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Last week, I presented a recipe and timeline for turkey with stuffing and gravy. This week, I’ve built it out with all the sides. 

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This planner will help you set up a traditional-style feast for six.

It relies on advance planning, so that you have a better chance of enjoying the day yourself, rather than dropping from stress and exhaustion.

This Thanksgiving dinner is straight-up, Midwestern Americana. Rather than introduce twists or exoticisms, I kept it dead center, and focused on a well-made, homemade, from-scratch meal that is at the same time realistic for someone who works a day job.

Full disclosure: I am grateful beyond words to work in an extraordinarily civilized environment; we get the day before Thanksgiving as a holiday, and I use that as an all-important prep day. If I didn’t have that day off, I’d splurge and special-order a pie and/or rolls from a fantastic bakery.

Menu

Turkey with Stuffing and Gravy
Homemade Dinner Rolls
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans, Corn
Cranberry Sauce
Apple Pie

Click on each menu item above, for a recipe.
Scroll down the potatoes, beans, and corn, as well as a day-of schedule for them.

Months in Advance

Buy three bottles of white wine. You’ll need a half of a bottle of wine for the turkey. The rest you’ll serve with dinner.

Weeks in Advance

A 12-lb turkey should feed six big eaters and still provide at least some leftovers, but you’ll probably find a 14-lb bird easier to come by, and in the true spirit of Thanksgiving, it’s better to err on the side of excess. I’ve had great results with Butterballs.

What to Buy

• 1 whole turkey (frozen), 14 lbs
• 4 oz. dried sour cherries
• 1 large bag (28.8 oz.) frozen corn
• 1 large bag (2 lbs) fresh cranberries

What to Do

Have your knives professionally sharpened. Don’t roll your eyes at me. It’s an inexpensive thing to have done, and carving a turkey with a professionally-honed, razor-sharp knife is a flat-out pleasure.

A Week in Advance

What to Buy

• Make sure you have plenty of butter, eggs, flour, and sugar
• Make sure you have sage and thyme (dried or fresh)
• 3 carrots
• 1 large white onion
• 1 large red onion
• Garlic
• 4 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1 orange
• 1 loaf rustic Italian bread
• Sweet Italian sausage

What to Do

1. Allow at least 1 day of thawing for every 4 lbs of turkey. For your 14-lbs turkey, that’s 3.5 days. Thanksgiving’s on Thursday, so you need to move the turkey to the fridge no later than mid-day Sunday. You’re supposed to use the turkey within four days after thawing. That means you can move the turkey to the refrigerator a week before Thanksgiving, easily – so that’s what I recommend.
2. Buy a rotisserie chicken, eat it, boil the carcass, and strain and store the liquid in the fridge. It will be perfect for your turkey gravy.
3. Onions should last a week on the countertop, but if in doubt, place whole into an airtight container and refrigerate.
4. Store the potatoes in a breathable container, away from light, in the coolest place in your home – but not as cool as a refrigerator or freezer.
5. Cube the bread and freeze it.
6. Freeze the sausage.

Sunday

You can reverse the Sunday-Monday chores if you don’t mind facing down hoards of pre-Thanksgiving shoppers.

1. Make a double-batch of cranberry sauce – or maybe even a quadruple batch, if you want an abundance and/or lots of leftover.
2. Skim off and discard the fat from the refrigerated rotisserie stock.

Monday

What to Buy

Northern Spy apples can be hard to come by, but I love them in a pie. My second choice is a half-and-half mixture of Honey Crisp and Granny Smith. I know, I know … an apple pie is not a pumpkin pie. If you came of age prior to the PSL era, pumpkin pie was something special. Take it from me, apple is the new pumpkin.

I don’t usually measure green beans in a more specific way than “one fistful from the bulk bin per person.”

• 1½ cups whole milk
• 6 fistfuls of green beans
• 4 lbs. (8 large) baking apples, preferably Northern Spy
• Flat-leaf Italian parsley: wash, wrap, and refrigerate

What to Do

Soak the parsley in plenty of cold water. Rinse it, pat it dry, wrap it in paper towels or a tea towel, place it back into the contain your brought it home in, and place it in the fridge.

Tuesday

1. Move the sausage and bread cubes to the refrigerator first thing in the morning.
2. Make the pie. (Click here for the recipe. Double it; read through full post to find out how.) Once it is at room temperature, wrap it in foil and refrigerate.

Wednesday (the Day Before)

1. Make a double-batch of the rolls. (Click here for the recipe.) One they’ve been at stone cold room temperature for a while, wrap them tightly in foil.
2. Do as much as you can to prep and mise en place the potatoes, green beans, and corn (recipes below).
3. Set the table. Set out serving dishes and utensils for each dish.
4. Take two sticks of butter out of the refrigerator. Once soft, place them in a container for service.

Day Of

If you have a husband as awesome as mine, he’ll sweep through the kitchen periodically, cleaning everything and he’ll do the bulk of the cleanup after dinner. If your husband isn’t like mine, a bit of training is in order, but it’s probably too late to do that now.

1. Make the turkey, stuffing, and gravy. See this recipe.
2. One hour before you expect the turkey to come out of the oven, multitask the potatoes, green beans, and corn (recipes below). Once the turkey comes out of the oven, turn off the heat and place all three of these dishes, along with the rolls, into the oven.

Thanksgiving Dinner 2021: A Traditional-Style Feast for Six

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! Thank you, Kesor and Proper Circle. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. 

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