Hosting Thanksgiving? NBD.

Nick and I are hosting Thanksgiving again this year and feel like we have things pretty well under control. Last year was our first year hosting, and we ended up doing a lot of research and planning to make sure things went smoothly. We kept things pretty simple and found this timeline from William-Sonoma super helpful in tackling not only Thanksgiving day, but also the days before. Luckily, most things that I set out to do in this blog post worked out, so we were happy to host again this year. That, and our guests actually agreed to come back!

Our Turkey!

We grocery shopped for everything on Sunday morning. The bread for our stuffing is currently sitting on our counter getting nice and stale. Our heritage turkey will be ready for pick-up on Wednesday. The rest of of the afternoon we will prep more of the food, set the table completely, and get the serving dishes out and label them (naturally!).

Thanksgiving Turkey

When we decided to host Thanksgiving this year, we knew we would have to cook a turkey. Maybe because of its shear size or the fact it is the centerpiece of the holiday meal, the turkey can be an intimidating thing to cook! Growing up, my family used to pass an external turkey roaster around between the three families that hosted Thanksgiving, and while it may have been from 1950 and looked as though it could have easily started a fire at any moment, the turkey always came out well! While we do not have this same roaster today, in order to keep our small oven open for other dishes, Nick and I ordered a roaster online.

Stuffed Turkey!

Pumpkin Seed Brittle - the Perfect Hostess Gift

In preparation of hosting our first Thanksgiving, Nick and I flipped through a bunch of magazines and blogs for inspiration. While we have our schedule and menu ready to go, a recipe for Pumpkin Seed Brittle from Bon Appetit caught my eye.

Brittle

Thanksgiving Day Planning and Menu

This year is a bit different for Nick and I - rather than showing up with an appetizer or dessert at a family member's or friend's house for Thanksgiving, we are hosting for the first time! This won't be anything too crazy - only 9 of us total - but I think on Thanksgiving the standards are a bit higher. Not only is the gathering bigger than what we have done before, there are a lot more courses to tie together!

Source - hopefully mine comes out that well!