"Your Thanksgiving Prep Timeline."
Follow this schedule to take the stress out of hosting the holiday meal.

It’s just one meal, but shopping, prepping, and cooking for Thanksgiving dinner can feel overwhelming. The best way to save time and prevent cooking burnout is to break the tasks down and stick to an organized schedule. Here’s a handy holiday-meal countdown.

The Week Before
Do an equipment check. Serving dishes and utensils, meat thermometer, roasting pan—check now to make sure you have the gear you’ll need, so you still have time to buy or borrow what might be missing. It’s also a good idea to give small appliances you may not use all that often, like say a food processor or standing mixer, a test run, and to check your knives and get them sharpened if necessary. And don’t forget to see if you have enough food storage containers to handle the leftovers.

Review your menu. Write down the dishes you’re planning to make and check the recipes you’ll use. That way, you can prepare a detailed shopping list. You might want to organize the list according to items that can be bought ahead of time and those that are better purchased a few days in advance.

Clear out the fridge. You don’t want to waste time figuring out where to put ready-made dishes when the refrigerator is already stuffed. So, plan to use up what you have or toss those aluminum-foil mystery packages and the nearly empty bottles of jelly and mayo. If you still think you’ll be tight on space, pull out your cooler. You’ll be able to use it to store some perishable items or drinks the day before and on the day of the big meal.

CONTINUES at:
https://www.consumerreports.org/home-garden/holiday-planning-preparation/thanksgiving-prep-timeline-a6824650667/

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