I admire those people who cook fifteen different dishes from their cookbook that was handed down for ages. I just don’t have the kitchen or frankly the patience to do that. I don’t mind doing a turkey (it’s really a snap) or things like sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, or green beans with pearl onions and bacon (three items on my list this year). People in my house like stuffing, but I hate to make it so (gasp!) it’s box stuffing for them. 🙂 Pies? I buy ’em. They are better than mine anyway. I do make a mean pumpkin cheesecake, but I think I’m gonna skip it this year (too unfriendly to my weight loss attempts). But really, with a bit of forethought, we can get most of these things done in a little over an hour of actual work time. They aren’t really all that complicated.
Over at Lifehacker, I thought it was amazing that somebody has produced an Excel template for planning your Thanksgiving cooking. Dear Lord, when cooking requires spreadsheets, maybe you should begin planning a potluck. 🙂
Two things:
This year we decided to let someone else do the cooking. We enjoyed an excellent Thanksgiving buffet at a restaurant that we had not visited before. The whole family enjoyed it and we ended up spending less than if we had prepared dinner at home.
Also, what’s with the cooking spreadsheet. That is just a little bit too much. Part of the enjoyment I get from cooking is taking a basic set of ingredients and seeing what I can come up with–without recipes. It ususally turns out OK. I have come up with several things that have become standards in our home.