Planning Your Holiday Meal... With Your Tween

Source: Dayna Brandoff

(24 ratings)

It's November.  You're juggling parent-teacher conferences, PTA meetings, report cards, and a changing after-school schedule for your preteen now that winter sports have begun. With all the other responsibilities you have to contend with this time of year, the thought of preparing the Thanksgiving meal can be overwhelming. It's helpful to treat this holiday like any project and to combat the stress by getting all those to-dos down on paper and asking for help when you need it.  Why not recruit your family, especially your preteen(s), to take care of tasks that don't need your personal touch (or supervision in the kitchen!)?

Chances are, if you're cooking this type of meal, you know about it well in advance, which is fortunate, because the key is planning ahead and sharing the work.  Following is a list, which will help you organize your family.

More than 3 weeks to go:  Start planning your menu - gather all your holiday recipes together.  Make sure to include the family favorites (apparently, I run the risk of divorce if a string bean casserole is missing from the holiday table - lesson learned).  Draw new inspiration from the holiday recipe guides that are always popping up in magazines this time of year.   (Involving kids in the planning stage often makes them more willing to participate later with the work.) Think about everything your guests will eat from the moment they arrive at your home until the moment they leave - appetizers should be part of your thought process too!

3 weeks to go:  Decide on menu items you're willing to assign. You know your guests will ask you what they can bring - why not have an actual job for them? Perhaps your preteen loves to bake - ask her to make her special cookies in the days leading up to Thanksgiving (so as not to take up oven space on Thursday).  If there are any items you plan to order (rather than cook from scratch), place the order now. This is a perfectly acceptable option - I serve a deep fried turkey that I order from the Internet. It's better than any turkey I could ever make, allows me to focus on the side dishes (which are more of the main event in my family) and it frees up precious oven space. 

2.5 weeks to go:  Make a shopping list - include foodstuffs, wine, tabletop decor and cooking tools you may be missing.  Going through every item on your menu, list all the ingredients you need for each recipe (including measurements!) Once the comprehensive list is finished, check it against your pantry and remove things you already have in stock (things like spices, oils, etc....) Shop for all the dry goods now - you'll be happy you only have to shop for your fresh ingredients during the holiday week when supermarkets are a mob scene.

2 weeks to go:  Make yourself a prep checklist - assign days to do every task.  Some of these tasks are food related, but many are not.  Think about things like when to food shop, what dishes you can prepare in advance, when to set the table, what you're going to set the table with....

1 week to go:  Figure out how much time each dish needs in the oven/stovetop - work backwards from the time you'd like to serve and figure out a game day timeline.  Go through your servingware and assign a physical dish to each menu item. If you find that you're short a platter or two, you'll still have time to borrow one from a friend.

Day before: Now is the time for grunt work. Chop/mince/dice ingredients that you'll need fresh for tomorrow - having the preparation complete will only make the day run more smoothly.  Set the table. Layout your servingware (I even put a little post-it on each dish telling me (or helpful guests) what should be served on that particular platter.

Day of: Stick to your timeline. It will tell you everything you need to do - and when. 

Dinnertime: Once the food is out - enjoy the meal you worked so hard to prepare. Let someone else do the dishes - you've been working hard for weeks!

Dayna Brandoff is the founder of Chaos Theory Inc., a professional organizing company located in New York City. For further organizing tips or hands-on help, visit www.ChaosTheoryNYC.com.