We all have those people in our lives who, no matter what, are always able to make a huge meal for several friends and have everything ready all at once. With practice, it can be done. There are a few ‘Type A’ personalities in my family and each person’s OCD behaviors manifest themselves differently. My brother: books, cd’s, movies all organized by genre and then alphabetized. Even his freezer looks like a library. (A library of Mexican frozen goodness I’m sure he would say.) Mom and I lean toward a more organized chaos and focus our OCD on specific tasks like spring cleaning or ironing pillow cases. Mom’s less OCD than I am since we get it all from Pop, but no one is as obsessive compulsive, I mean organized, as my sister. I will never, ever forget arriving at her house for Thanksgiving one year and as I walked through the dining room I noticed post-its in all of the serving dishes and a time table, down to the minute, of to-dos for lunch to be ready on time and all at once. So that’s how she does it. She must have forgotten to hide all the notes.
If you can make it a day or two ahead, go for it. Then all you have to do is heat it up. Make up to two days ahead: desserts, cranberries, hot sauces. Make a day ahead: creamed corn, stuffing, rolls, herb butter. Things that are best left to T-Day: the turkey obviously, chiles asados and the gravy. Since the turkey will be tented after being removed from the oven for at least 30 minutes, that gives you ample time to throw the stuffing, creamed corn and rolls into the oven all at once to heat up. I keep the oven at 350 degrees and put the stuffing and corn in right after I remove the turkey and then about 15 minutes later, I’ll put in the rolls. By the time you’re ready to carve the turkey, everything else will also be ready to go.
Good luck and Godspeed.
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