Mrs. Cubbison's Thanksgiving Tips

Canned Goods & Soup

• Corn Kernels (2/3 cup; defrosted)
• Chicken broth (1 cup, 32oz)

Condiments, Spices & Bake

• Baking soda (1 tsp)
• Baking powder (2 tsp)
• Mrs. Cubbison's Classic Seasoned Dressing (3 or 4 6 oz pkg)
• Mrs. Cubbison's Seasoned Cornbread Stuffing (6 oz pkg)
• Whole wheat flour (2 cups, 2 Tbsp)
• Ground cinnamon (2 1/2 tsp)
• Garlic herb sauce (2 Tbsp)
• Honey (1 Tbsp)
• Extra virgin olive oil (1/4 cups, 2 Tbsp)
• Poultry seasoning (3 1/2 tsp)
• Pimento stuffed green olives (3/4 cup)
• Kosher salt (1 tsp)
• Brown sugar (1/2 cup)
• Sugar (1/2 cup; demerara)
• Black pepper (1/2 tsp)
• Vanilla extract (5 tsp)
• White sugar (2 1/2 cups)
• All-purpose flour (1 cup, 1 tsp)
• Sea salt (1 tsp)

Dairy, Eggs & Cheese

• Apple butter (7 Tbsp)
• Butter (3/4 cup; softened)
• Butter stick (3 cups, 4 Tbsp)
• Cream cheese (two 8oz pkgs)
• Gruyére cheese (1/4 pound)
• Cheese (processed spread loaf, shredded)
• Eggs (4)
• Heavy cream (1/4 cup)
• Milk (1/2 cup)

Deli & Signature Café

• Bacon (1/2 cup; crumbled)

Fruit & Vegetable

• Avocado (1/2)
• Apple (1)
• Green apple (1)
• Broccoli (3 pounds)
• Celery (5 stalks, 3/4 cup)
• Celery & carrot party sticks (1 bag; 32 oz)
• Dried cranberry (2 Tbsp)
• Garlic cloves (2)
• Garlic (1 1/2 tsp; crushed)
• Onion (2 1/2)
• Russet potatoes (6; whole)
• Quick cooking oats (2 cups)
• Persimmon pulp (2 cups)
• Belgian endive (6 medium heads)

Meat & Seafood

• Turkey (12 pound)

Beverages

• Apple juice (3 Tbsp)

As a beginning holiday cook, you want to focus on three things: keeping your menu reasonably-sized; selecting items that are simple yet delicious; and then, going about preparing the meal in a systematic manner. Let's look at each of these points, one at a time:

There's no reason for any family meal to have three different potato dishes served at once, and this is never more true than for an inexperienced cook. Plan a meal that will feed the biggest appetites at your table with a variety of dishes, but don't try to impress everyone by going overboard with the number of offerings. Your guests will be more impressed by the quality of your cooking than the quantity, so focus on creating a few, well-made items, rather than putting out a spread that would feed an army.

And there's no shame in adding to your home-cooked meals by picking up some high-quality prepared dishes from a local deli, bakery, or take-out kitchen. If you are uncomfortable making a dessert, go to a trusted local baker and have them prepare you a pie or holiday cake, and use the time you've literally just bought yourself to focus on doing an even better job cooking the rest of the meal.

If this is your first Thanksgiving, you are probably tempted to make one or two dishes that will knock everybody's socks off. You might have pored through recipe books looking for the most spectacular green bean dish that's known to man, or you might think it would be thrilling to serve the most exotic stuffing imaginable. While this desire to show off is completely normal, it is also an invitation to disappointment and maybe even disaster when you are hosting your first Thanksgiving. Remember, your guests are there first to enjoy your company and hospitality, and then to enjoy a tasty, wholesome meal. No one is going to expect a beginning holiday cook to turn out the equivalent of a five-star extravaganza in an expensive restaurant. As a beginning Thanksgiving cook, you should focus on doing a nice job of preparing simple, delicious recipes, and leave the fireworks for later years when you are more confident with the process. Remember: the classic, simple recipes have been handed down to us generation to generation for one reason: they work!

Nothing's worse than standing in the center of a roiling hurricane in your kitchen, an hour before guests are to begin arriving, and not being able to remember what comes next, or, in some cases, what you just did five minutes ago. The way to prevent this all-too-familiar moment of panic is to organize your Thanksgiving Day on paper, well before you start cooking. Write down all of the items you need to prepare. Make a list of every ingredient required to complete that dish, even everyday items that you might assume you'll have enough of when the day rolls around.

Draw up a schedule for cooking your menu, working backwards from the time you plan to serve dinner. If, working backwards, you discover that, being realistic, you're going to have to wake up at 2:00 a.m. to start cooking, it might be time to revise the menu. Whatever you do, be realistic -- about your ablilties, about the size of your oven and number of burners on your stove -- and above all, about the limits of human stamina! Don't give yourself a schedule that's impossible to match in real life, only to feel frustrated all Thanksgiving Day in the kitchen while you struggle to to keep up.

Which menu items need to come fresh out of the oven or the burner to the table, and which can be allowed to cool at room temperature before meal time. If too many of your dishes need to finish at the same time, see if you can substitute a few menu items to accomodate the limits of your oven and stovetop.

When the turkey is going to be in the oven. You can bake some dishes in the oven at the same time with the turkey. But if you are making a dessert that can't be cooked with the turkey, make sure you can block out enough time to get it into the oven, either first thing in the morning or the night before.

Once you've drawn up a schedule for cooking, this will help you focus on getting the food prepped at the right time. Instead of trying to do everything at once, and then ending up with a traffic jam waiting to get on a stove burner or in the oven, you'll be able to prepare your meal systematically.

Finally, despite all your good planning, it helps to be prepared for things to be running behind schedule. Have some simple appetizers (celery sticks and ranch dip, or cheese and crackers) to keep your guests occupied in case your turkey is taking longer than expected.

If you follow these three main principles -- a realistically-sized menu of simple, time-tested recipes, all systematically prepared according to a schedule drawn up in advance -- you will find preparing your first Thanksgiving meal an adventure, not a fiasco.