This post has been edited from the original which was published on November 17, 2011.

Wow, the last three weeks have gone by so quickly!  I am very excited to celebrate Thanksgiving — we have a super fun crew joining us this year — and I am also looking forward to some one-on-one time with the kids.   I used to get all of them in the kitchen Thanksgiving morning to help me with pies or trimming green beans or whatnot, but my two daughters have taken to sleeping until noon on days off.  However I had a stroke of genius two years ago, which was to tack my Thanksgiving to-do list on the refrigerator and have everyone sign up for three tasks.  I asked my husband to help too, because good gracious the man needs to brush up on his cooking skills!

My last class is Monday night, so I’ll start getting busy this weekend and then I’ll go full steam ahead on Tuesday.  I always plan Thanksgiving day down to the last detail because I don’t like forgetting things and a schedule makes me feel more relaxed, which equals more fun for me!   But just because Thanksgiving is the star of the show this week doesn’t mean that I can forget about normal life on very other day.  So I think about regular meals and activities, too.  Here’s what my schedule will look like from Sunday until we eat on Thursday at 4:00 pm (-ish).  This shouldn’t make you feel exhausted, but merely show you what you can do ahead for your own Thanksgiving!

Sunday

Go grocery shopping for most perishable items, bread for stuffing and food for remaining dinners this week.

Make cranberry sauce (I used to make applesauce on Sunday too, but my friend Caitlin is bringing it this year.)

Arrange tables and chairs

Write out placecards for table (a good job for one of the kids)

Dinner:  orange and rosemary-glazed chicken, cauliflower-potato mash, and broccoli

Monday

Make salad vinaigrettes

Make bread cubes for stuffing

Make ice cream

4:00 leave to teach cooking class in Brentwood

Dinner:  spaghetti squash bowls with beans, roasted vegetables, and guacamole

Tuesday

9:30 am Dentist appointment for Mr. Picky

Shop for last perishable items from farmer’s market

Pick up turkeys.  Brine in the morning.

Buy flowers for entry table, family room and living room and put together table arrangements

Set table (I’ll set one place setting for the kids to copy and they can do the rest.)

Wash and dry greens (salad)

Toast pumpkin seeds (salad)

Seed pomegranates (salad)

Shred gruyere (tart)

Shred manchego (salad)

Defrost chicken/turkey stocks

Dinner:  Italian wedding soup and grilled cheese sandwiches

Wednesday

Chop onions for soup, stuffing and roasted vegetables

Slice zucchini (tart)

Make soup

Steam, bread cauliflower

Blind bake crust (tart)

Herb oil (tart)

Make stuffing

Prep vegetables for Maple-Mustard Roasted Veggies

Thinly slice Brussels sprouts

Cut butternut squash into cubes

Make sweet potato casserole

Bake pecan pies

Set up for coffee and tea service

Check powder room

Dinner:  shrimp with tomatoes, white beans and spinach, rice

Before bed:  make sure garage refrigerator door is closed! (Three years ago, I left the door open to my extra fridge in the garage all night long.  OMG. Needed to buy two new turkeys on Thanksgiving morning!)

Thursday

6:00 am wake and shower

Make cornbread (small oven)

Bake pumpkin pies (large oven)

Bake coffee cake (small oven)

Make gingerbread (large oven)

9:15 Take turkeys out of refrigerator

All desserts must be out of large oven by 10:30 am

Bake apple pie (small oven)

10:45 turkeys go in large oven breast side down at 425 degrees

11:25 turn oven down to 325 degrees and flip turkey breast side up

12:00 reheat soup and serve with cornbread

tidy up kitchen

get dressed and dry hair (a girl’s gotta look good!)

Put mixing bowl and beaters in freezer for whipped cream

Roast butternut squash for salad (small oven)

1:30 Peel potatoes and make mashed potatoes; keep in bowl, covered, over pot of simmering water

2:15 zucchini tart in small oven

2:30 fry cauliflower and heat tomato sauce; serve hot

3:00 serve hors d’oeuvres; start testing turkey temperature

3:00 – 3:30 take turkey out of oven

Put vegetables in large oven at 400 degrees

Make gravy

Reheat stuffing in small oven

Bake sweet potato casserole in large oven

Chop apples for Brussels sprout salad, assemble both salads

Light candles, pour water in glasses, set out cranberry sauce and applesauce

Place turkey platter in oven to warm up

3:50-4:00 Carve turkeys

4:00 Dinner is served

After dinner:  whip cream (do not overbeat!), coffee and tea, sparkling water

Make notes on what to remember for next year.  Next year??!!

This post was originally published on November 10, 2011.

Thanksgiving is 2 weeks away!  Is the exclamation point there to emphasize panic or joy?  I’m excited!  I’ve been teaching quite a few Thanksgiving-themed classes as of late and I’m feeling spirited.  One of my students said to me today that my Thanksgiving planning blogs are stressing her out.  Yikes!  Of course that was not my intention.  The whole point is to show you what you can do in advance, not what you must do in advance.  All these tips and strategies are most relevant to the hosts and hostesses who are preparing most or all of the meal themselves and who have a busy schedule leading up to the holiday.  If I didn’t get a lot of these tasks completed early, I don’t see how I could pull off this meal without tons of stress.

