You people are making suggestions that SecondJudith can’t possibly do in the time she has. You’re acting like the OP was “Tell me everything that Americans prepare for Thanksgiving dinner, regardless of how much time it takes to prepare or how long a dinner it would require to eat it all.” She can’t conceivably prepare the sort of meal that you’re talking about. I don’t blame her. If anyone, I blame her American husband who didn’t realize what a huge job it was preparing a Thanksgiving meal. He apparently is doing none of the work himself and apparently couldn’t even be bothered to tell her what a traditional Thanksgiving day meal consists of.
Sure she can, if she’s reasonably skilled in the kitchen and has good time management skills. Now, that may be an assumption, but if she’s done dinner parties in the past, there’s nothing on this menu that can’t be done.
I would suggest making a detailed timeline to keep yourself organized, SecondJudith. I make mine really finely detailed, working backwards from “Call the guests to the table”, then I flop it around to give me a timetable. For example:
2000: Call the guests to the table
1955: Take rolls and roasted veg out of the oven; carve turkey
1950: Thicken pan drippings with corn starch slurry to make gravy*
1945: Put rolls in the oven
1940: Remove cutting tray from oven and place on counter. Remove turkey from oven onto warmed cutting tray, cover loosely with foil
1935: Put cutting tray into the oven to warm
etc.
This also helps when someone inevitably pops into the kitchen asking how they can help. Even if you’d rather they go away, you can always ask them to read you your timetable to make sure you haven’t missed anything, and if they’re hell bent on “helping”, you’ve got pretty detailed instructions in writing, instead of trying to explain how you want one thing done while working on another.
Things you can absolutely do the day/s before:
Make the bean salad (maybe leave the tomatoes out, since they don’t refrigerate well and you can add them at the last minute.)
Make the stuffing and refrigerate it to bake the day of.
Make the mashed potatoes (I’m not letting go of the dream!)
Peel, cube and assemble the sweet potato glop to bake the day of.
Peel and cube the potatoes, onions and squash
Make the pies
Make the Mac & Cheese (boil the noodles, make the sauce, etc. Just save the final bake, if you’re doing a baked version, for the day of)
Brine the bird (if you plan on doing so and it isn’t koshered already)
Really, *all *the prep work for this menu can be done ahead. I don’t know if you’re making rolls from scratch, but even those can be made ahead up to the second rise and frozen. Take 'em out of the freezer before you leave for work and they’ll complete their second rise before you get home.
*because of course you want your gluten free guest to be able to have some, right? No roux tonight!
That’s why you have leftovers for dinner Monday and Tuesday and takeout/pizza on Wednesday–to make room for the leftovers you’ll eat Friday and Saturday. And, of course, you send packages of stuff home with the guests. I’m appalled your husband didn’t explain this to you; the sending-home of the leftovers is as traditional as eating turkey and pumpkin pie.
And fwiw, I’m sure your party will be fabu.
You might want to consider a fruit dessert for guests you want something “light.”
Where did I say I was intending to do a full-on “traditional Thanksgiving day meal”? You’re the one who is calling it “bizarre” to have it in the evening and seems shocked that all our friends aren’t taking the day off to hang out at ours. You’re simultaneously saying the only way to do Thanksgiving at all is to take the day off and prepare a feast, and telling me that’s impossible to do in the time I have. No kidding, that’s why I’m not planning to do that! I am having a dinner party with US Thanksgiving food. I don’t know where you’re getting this idea that “everybody will be disappointed” that it isn’t an all-day extravaganza. My guests will come expecting a dinner party and that’s what they’re going to have. As Manda JO says, everyone will have eaten lunch, so will just be anticipating a normal dinner party, which is what it will be. Just with US food. 
We had a barbecue this year but that was mostly because it fell on a weekend and I am always ready to snap up any excuse for a summer weekend barbecue. g
You need to add the 5 pound ham. The mashed potatoes are normal, but doesn’t mean you should drop the roasted potatoes. You need at least 2 dozen rolls regardless of any other bread.
As I said, our rabbi is coming. I am not making ham.
Why not? He doesn’t have to eat it.
But ham is kosher for passover! (JOKING!! but someone once said that to me, for real).
I doubt if you’d be able to find the ingredients for pumpkin pie (and making it yourself from a fresh pumpkin is so. not. worth. it.) but apple pie is very traditional – and a crumble is even less work. You can prep the crumble the day before, and toss it in the oven (with a TIMER, learn from my mistakes…) when the rest of the dinner comes out.
Or you can have a guest bring dessert, that’s pretty optimal if its the “done thing” in your circle to have guests bring things.
AMEN!!! Apple pie is my FAVORITE dessert that doesn’t involve chocolate.
I only know 2 people in a group of 10 that will eat pumpkin pie. Chocolate pie is eaten by all.
