LESLIE BUDEWITZ: It’s the season for gatherings. After a year without cookie exchanges, game day chili feeds, and holiday gatherings, most of us are more than ready to set that big, beautiful turkey on the table for a Thanksgiving dinner with friends and relatives.
Mr. Right and I love hosting Holiday Brunch on a Sunday in mid December, a tradition I started ages ago as a young single woman. I was still teaching myself to cook, and always tested every dish before it went on the menu—a lesson learned after the bread didn’t rise and I had to run to a bakery-café a few blocks away with my fingers crossed!
It’s a great excuse to decorate the house and, on the day itself, to drink champagne in the morning! Some of our friends met through our brunch and now get together at other times of year; some only see each other once a year. Most are artistic—musicians, painters, and writers, with or without a day job. One year, we introduced an oil painter and a pastel painter who had admired each other’s work and been in the same galleries, but had never met. And each has her own special dish she contributes!
A buffet works best for us, with coffee and other beverages set up on a table just inside the front door to minimize the kitchen chaos. I love using my mother-in-law’s dishes and my mother’s tablecloths and sterling—and the champagne glasses she bought for us at thrift stores!
(We do recognize not everyone is ready to gather in person. We’re grateful you’re gathering with us here at the Kitchen, and lift a glass to you.)
What about you, blog sisters and readers? Do you like to host? Prefer to be a guest? Is there something you always ask someone else to bring? Share a favorite party tip, if you’d like. Leave a comment below, with your email address, for a chance to win this month’s fabulous prize package.
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MADDIE DAY: I love this topic, Leslie. I can't wait to host Thanksgiving this year, as I always do, with the exception of 2020. This year we'll have my older son and his wife, and our good friends who come each year. I'm grateful my goddaughter will be there with her four year old and four-month-old son, who can't be vaccinated. All the rest of us are and are super careful people. We might open the windows if it's not too cold out!
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| A version from six years ago |
I usually set the table with white damask topped with a smaller fall tablecloth, my mother's lovely Lennox Wheat china, and my grandmother's silver. I make three or four pies the day before. On the feast day I roast a turkey and make my mom's bread stuffing, smashed potatoes with skins, and gravy. (And yes, morning drinking has been known to occur...) The guests bring all the rest!
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LESLIE KARST: This is what Thanksgiving looks like in Hawai‘i—or at least what the host’s front porch looks like, since no one wears shoes indoors in these parts.
This year, Robin and I will return after a lapse of two years to our friend’s home down in Puna, on the Big Island, for her annual Thanksgiving potluck. There will likely be turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, lau lau (steamed pork and fish wrapped in ti leaves), macaroni salad (an island favorite which traditionally includes tunafish), perhaps some poi, as well as pumpkin, pecan, and haupia (coconut pudding) pies.
Of course when you host a party in Hawai‘i, it always becomes a potluck whether you want it to be or not, because no one ever goes to another’s home for a meal here without bringing something to share. What a lovely tradition. Hau'oli Lā Ho'omaika'i (Happy Thanksgiving) to all!
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TINA KASHIAN: This year, we will host the day before Thanksgiving for my family and then travel on Thanksgiving day to my husband's family in the Poconos. After two years of not hosting or traveling, we are looking forward to giving thanks with all of our family. My party tip is to have a table just for the kids and teens. My mother always had a table just for us and we loved it. Looking back it was out of necessity for her because we had a big family and not everyone fit around our dining room table. But it was always fun to eat with my cousins and sisters and we could chat about things that our parents would not want to hear! I follow this tradition now and set the table with fun plates for the kids and teens. I'm sharing a picture (I got these at Target). I wish everyone a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving!
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LUCY BURDETTE: We're still staying small and local and having a few vaccinated neighbors to our house. I'll be in charge of the turkey, gravy, cornbread stuffing, and hopefully a pumpkin cheesecake if I can find the right pan! All of your celebrations sound so wonderful! Wouldn't it be fun one year to get together for a potluck with all the bloggers of Mystery Lovers Kitchen? Imagine how amazing the food would be...I'd vote for inviting alumnae as well by the way....
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Turkey and Evinrude from Lucy's A Deadly Feast
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MAYA CORRIGAN: Great idea to have a blogger potluck dinner, Lucy! Though we were always the ones who cooked the Thanksgiving turkey for the family, our guests were family members who lived nearby, including both sets of parents. Our largest gatherings were always at Christmas, when our siblings and their families from New England and sometimes California traveled to Virginia and joined us. We made the holiday dinner every year from 1987 through 2018, but have now passed the torch to other family members. They might rival our cooking--my sister roasted goose last year!--but they'd have trouble equaling our beautiful table.
