Usually my parents host a Thanksgiving day meal, but it's gotten a bit much for them. I volunteered to do it this time. We expected ten people in total, which is close to the limit for our small house -- we don't have a formal dining room, so a meal like this is strictly plates-on-knees in the living room.
We regularly host an Xmas Eve dinner, and I start baking & making candy for that a week or more in advance. I wasn't enthused to do two Big Meals a month apart! I looked for restaurants open that day but none of our favorites were, and the ones that were cost more than I was willing to pay ($45+ each) or a long drive closer into Boston.
Finally found a catering shop not too far from home selling a "traditional" meal package for a reasonable price. Picked it up the day before, and just had to reheat it all yesterday morning. Very happy with the results! A very generous amount of food -- the package said it would feed 8-10, and I'd say that was conservative. I made one recipe of cornbread myself, because
cornbread.
Included in the package:
Turkey: 10/10 -- possibly the best turkey I've ever had! White meat was tender, moist, well-flavored with herbs, plus they carved the bird up for us at no cost. Was really nice.
Garlic mashed potatoes: 9/10 -- very garlicky, possibly a bit too much of it.
Pureed butternut: 9/10 -- very lightly spiced for a vaguely pie-flavored result.
Stuffing: 4/10 -- too dry, not as flavorful as I'd like.
Turkey gravy: 10/10 -- but Great Pumpkin! they gave us a literal vat of the stuff! (Lizmonster tells me it might be enough...)
Roasted root vegetables: 8/10 -- a bit over-roasted for me, and bit heavy on the brussels sprouts for my taste.
Dinner rolls: 6/10 -- a nice selection of three different kinds, but they were all a bit underbaked for my tastes -- should've spread them out on a cookie sheet in the oven to crisp them up.
Cranberry relish: 7/10 -- nice and chunky, but cranberry in this form is just really not my thing.
Pumpkin pie: ??/10 -- our crazy guests brought two pumpkin pies of their own, and I sent this one home with people, so never did get to taste it.
I'd asked our guests to please not worry about bringing food, but if they really insisted, "a" side-dish or dessert would be nice. Most brought 3 side-dishes plus desserts!
I think we can eat leftovers for 4-5 days to come... Plus we're going to make turkey-vegetable-barley soup this weekend from the leftover dark meat, mmmm.
Lizmonster and I were a little nervous in the lead-up. My parents' conservative political views are very much the minority in our extended family, and they don't always keep their opinions to themselves. My adult daughter's boyfriend is sometimes clueless about "reading the room" and keeping his own, very liberal views to himself. And, my in-laws are both coping with frailty and dementia to varying degrees of success.
Thankfully, no one threw any verbal bombs, and no physical disasters. Low body-count! Victory!