Thanksgiving Planning: What To Ask For When Others Offer

First, if someone offers to bring something, accept their offer. This is not the time to be a martyr and try to do it all yourself.

While you can't dictate exactly what they make (No handing over of specific recipes), you can ask for a specific type of dish. You can specify the vegetable for instance. However, be prepared because it may not be exactly what you had it mind, but it will all be fine.

If you noticed in my menu I have "various salads", I have NO idea what that will consist of because I'm going to give them all up for someone else to bring. Same thing with crudites.

I happen to have an upstairs stove, downstairs stove and a standalone roaster. So, I have no problem coordinating hot foods at various temps. However, if you have one stove and that's it, give away the items that require different temps for long periods of time. You can spend all morning chopping veggies and assembling salads, corn on the cob can be cooked on a grill. However, green bean casserole and dishes like that require different temps are the perfect candidates to ask others to bring.

Remember, we want to open the stove as little as possible to ensure the perfect Turkey, so if you think you'll have to open it trying to fit casseroles in there, try to pass those off.

If you don't want to give away the casseroles and prefer instead to ask people to bring buns or a chopped veggie and relish tray, consider grilling your turkey. It will free up your oven for all the other things. I will cover turkey grilling in the next week, so if you decide to go that route you have plenty of time to modify your timetable and grocery list.