Thanksgiving How-To Questions

1)I've never put anything under our Turkey. No green.

2)google recipes. we make sweet potatoes on the stove top.

3)Stuffing can be baked ahead or made in the turkey.... do you have pumpkin pie and cranberries?

1. I don't think lettuce is a good idea, as I think it will wilt. For some color you can use cranberries, orange slices, grapes. My MIL used to serve the turkey with canned pears and peaches, which I thought was odd, but the bright orange of the peaches looks festive. You can even use apple slices, after you slice the apples, dip in lemon juice or apple juice to prevent browning.

2. What kind of sweet potatoes? You can bake yams at the same time the turkey is roasting. Also, remember the turkey needs to rest for 15 minutes before carving, so you can put them in the oven immediately after you take the turkey out. You can cook them ahead of time and keep cold, after you take the turkey out, warm in the oven. There's always the microwave.

3. There's nothing wrong with plastic cups and plates, but you may want to consider using real utensils. Do you have enough serving spoons? Are your guest bringing any dishes. If yes, do you have enough room in the fridge, if not, you may want to set up some coolers. If they're bringing hot dishes, to you have a warming tray or chaffing dish?

My husband just told me that Alton Brown (from the Food Network) says that the turkey should "rest" for 1 HOUR before carving it... that keeps the juices in the turkey, and the turkey is juicier.

Maybe that way, you could cook the turkey, THEN cook the sweet potatoes while the turkey is resting.

BTW... be sure to take out both the neck (in the body cavity) AND the bag of giblets.... true story... my first Thanksgiving, I was prepping the turkey, and found the neck.. and was so disappointed that we didn't get the giblets..... oh, well...

So... after the turkey was cooked, hubby was carving it... and the knife caught on something... it was the bag of giblets, neatly tucked into the NECK cavity!

OOPS!!!

1. A nice crisp green lettuce. Romain would be perfect, but I don't know what others use. Usually, those are cranberries.

2. I usually cook the turkey first since it takes a while, and prepare other dishes for baking while it cooks. When the turkey is done, cover it with foil, then a towel to keep in heat, you can reheat if needed after the sweet potatoes are done.

3. Sounds like you got it all! How about a pretty table cloth or an easy centerpiece? Maybe oven bags for the turkey if you cook it that way. We may be lazy, but we usually get heavy duty, pretty paper plates, so we can throw them away and have an easy clean up.

You can always ask a neighbor to borrow their oven. Or go buy a roasting oven at the store (external oven). Won't your guests bring other food that will need to be heated in the oven? - rolls, green bean casserole, etc? You could possibly use your crock pot to keep foods hot.

Gravy boat? Or will u use be serving yourselves stove-top?

plenty of salt and pepper shakers. Everyone likes their foods different flavor.

Cranberry sauce. you may not like it but some others will be counting on it.

Reynolds Oven bag - they're great!

Do not use lettuce for the green. It will wilt. Use a vegetable such as Kale. Cherry tomatoes can add the red. Also, if you want to be fancier you can use pickled crab apples.

You can cook the sweet potatoes in the microwave or stove top. Cut in half, put in pan with an inch or so of water and steam until tender to the fork. Cool and peel. You can then either mash or slice and continue with your recipe.

If you're making candied sweet potatoes, put them in the oven when you take the turkey out. They'll heat thru and sugar and marshmallows will melt while the turkey rests.

Turkey needs to rest for 15-20 minutes before you try to carve it. You can also use the pan juices to make gravy while it rests.

You've got lots of great advice so far, but I wanted to add a couple of suggestions:

Flag the pages of the cookbook(s) you are using. Quick reference always gives me more confidence.

Make a schedule, and set an alarm. For instance, we serve the turkey at 1pm. So, my schedule starts with 8am - turkey in roaster, turn on to (?) degrees (I'm not doing it this year :( so please forgive my being a bit non-specific); and so on and so on with every dish - otherwise, I would personally forget to, say, bake the sweet potatoes (although as far as that goes, you can actually halfway boil them the day before, and then just add the sugar and whatnot the next day when you warm them in the oven. My mom loves sweet potatoes, and she couldn't tell that I had done this! If they get too soft, you can serve them mashed with the sugar, etc - it'll be "unique" and "different!" but still taste good - google this - mashed sweet potatoes with syrup - they're good)

You can cut all of your veggies for the stuffing and otherwise - carrots, onions, celery, apples, potatoes, whatever (although, store the potoatoes and apples in bowls of water so they don't brown) - the day before and stick them in the fridge. On the actual day, your prep work will basically consist of just putting stuff in the oven/pan at the right time.

I will add one more thing: congratulations on this rite of passage! Take a deep breath, and keep your sense of humor - you'll do great!

Kale is pretty and you could use cranberries for the pop.
Think about buying a roaster over - less than $50 and they are on sale now. You can cook the turkey in that and have the oven free for everything else.
don't forget drinks!

One other thing I'd add, in case you are making a LOT of turkey, and plan to send home leftovers, get some cheap Ziplock storage containers (the cheap tupperware kind), and send leftovers home with your guests!

Another thing is that with all the carb-heavy food, sometimes it's nice to have a simple green vegetable - roasted brusselssprouts with bacon, steamed green beans, etc.