Our dining table can be extended to fit 14 people, but there were years when we had to add another table at one end and switch the furniture between the dining room and living room to fit everyone. We never had a kids' table in another room. We felt children belonged with the rest of the family for the celebration. Starting in the first year we were married, my husband's aunt and uncle gave us two holiday plates every year. Our collection grew to the point where we could set a table for 18 people. And a festive table it was!
Have a very merry Thanksgiving!
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PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON: We've been hosting holiday gatherings since I was in my 20s and living in a tiny New York City apartment! We'd have my in-laws and my parents, my sister-in-law and her husband, my sister and niece after they moved back from California and often my late husband's aunt as well. And we always invited any of our friends who would otherwise have been alone. Sometimes we did Thanksgiving and sometimes we did both Thanksgiving and Christmas. My mother-in-law always helped with the prep and I learned a lot from her. After I remarried, we spent one Thanksgiving at my in-laws where they managed to fit twenty-two people around the table! My mother-in-law was a master of organization and did most of the cooking herself although we'd chip in to set the table, collect the extra folding chairs she borrowed from the church and do any peeling and chopping that was needed at the last minute. And of course the clean-up!
If I had a tip for entertaining it would be to make as much of the food as possible in advance--plan your menu around things that don't require a lot of last minute prep so you can enjoy your guests. And if someone wanted to bring something I usually suggested a salad because for some reason I hate washing lettuce!
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MOLLY MACRAE: I love reading about all your Thanksgiving traditions. When I was growing up, our Thanksgiving dinners were crowded with family and delicious with all the trimmings. I loved helping with all of it. Chopping giblets with Granny - and sneaking tastes. Mixing the stuffing - and sneaking a crispy bit of it when it came out of the oven. Sneaking a crispy piece of skin. (I was one of six kids, and there were cousins and other relatives around, and it seems like an awful lot of us sneaked tastes. It's a wonder there was anything left to serve.)
For the first few years after Mike and I married, we took turns going to his family and mine. Then we moved away and started our own traditions - family and friends always being a part of them, even if only through phone calls. In fact, talking on the phone with my sister Jenny, nineteen years ago, improved one of our favorite dishes. Jenny and I talked and laughed and talked (and talked and talked) and I lost track of how long the sweet potato spears had been in the oven - so long they'd started to caramelize and the edges were quite dark, which is not what the recipe called for. But eureka! They were sensational and we've over-roasted them every year since. That's what I call better cooking through loving conversation.
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| roasted sweet potato spears with molasses horseradish glaze - yum! |
May your Thanksgiving be full of warm food and warmer memories.
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CLEO COYLE: For Marc and I, Thanksgiving is always a day for counting our blessings, despite challenges and setbacks. We dealt with Ida flooding this year and lots of loss, but we have each other and our motley family of New York stray rescue cats and that's what matters most. We're also thankful to be working toward a new writing deadline, so no travel or parties this Thanksgiving. Instead, we’ll be celebrating small but with a big (huge!) turkey because we love, love, love our leftovers AND serving our kitties the treat of juicy, warm turkey meat. The side dishes will include my special stuffing and cranberry sauce, Marc’s creamy mashed potatoes, and plenty of gravy!
Our best tip is for those of you preparing frozen birds. Be sure to give that turkey
time to thaw before cooking! There are far too many stories of turkey-day disasters with cooks who forgot (or didn't know) they needed to thaw their frozen bird. You'll need several days to thaw it in the fridge or you can speed up the process by submerging the bird in COLD water, which you'll need to change regularly and keep cold. (Never thaw a frozen bird at room temperature OR in warm water, either of which can promote the growth of dangerous bacteria.)
Click here for handy tips on thawing and (if you missed it) check out our own recent recipe post where we shared
OUR SECRET TO CRISPY-SKINNED TURKEY.
Click here or on the
turkey above for Cleo's recipe.
May you eat with joy this Thanksgiving!
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>> AS THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE CRUMBLES
by Leslie Budewitz
>> GINGERDEAD MAN by Maya Corrigan
>> MURDER ON CAPE COD by Maddie Day
>> MISTLETOE, MOUSSAKA AND MURDER
by Tina Kashian
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