Practical Advice on Keeping Thanksgiving Thankful

The beloved new daughter in law and son will be here in just two days. In preparation, I have cleaned a little every day for two weeks which means not what you would think. The house is not clean. It just is ready for me to start the line up of chores all over again. This is the problem with advance planning. For a house to be clean when guests arrive, you have to clean it two minutes before they walk in the door.
So right now, the house is not disgusting, and that may have to do....because: today is advance cooking day.

My normal recipe search on the internet always includes the word, "easy", for reasons that I have explained often on this blog. The Thanksgiving search has a slightly different permutation. It still includes the word, "easy", but I add "make ahead."  My plan is to make ahead all but the turkey so that on Thanksgiving day, I can enjoy my family instead of slaving in the kitchen. It worked perfectly last year with the one small problem that it was so cold, there was nothing to do on Thanksgiving except to twiddle our thumbs and wait for the turkey to be done. And of course to be thankful.

My daughter has long begged me to make my blog more interesting, to add items of useful impact to my readers since she feels I am becoming, or perhaps have always been, boring. So, I am going to share my secret for having Thanksgiving Day fuss free, leaving the cook completely available to just sit around and be thankful.If that doesn't entice new readers to my blog, nothing will.

First, I compile a menu. For you natural chefs out there, this seems obvious. For me, it was nothing short of an epiphany. (Good SAT test word, Asherel- look it up.) I called all my loved ones and asked their favorite Thanksgiving food. Then I sat down and wrote their choices to make my Thanksgiving feast:
turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes,deviled eggs, gummy worms.

Step number two, I developed a shopping list. Again, this is something seasoned cooks do automatically. I usually just wing it. I go to the grocery store and try to remember everything I will need. Given my memory skills, you can imagine what I come home with.
"Matzos?" says Arvo, pulling food from the bags, "Gefilte fish? Pascal lamb? Vicky...where is the turkey?"
"Turkey?"
"Yes, the traditional Thanksgiving turkey."
"OH! I knew I forgot something!"
"You forgot the turkey?"
"No, I forgot I was shopping for Thanksgiving! I skipped right over to Passover."
So this year, I have a list. At the top, I wrote THANKSGIVING, and underlined it.

But to develop the list, I first went online and searched for "EASY, MAKE AHEAD Thanksgiving dishes."
There are a surprising number. I found make ahead mashed potatoes, make ahead green bean casserole, make ahead sweet potato casserole, and make ahead cranberry relish. Of course I can make the deviled eggs in advance, and I already have 5 pounds of gummy worms left over from the Agility trial Friday.

Today I will spend the whole day cooking and the rest of the week, I will relax and gaze in peace and gratitude upon my beloved family. And be thankful for one other thing- the internet and make ahead recipes.
In my opinion, make ahead recipes prove to all those doubters out there that there must be a God.

1 Chronicles 28:19
¹⁹ “All this,...I have in writing as a result of the LORD’s hand on me, and he enabled me to understand all the details of the plan.”

Preparing to Give Thanks.....

My goal is to have nothing to do on Thanksgiving but sit back and smell food cooking that was all methodically prepared days in advance. Ideally, a small conveyor belt could be activated which would carry the covered, oven ready dishes in the refrigerator directly to the oven, set the temperature and timer, and then wake me up when they are all done at precisely the same moment.

To this end, when I google Thanksgiving day dishes, I always add the words- "make ahead" and "easy".  Then I get the list of all the no fuss, simple delectable dishes which will remain fresh in the refrigerator for days, and if I am very lucky, weeks, so that I can slowly build towards a feast of thankfulness.

My tradition is to ask every guest what their favorite dish for Thanksgiving is, and then I search for a make-ahead recipe. Unless a recipe specifically warns that it should not be prepared in advance and left to wallow in its juices for days, I assume it is a make ahead dish. I have had very few cases of food poisoning or inedible casseroles as a result, and thus the tradition lives on.  In this manner, I can pace myself. I can slowly build up to a proper attitude of gratitude.

Yesterday, I cooked three of the six major side items. All were bona fide make ahead recipes, though technically not supposed to be made more than a day in advance. There were bubbling, boiling, frying, and steaming pots and pans everywhere. It was hard to keep track. In fact at one point, Matt walked in the kitchen and asked if a pot was supposed to be spewing hot water all over the stove. I had just plumb forgotten about the potatoes!

Despite myself, the day ended with no mishaps or charred ceilings, and three make ahead casseroles sat waiting in the refrigerator for their big day. I settled a little wearily, but contentedly on the couch. That's when Asherel reported that there had been an alien abduction. She had looked everywhere and her iPod was missing. She had had it an hour ago at dinner, in her pocket, then had sat on the couch and played with the Wii, and now it was gone. She had looked under the couch, in the cushions, in her room, in the Wii basket of devices, and even in the freezer where she had grabbed a Klondike bar after dinner. The iPod had vanished. The four of us scoured the house, every nook and cranny for an hour. Arvo even tipped the huge heavy couch on its side and we all peered under, around, and through. No iPod.

Everyone drifted away, but the disconsolate Asherel and the baffled me.
"Let's pray," I suggested, "God is the Master at finding the Lost."
So I prayed with Asherel. We prayed about how even the most hopelessly, foundering lost souls are never out of God's sight. From our human standpoint, there is no chance that they will ever find their way to the peace and solace of our loving Father, but He always knows just where they are and He is always leaving a trail of Holy crumbs that lead them back to Him. No one is ever lost if they want to be found by Him. In the same way, we knew that God knew where the iPod was, and would He please guide us to its lonely side?

After we prayed we paused and looked at each other. Asherel disappeared to go hunt in her room again. I saw a tiny flashlight on the endtable and went to the couch side. I noticed a small slit in the back of the couch. I shone the flashlight there and saw a small glint of metal. Squelching the urge to shout until I was certain, I squeezed my arm through the too small opening. My finger tips brushed metal, and I excruciatingly slowly maneuvered my fingers around it, and pulled out the prodigal iPod.

"I found it!" I called out with joy, "Once it was lost but now it is found! Praise the Lord with Thanksgiving!"

It is so tempting sometimes to give up, throw your hands hopelessly in the air, and settle complacently back down to finish watching "Dancing With the Stars." I am not sure I go after the lost souls as diligently as I went after that iPod, or so intentionally as I had spent the day prepping our Thanksgiving feast. But the lost are sometimes so helplessly mired that more active, intentional seeking is required. And instead of bumbling along all alone, calling on the power of the One who longs that we had never wandered away in the first place should be the first resort....not the last.

And not that I begrudge a very excellent spiritual lesson, but I warned Asherel that from now on the iPod is ONLY to go in a zipped pocket. And I am reminded to maybe be preparing for Thanksgiving a little less, and giving thanks a little more.


Exekiel 34: 4-6, 11-16
⁴ You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. ⁵ So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. ⁶ My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
¹¹ “‘For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. ¹² As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. ¹³ I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. ¹⁴ I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵ I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. ¹⁶ I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak