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Have enough heavy duty trash bags and plenty of toilet paper!
What will you be using for dishes/silver ware?
Do you have pets which need to be restraint, kept in a bedroom?
Do you have your outfit ready>
I would do turkey breasts only (less cooking time, less waste, less drama carving).
Rice or couscous takes 15 minutes ad reheats nicely in the microwave.
Cheat on the gravy:>) Cheap gravy in the jar jazzed up with some pan drippings. Do not tell your secret.
Dressing, casseroles - assemble, cook the day before, reheat.
Desert - can be done way in advance.
Clean up as you go! Count on someone to show up very early. Have some appetizers - cream cheese, veggies, crackers. Give yourself a 30 minute window of time to take a shower, get prettied up and dressed and go to your own party.
Wow just found out about halal food, kosher turkeys would be find blood wise but the other parts... I have a local middle eastern grocer that I buy my spices from and I will ask him he is not Arabic and there are of areas of south Florida that are not very Muslim.
I hope I don't offend my guests now!
Guess what.
If people want to come to MY HOME, to "see how we do Thanksgiving" then they can bring their own food or eat mine.
Ugggggghhhhhhhhh!!! Ok what I thought would be a thanksgiving with just hubby and me and the boys coming over has morphed to dinner for about twenty folks.
Long story short Dad wanted to impress a tenant who is Muslim recent immigrant from Dubai and show her family how we do thanksgiving, well since all my siblings want to celebrate with me in my new home his plan got derailed... Also that he hates turkey and has no ideas how to cook it.
So now I have a huge feast with this stranger and her family ( I have no problem with that) plus all my other family members..not that I mind since I am considered the "chef" of the family. But in my old place I had two ovens, I only have one now.
I am making two small turkeys, one smoked and one Cajun plus sides. I will most likely make as many sides the day before but the turkeys and reheating is causing me problems in planning.
Any advise on planning on how you all would handle this would be helpful. BTW if you have not had the privilege of a Cuban dad that HAS to be the center of attention, consider your self lucky. I love the old man but his passive aggressiveness towards me in old age is getting very annoying, but it could be what happens when the first generation hands the traditions over to the second generation... Only that I am almost fifty years old and this has been the case for the last twenty years.
Call people and delegate cooking responsibility. One person brings the sweet potato casserole, one brings the pie, one brings the green beans...etc. Delegate, delegate.
Not having read all the comments yet, I have to ask: is the Muslim family on the Halal diet? You may want to find out so you can have Halal food available for them. We have a Muslim family we are very close with, and they only eat Halal. :-)
Stuff both of the turkeys just before cooking and cook them on Thanksgiving day. You can make pies the day before, cranberry salad ahead of time, and sweet potato casserole ahead of time. You can heat up premade rolls in the microwave just before serving. You can make a salad and/or veggies the day of. It is doable.
Then stay home, bring your own, or don't eat everything.
How rude. My house, my customs, my food, my menu.
I was a macrobiotic vegan for five years and did NOT insult or inconvenience my hosts because of MY personal thing.
Wow. A very un-Thanksgiving attitude. They are guests. They did not come in uninvited. It's common courtesy to make them comfortable in your home. If you are unwilling to be gracious to guests, best just not to invite them.
Then stay home, bring your own, or don't eat
everything.
How rude. My house, my customs, my food, my menu.
I
was a macrobiotic vegan for five years and did NOT insult or inconvenience my
hosts because of MY personal thing.
What's wrong with you?
If I INVITE people into my home for a meal, then the gracious thing to do is to serve them food they can eat. No point in inviting people for a Thanksgiving feast if they can only sit around and watch you eat because you were too thoughtless or inconsiderate to take their dietary restrictions into account.
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