This may be my mother’s last Thanksgiving, as she is 93 and in failing health.
I’m so excited to get together with Mom, four siblings and their spouses, plus nieces and nephews. We’ll have an orgy of cooking. Four kinds of pies will be made: pumpkin, apple, pecan and this delicious cranberry lemon tart: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017817-cranberry-curd-tart. Pure lard will be used in the pie crusts.
I used to get great packaged haricots at WF. But my other market former backup hasn’t bern sauteeing up as nicely. Cardboardy.
Pay no attention to my whining. I’m just feeling a little stressed right now. deep breath
Sweet potatoes at $0.39 per pound today at the supermarket. I bought five large ones. I guess that means they are on the menu, LOL.
Paper plates?
If we are successful with oven install this weekend, this is going to be my dessert:
I will probably go with the cream cheese filling because Mr. is not a fan of hazelnut anything.
^^ oh my, that is fancy! Let us know how it turns out.
I do all the cooking here - almost 30 people and other than dessert no one brings anything! I asked someone to bring mashed potatoes one year and was handed a bag of Bob Evans containers. Um, no. So now I just make everything- 2 turkeys ( cooked the day before ), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green beans almondine, a green salad with goat cheese, pecans,dried cranberries & balsamic, warm rolls, cranberry sauce, gravy and a couple simple apps.
I get a little crabby! A few more years of this and I’m done - someone else needs to host! But I am thankful for my extended family - I love them all dearly but would like some help!!!
@leftrightleft, one year I asked my sister to bring mashed potatoes and she brought a sack of potatoes. Then my mom peeled the potatoes and plugged up the garbage disposal with the peels. My husband spend thanksgiving dinner in the basement cleaning the potato peels out of the pipes!
@deb922 - Bob Evans doesn’t look so bad now-lol!
I hear you
I asked my Hs family to do mashed potatoes at one holiday and I got the famous jello salad (because Lord help us that there wasn’t going to be jello salad on the menu) and 2 boxes of instant mashed potatoes. Who serves instant powdered crap at a holiday meal???
Oops…sorry if that is one of your traditions
I would much rather cook my favorite dishes myself than to delegate it to someone else. And nothing is worse than someone offering to bring a dish and then bringing all the ingredients and planning to cook it in my kitchen. I’m sorry but all my burners and oven are already in use for the rest of the dinner.
What is spatchcocking a turkey?
@leftrightleft - laughing about the Bob Evans. My SIL offered to do stuffing one year and used the Stove Top stuffing from a box! Now we suggest she bring dessert.
Does anyone else have cole slaw? Not broccoli or a lighter asian slaw, but creamy, mayonnaise-y cabbage based cole slaw? We don’t actually eat much of it at dinner, but our favorite leftover is sandwiches of toast, turkey, and a heaping helping of cole slaw.
Wow this was such a nice thread til we got into the comments about those of us who (gasp) don’t make everything from scratch. I guess I’m the slacker mom – I have definitely served instant mashed potatoes, Stove Top stuffing, and gravy from a jar. I think it’s great if you can do it all from scratch and I’m sure it tastes four thousand percent better but for me, these shortcuts give me more time to spend with family and friends. IMO that’s the main point of Thanksgiving.
While I think that instant potatoes are sacrilege 
I am fine with bread cubes from packaged stuffing. I don’t make bread cubes for stuffing from scratch. How far does “scratch” go? Do I have to grow or get wheat from a farmer and make my own flour? JK. We all have shortcuts. Even @Consolation eats jellied cranberry, if I recall that correctly. 
Last year D wanted to try something different, so we ordered some items from Chef’d. The dressing was brioche based - so one would think you’d get a loaf of brioche. Nope! 18 individually wrapped pieces of brioche to make your own brioche cubes. It was more work to open the individual packages than to make my own brioche! (JK - just a little).
I made elaborate holiday meals for many years, mainly for the other Sabarays but included my mother, sister and her family. When I told them I was taking a break, they made their own plans which do not include me and haven’t for several years now. I don’t necessarily regret the time I spent preparing these feasts, but now knowing that’s all they cared about they’d probably be getting instant potatoes this time around!