UNITED STATES—It is almost here. In less than a week, Thanksgiving will be fast upon us and the stress starts to kick into full gear and it may not be as great as you want it to be. However, breathe, take a moment and all will be ok. You should have your menu together by this point, and if you haven’t started to pick up your items needed for the big feast, this is the week to do it. Trust me when I say that, please America, do not wait until next Tuesday or Wednesday to purchase all the items you need for your feast.
Why? Plenty of those items may not be available. Not to mention you could be in a situation where you find yourself waiting at the grocery store a lot longer than you expect. Take it from someone who worked at a grocery store, the day before Thanksgiving is pretty busy, but the Tuesday before Thanksgiving is actually the busiest of all days.
If you venture into the grocery store next week, pack the patience and you better be ready to spend some serious dough because things will not be on sale because the retailers know people are going to spend money no matter what, so why place the items on sale, when you can get the whole dollar. I will make the argument you can start to begin some of that prep work the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Your turkey, if you’re cooking it, you might want to pull it out by Sunday, possibly Saturday and place into the fridge to allow it to thaw out. Yes, the turkey takes several days to thaw out, which is something that NOT a lot of people know. You cannot purchase a frozen turkey on the day before Thanksgiving and expect it to be ready to cook. It will NOT work, so don’t even consider doing it. The chopping of the veggies is the thing that takes so much time to complete. Yes, I absolutely hate, and I mean hate the prep work, but if I do it at least two days before the big feast it helps lessen the stress of the cooking process.
With that said, I tend to prep a lot of dishes on the Tuesday or Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Yes, the dressing gets prepped Wednesday evening, so does the Candied Yams, the Macaroni and Cheese is prepped, but not cooked, the desserts, whether a pie or cake you start to cook because the oven is going to get a lot of usage over the next week.
If you are indeed someone that loves to do all the cooking, don’t be afraid to have others help you in the kitchen, if you can. It just makes things so much easier and lighter when you have a bit of help when possible. Yes, there are those dishes that only you prepare and you don’t want anyone helping you put together, but there are other dishes that have an assist or two to get it prepped a lot sooner.
You might have a sleepless night if you’re doing most of the cooking for Thanksgiving because I think it is wise to always do the cooking the day before. If you’re cooking everything on Thanksgiving Day you’re going to be exhausted and trust me I know from experience. It becomes so much to the point, by the time that everyone is eating you are so exhausted that you don’t even want to eat. All you want to do is sit down and relax, and where is the fun in that?
Written By Davy Jones
