How This Minimalist Manages Thanksgiving Dinner
Executive summary: I’ve largely managed to avoid hosting for Thanksgiving, but when I do, I keep it as simple and casual as possible because spending days prepping in the kitchen is not how I want to spend my holiday!
This will be the 14th Thanksgiving my husband and I have had since we truly “struck it out on our own” after graduating college and getting married at 21. Before then, we were college students who went home to our parents for the holidays, but after graduating, becoming fully financially independent, and tying the knot, we were unquestionably a little household of our own (and paid taxes as such, ha!) A household that could host Thanksgiving dinner, but that by and large did not. While we were living in California, we’d visit our parents for the holidays, just as we did in college. When I went to grad school in Boston, there were always potlucks and school-organized dinners to attend (MBAs are a social bunch, after all). After we moved to New Jersey, my mother-in-law would fly out every year, and we’d host a single person for Thanksgiving, which doesn’t necessitate much extra food. Moving back to California, we found ourselves at my parents’ home again for the holidays. This year is the first that we didn’t feel like making the drive out to them, as our 1-year old hates car rides, especially extended ones (hey, I get it – sitting backwards makes me want to vomit too).
I’m like a turkey in headlights when I contemplate hosting for Thanksgiving, although I’ve attempted to de-stress and simplify the process by using my capsule pantry as a base to build upon.
What this year and the New Jersey years have in common is that we are making our own meal, instead of showing up to eat someone else’s. And every time, I choose the simplest recipes that approximate the traditional dishes found on a Thanksgiving table, and that adhere as much as possible to my capsule pantry (see it here), although special occasions mean I can throw the rules out for a bit. These are the kinds of recipes I tend to gravitate towards:
A (pre-cooked) turkey breast, as a whole butterball would take us till New Years to finish at our rate + Cranberry sauce (I do like to make this from scratch with only cranberries, honey, and orange juice stirred together on the stove. It can be made and stored days in advance)
A (pre-cooked) ham + A glaze or sauce, like a maple syrup mustard dip that can be mixed together in 5 seconds if I don’t feel like making a glaze that requires time in the oven
Green beans with olive oil, sautéed or blanched. Add onions and toasted pine nuts if I happen to have some around
Honey glazed carrots that can be cooked in advance, with the glaze mixed and added right before eating
Mashed potatoes only if I can find it pre-made in the store, which I gussy up by swirling in pesto (also store-bought)
Biscuits, dinner, or crescent rolls to throw in the oven if even ready-to-make stuffing is more work than I want to commit to
Pasta for the kids, maybe with peas and pesto or something equally inoffensive to those picky palates
Pumpkin pie, either made from scratch (a fun activity for the kids) or baked from frozen (easier on the parents). Can also be done in advance to give (me and the pie) time to chill
Depending on the number of diners and energy level of this cook, I may make most of these items or just a subset (consisting of one meat, one veggie, one starch, and one dessert raided from whatever junk food we have in the pantry). Some people get a kick out of making Thanksgiving dinner (or lunch, as that timing sometimes works better for the kids), but I’m not among them. At least, not when I’m on my own in the kitchen because hubby is on babysitting duty so our kids don’t burn the house down. Maybe one day I’ll want to do more, but in the 1.5 decades since forming our own household, I haven’t felt the urge. Instead, I’m all about the 80-20 rule we espouse in consulting: spend 20% of the effort to arrive at 80% of the result. That is what this minimalist considers a smart and simple solution for the tasty Thanksgiving table.
One example of a junk food pantry raid as a last-minute dessert are these ginger cookies that I turned into sandwiches with the addition of cream cheese frosting. Zero effort, infinite payoff!