Here’s what you can get done this week:

• Get your knives sharpened Especially your carving knife.  A razor-sharp knife is the most important tool in your kitchen.  In my area, you can get your knives sharpened at Sur La Table, the farmer’s market and at the local cutlery store at the mall.  I think Sur La Table charges $1/inch.

• Make your grocery lists  I make three lists:

1. Non-perishables (e.g., flour, spices, wine, nuts, dried fruit)  I buy these now.
2. Perishables to buy one-week ahead (e.g., winter squashes, butter, hard cheeses, potatoes)
3. Perishables to buy two days before (e.g., turkey, dairy, bread for stuffing, all other fruits and vegetables)

This post has been edited from the one originally published on Thursday, November 3, 2011.

If you followed the advice in my post last Thursday, perhaps you now have a general idea of how many guests you will be hosting on Thanksgiving.  If not, it’s time to get on the phone and do some inviting!  Do you have a good balanced menu and have you taken guests up on their offers to bring something?   This week we have a few more tasks that we can check off the list.

3 weeks before thanksgiving

• Order the Turkey  If you eat turkey on Thanksgiving, it’s a good idea to order it now.  I have always ordered a fresh, free-range, organic turkey, because in my opinion they have a tasty turkey flavor and are better for you than most other alternatives.  The only thing that may be better is a heritage turkey, which has a much stronger turkey flavor and supposed to be more moist.  It will have less breast meat though and will be more expensive.  Avoid “self-basting” turkeys which are injected with anything from chicken fat to salt to chemicals.  True, they are easier to cook, but I think they taste more like salt than turkey and they are just full of stuff you don’t want to feed your family.

Here are some questions that will help you decide size:

How many ovens do you have?  If you have one large oven that can accommodate two turkeys side by side and an extra oven to spare (you’re so lucky!), then you have the option of cooking two smaller birds versus one large one.  But with two small ovens, you may not want them both being monopolized by turkeys.

Are your guests dark meat-eaters or white meat-eaters?  You will get more white meat by weight from one large bird than from two smaller.  Likewise, you will get more dark meat from two smaller birds than from one large one.

How big a turkey should you buy?  The rule of thumb is one pound of turkey per person.  So if you are expecting 16 guests, you should order a 16 pound turkey.  That doesn’t mean that you will have 1 pound of meat per person, though.  I think this is only a good rule if you don’t want leftovers, if your guests are not big eaters, and/or you have an good number of dark meat eaters versus all white meat eaters.   Two years ago I cooked two 17-pound turkeys for 20 adults and 5 kids and I had just enough leftovers for the five of us for dinner the next day.  Last year I cooked two 18-pound turkeys for 24 adults and 5 kids and we had the same amount of leftovers.   My point is that I think 1 1/4 pounds per person is a safer bet.

Do you have a bad back?  What does this have to do with anything?  A very large turkey is mighty challenging to keep pulling out of the oven to baste.  I find two smaller turkeys much more manageable, if you have the oven space.

• Planning Your Table Decor  I don’t do anything fancy for my table decorations, but it’s nice to make the table look special.  Now’s the time to check your linens for stains and make sure you have enough napkins, plates and glassware.  I generally like to do something simple with fresh flowers in autumnal colors and add in a few of the kids’ Thanksgiving art projects from years past.   I just adore Jenni Kayne’s table setting at the top of the post and below.  Check out all her lovely holiday photos and ideas on her ripplustan.com blog — beautiful!  But you can put out bowls of apples and pears or gourds and nuts, add in a few votive candles and it will look beautiful.  If tablescape isn’t your thing, you can always order from your local florist or full service market.  Just get on it this week.  I just dropped off my heirloom pumpkins at Rolling Greens to have them insert succulents.  Those arrangements last quite a while, so I figured why not enjoy them this month and not have to worry about doing it in two weeks!

• Make your pie crusts and freeze them  You can freeze them in disc form or roll them out, fit them into pie plates and freeze them, well wrapped.
• Make your homemade stock and freeze it  I use over a gallon of chicken stock on Thanksgiving for soup, stuffing and gravy.

• Make your dry mixes for pie fillings, cornbread and other baked goods.  Not only are there never enough ovens on Thanksgiving day, but there are never enough measuring cups and spoons either.  I measure out the dry ingredients, store them in a glass jar and label each jar, e.g. “Dry Mix for 2 Pumpkin Pies.”  I didn’t label them the first year I did this and let me tell you — pumpkin pie spices smell A LOT like apple pie spices.
• Check your inventory of helpful tools and appliances  Here’s my list of Thanksgiving essentials:

1. Instant-read thermometer — the only way to know if your turkey is ready.
2. Roasting pan(s) and rack(s)
3. Fat separator
4. Twine for trussing
5. Baster
6. Potato Ricer — for making the best mashed potatoes