It’s true. Pumpkin pie is an acquired taste, and many don’t care for it. Personally, I love it, but I get where they are coming from. At a larger Thanksgiving, I would make sure to have an alternative.
I used to think so, too. But those pumpkin pies I was pulling out of the oven earlier in the thread? From scratch, and they’re frigging amazing. It took more total time, but it was way easy, and tastes better than any pumpkin pie I’ve ever had. (Of course, I “don’t like” pumpkin pie, so maybe a pumpkin pie connoisseur would think it tastes like crap.)
I’ve been having a baking bonanza this weekend, partly to bring gluten free goodies to Thanksgiving so the WhySprout isn’t left out, but also to keep her busy. We took her little pumpkin from Halloween (uncarved) and she hugged it and said goodbye (she even gave it a kiss) and split it in half. She had a ball scooping out the “guts” (and rinsing and picking out the seeds to roast later), and I put the pumpkin halves cut side down on a baking sheet and roasted it for about an hour. When it was soft, the skin pulled off in a solid sheet and there was the roasted meat! 20 seconds with a stick blender and it was pumpkin puree. Add spices, sugar, vanilla, eggs and cream and beat. That’s it really, except for the crust and baking.
Not counting roasting time, it took me about 5 minutes longer than opening a can to split and gut the pumpkin.
I used this gluten free crust recipe, more or less (I used a gluten free “all purpose flour” mix instead of the individual flours listed) and it’s quite good. Just don’t flute the edges or bring it up over the edge of the pan, it’s so flaky it will crumble.
And I used this pumpkin pie recipe, which takes longer to read than to make.
Really?
I grewnup with pumkpin pie made from real pumpkins, and did it that way for years. Then one thanksgiving I was pressed for time, and made pumpkin pie from canned pumpkins. Couldn’t tell the difference. What do you find is better?
It has a “rounder” flavor. Sorry, that’s a really weird adjective for food, but the only one I can think of. Pumpkin pie from a can always tastes one-note to me, and it’s not a tune I’m into. And the texture is usually too slimy for me. This one is rich* and creamy, almost like one of those not-New-York-style light cheesecakes, and has a lovely deep round flavor - bright notes, middle notes, deep earthy notes. I suspect at least some of it is because I roasted, not steamed or boiled, the pumpkin. It really concentrated the natural sugars in it while caramelizing the cut edge.
*Oh, I forgot. Not having cream or evaporated milk, I used instant nonfat, but mixed twice as strong as directed on the package (as suggested at the site with the pumpkin pie recipe). It’s my amazing new trick for fake cream, and it really works!
Oh, and I added a few fresh gratings of nutmeg to the spices, as well, just for the heckuvit.
ETA: And, oh, it’s a darker color than pumpkin pie usually is. It’s almost nut brown; it’s so pretty. Again, caramelized sugars, I’m thinking.
I was a vegetarian as a teen and into my 20s, and my mom always made me nut croquettes and mushroom gravy at Thanksgiving. Nuts and grains, basically. Absolutely delicious and fairly thematic, what with the harvesty flavor. I tried to find a recipe for you online, but I couldn’t- I can dig it up from our family cookbook if you actually want it.
I also agree with some of the others. Part of our Thanksgiving tradition is sending guests home with a couple ziploc bags- turkey in one, stuffing in the other.
For my part, SecondJudith, your menu sounds wonderful, and yes, I think you will have an adequate amount of food.
“Wilted spinach and kale greens?” Hell, you don’t need my help in the kitchen.
Make what you can in advance and heat it up. A big part of Thanksgiving is the feeling of relaxation once the food is on the table and everybody starts passing it around and eating. You will enjoy that part, too. You’ll have a great meal. It all sounds delicious. Let us know what you think of the canned cranberry sauce!
First of all, for a Thanksgiving themed dinner party and not an actual Thanksgiving Day, your amounts should be good.
Second, I’m not sure if I missed it upthread but succotash is a must. I love succotash and we always had it for Thanksgiving. My boyfriend’s family never has it. Instead, they have green bean casserole, which is nasty. It’s way easier, if you go with the most basic version which is; open a can of cream corn and a can of lima beans, drain beans and mix with cream corn. Put in pretty bowl, add serving spoon and eat. I like it warm or cold - never ever hot. It loses flavor when it’s hot. There are more extravagant versions but I don’t see the point.
Third, homemade cranberry sauce is nasty. The only person I have ever met who likes it is my boyfriend’s dad. Other than him, everyone else either detests cranberry sauce completely, or loves the canned.
Obviously everything mentioned is my own opinion so please don’t bash me for it. 
I hope garlic is involved. This one is a great fifteen minute saucepan improvisation. Butter too, that seems obvious (or olive oil, I grudgingly grant).