Want to help me solve a Thanksgiving challenge?

Order your meal from a local gourmet grocer.

You could try prepping everything in advance, and freeze it all in portions. Then when the day arrives, you simply need to thaw the appropriate servings, and heat it up. Leftovers? No problem! You can eat them as you please. For dessert you can buy a small cheesecake, pre-cut into portions. Again, just thaw out what you need on T-day.

Try a Cornish game hen, and go from there. Or a plump baking chicken. Really juicy and good. Cook them just like you would a turkey, stuffing and all.

I have a very small family. It’s just me and one brother (the other one is in another state), his wife and her mother.
This is what I have been doing the last few years: I buy a very small turkey breast and cook it in a crockpot, I make mashed potatoes and buy some rolls. My brother brings green beans, his MIL brings stuffing. I could actually heat up a can of green beans myself and make Stove Top Stuffing. All very easy and doable for one person, all pretty Thanksgivingish, and all can be served from the stove or heated in the microwave all day long.

After the loss of a few friends that were regulars at our holiday table, we scaled way back, and it’s just my daughter and me. Because she is vegetarian, we stopped turkey altogether, and now I cook a green bean casserole, a fancy stuffing, and some easy orange glazed carrots. She brings garlic mashed potatoes, and we get a couple of pies locally. It’s really easy, the leftovers are yummy, and we could add a couple of people if they came by. A rotisserie chicken would round it out for the poultry lovers.

My wife and I did Thanksgiving dinner at a hotel restaurant, it was the first year daughter was in college. Daughter made plans to go with room-mate to sunnier area.

Make a pumpkin pie. Nothing more Thanksgiving wise.

Make reservations at a restaurant! That’s what my parents do sometimes, idk tho. Hope this helps!

Make a turkey. And buy one or two side dishes. Ask everyone else to bring a dish.

It will feel festive and cozy to prep and cook a turkey. And takes pressure off (while supporting local businesses that may be struggling during a pandemic) to buy one or two side dishes.

Potluck gives you flexibility. Less people, less food. More people, more food.

Consider roasting a chicken (smaller and easier) or finding a turkey breast or prepared turkey roll that you can bake in a short time. A rotisserie chicken is a great idea but since grocery stores are probably closed, you’d have to reheat one from the day before (which doesn’t taste as good, in my experience).

Be radically different. Baked Lasagna. It looks impressive, but it is easy to do. Have a decent red wine and a couple of pies, either baked or purchased, and you are done. Vanilla ice cream for the pies….

@Cupcake In our area the supermarkets are open (shorter hours) on Thanksgiving, it’s very handy (if a little rough on the employees).

@canidmajor That’s interesting. I’ve never lived somewhere that had grocery stores open on Thanksgiving.

I miss the 60s and 70s. You didn’t get the stuff in advance you were SOL.

Last year (2020, pandemic times), lots of people were not having turkey for Thanksgiving. People who said they didn’t really like turkey were getting away from feeling obligated to have it, since they were not gathering with other family members. There was a feeling of “have what you want, not what you’re obligated to have.” Maybe consider something other than turkey. Maybe steak, prime rib, lasagna or some seafood.

My good friends had crab legs last year and they’re doing the same this year. I made a ham last year. This year we’re going to some fancy club in the city and I’m not sure what I will have.

So how did Thanksgiving turn out?

^^^^ I was just starting to ask that!