Heather says:
How are you serving your meal?
Will it be family style with everyone seated around the table or are you setting up a buffet where everyone helps themselves?
Now it’s time to take a look at your menu and take an inventory of your serving dishes.
Next to each menu item write down a brief description of the dish it will be served in ie glass 9 x 13 or white oval casserole. If these dishes aren’t in every day use, place a post-it or 3 x 5 card with the menu item’s name in the bottom of each dish. Now if people want to be helpful on Thanksgiving they will need less direction. I know I don’t communicate very well when I have a bunch of dishes cooking, each in a different stage of completion.
If you don’t have enough dishes, check thrift stores and yard sales this weekend.
Foil pans work well for buffet style, but I wouldn’t trust them to be passed around a dinner table. No one wants grandma to get a lap-full of scalding hot macaroni and cheese. If you have family coming to eat, it’s ok to ask if you can borrow a serving dish for the big day. Just don’t return it dirty.
Here’s a point I almost always neglect: serving utensils. Match a serving utensil appropriate to the planned menu item and write that down next to the serving dish description or on the 3×5. Make sure each of these utensils is present and accounted for. I’ve lost quite a few to the sandbox in the backyard or points unknown.
So here we are, it’s November 9th and we have just over two weeks to go.
Are you ready for Thanksgiving?
Here’s what we’ve done so far with the Countdown to Turkey Day 2011 Series:
We’ve found the dining room table, made a guest list (and invited them), we have made a soft menu plan, and newbies, if you’ve never even roasted a chicken that’s on your to-do list, right? And we have created our Thanksgiving Day Menu. How is that dining room table looking? Yep, move that stack of mail, it needs a new home before it attracts all of its cluttery friends.
