Thanksgiving Week: planning ahead

I am so very frustrated with Blogger. Every time I start a post, I get a few sentences in and a dialog box pops up to tell me I am now logged out. If I try to log in, I lose the post. If I close the box, I lose the post. I have tried copying the post to save it but it happens about every other sentence I type, so I inevitably lose something while I am writing. I am typing this on my phone and plan to copy and paste. It's a real pain and I am inclined to give up. My German stubbornness is the only thing that keeps me from doing that.

Anyway, I lost this post six times, but here I am. Back at it.


This is it -- the big food week. Is there a bigger food holiday? Not in my house. My children LOVE Thanksgiving. It's one holiday where we have no expectations of anything other than being together and enjoying a good meal. No gifts, no special plans.

It's a tough holiday for cooks, however, unless you plan ahead and work ahead. Aunt Leila had a good post yesterday about starting early in the week. I especially like the part about getting the bills paid and cleaning the "other" parts of the house way before Thursday. It's a long weekend for me with out-of-town company, so I want to make sure to pay the bills due before Monday. And if I get other parts of the house clean, that's fewer tally marks of all the things I need to get done before Thursday. It's nice to go into the bedrooms and not think "oh, more to do."

I will also start cooking well before Thursday. Tomorrow is shopping day for the few items I waited to buy. I won't venture into a grocery store after tomorrow, not for anything. I think Wednesday might be the biggest grocery shopping day of the year. So I'll shop tomorrow, as well as prepare a few dishes -- cranberry relish and cranberry sauce. I will chop onion and celery and store it away in sealed bags. I might toast my bread and cube it, too. There are quite a few things you can do early in the week: wash and iron linens, polish silver, make sure there are enough candles, plan out seating arrangements, borrow chairs if necessary, plan the cooking timetable for the big day.

Tuesday I will blanch and freeze green beans, and clean most of the "public" rooms, as well as get caught up on laundry. Wednesday will be spent readying all the dishes and serving ware, glassware, centerpieces. I will clean the baths and make sure the kitchen is as clean as possible -- clearing anything unnecessary from the counters and fridge.

I don't have tiny tots to stop and feed and hold any more, or even small children I have to watch carefully, but it's still helpful for me to spread the work out over the week. These feet and legs can't handle doing it all in one day. Besides, if I spread it out I can enjoy it longer. Right?

I must remember to get a good supply of chocolate at the store tomorrow. Sustenance.

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