Y’all, Thanksgiving has a way of sneaking up on a person.

One minute you’re putting away the Halloween candy, and the next somebody is asking what time the turkey will be ready while you’re standing in front of the refrigerator wondering why you own four kinds of mustard and absolutely no room for a turkey.

I have decided there are two ways to cook Thanksgiving dinner.

You can do everything on Thanksgiving Day and spend the holiday conducting air-traffic control between the oven, the stovetop and three relatives who keep asking, “Is there anything I can do?”

Or you can get a little bit ahead of the thing.

I’m voting for getting ahead of the thing.

Start with the refrigerator

Before I buy another single Thanksgiving ingredient, I need to make room for it.

That means this is the week to investigate the refrigerator.

Throw away the mysterious container nobody remembers putting there. Consolidate the half-empty bottles. Decide whether that little bowl covered in foil is food or a science experiment.

Biscuit considers refrigerator-cleaning day one of the major holidays on his personal calendar.

Decide what actually matters

Thanksgiving does not require fourteen side dishes.

Pick the things your family really loves.

For us, I would much rather have a good turkey, wonderful mashed potatoes, rolls, a couple of vegetables and an excellent pie than twelve casseroles competing for oven space.

And anything that can be made ahead ought to be made ahead.

Pie dough can be made early and frozen. Some side dishes can be assembled ahead. Vegetables can be washed and trimmed before Thursday. Serving dishes can be pulled out before you have a hot pan in one hand and absolutely nowhere to put it.

This is also the time to make sure you actually own the roasting pan you have been picturing in your head.

Give the turkey some breathing room

If you are buying a frozen turkey, please remember that frozen turkeys apparently do not thaw according to wishful thinking.

Give it enough refrigerator time.

And if you have never tried dry-brining a turkey, this may be the year. Seasoning it ahead gives the salt time to work its way into the meat and can help you get better flavor without spending Thanksgiving morning wrestling with a bucket of liquid brine.

The goal is a turkey that tastes good before somebody pours gravy over it.

Make Wednesday your friend

Wednesday should not be Thanksgiving with a different name.

It should be the day you finish the things that can safely be finished.

Bake the pies. Chop what can be chopped. Measure ingredients. Set out the serving pieces. Put drinks in the refrigerator. Figure out where everybody is going to sit.

That way Thursday morning begins with a plan instead of a scavenger hunt.

And then there is the baking

This is the part where I become very interested in having the right tools and ingredients on hand.

If you need pie supplies, baking pans, mixes, rolling tools or something a little more ambitious for the bread basket, King Arthur Baking’s Thanksgiving collection is worth a look. They have pie, roll and cornbread options along with the equipment to make the whole operation considerably less adventurous.

Shop King Arthur Baking for Thanksgiving →

And if you enjoy finding unusual kitchen tools, pantry ingredients or something different for the Thanksgiving table, Milk Street’s store is the sort of place where I can lose considerably more time than I intended.

I go in looking for one useful kitchen tool and come out wondering how I have managed all these years without six things I did not know existed that morning.

Browse Milk Street’s Thanksgiving Finds →

The point is not a perfect Thanksgiving

I think sometimes we make ourselves miserable trying to create the Thanksgiving dinner that ought to appear in a magazine.

Nobody at my table is grading the symmetry of the pie crust.

They want good food.

They want the things they remember.

They want to sit around the table longer than it took us to cook the meal.

So do what you can early.

Make a list.

Clean out the refrigerator.

Bake the pie before Thursday.

And when Thanksgiving Day gets here, leave yourself enough time to sit down and enjoy the people you did all that cooking for.

Biscuit has already mastered this part.

His entire Thanksgiving preparation consists of finding the spot beneath the table with the highest probability of falling turkey.

I am beginning to suspect he may be the smartest one in the house.

Find Thanksgiving kitchen favorites at Milk Street →

Shop King Arthur Baking’s Thanksgiving collection →

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