I had a large bunch at my house for Thanksgiving. I was like you, and
wanting to avoid the last minute jitters, where everything has to be
hot at the same time.

The secret is crockpots, and crockpot liners.

My house is small. I only have 4 burners, and one oven. But I have a
portable roaster oven which I use during holidays.

I managed to have the turkey in my regular oven. And a ham in the
portable roaster oven, which was going out in my garage (next to the
kitchen).

I had three crockpots going out there on my counter as well.

After I mashed the potatoes, I put them in one crockpot (with the
disposable liner). I had also made the Harvest Potatoes, which are the
blend of regular potatoes, yams, spices, cheese, etc. They went into
the second crockpot.

In the third crock pot, I had the gravy which I had going. This crock
pot didn't have a disposable liner.

When it came time to serve. I set my daughter to carving the turkey,
while I went out to the garage grabbed the two disposable bags of
different potatoes, and turned them inside out into the serving bowls.


I was really glad to see how easily that worked out. The only thing
that really took attention at the last moment, was my vegetable dish.
I had made a nice platter, which had a small hollowed out pumpkin,
which I had stuffed with steamed baby carrots, with italian seasoning,
butter, and grated parmesan. I had placed the little pumpkin on a bed
of stir fried mushrooms, and then taken my green beans with bacon and
slivered almonds, and filled up the remainder of the platter. It was
really quite pretty. Even the kids ate vegetables that day;-)

It was so nice to not worry about the potatoes which had been prepared
and completed about an hour before hand, and kept warm in those
crockpots.

I think it is also very important to take the stress out of the day, by
chopping, dicing, and prepping as much as possible the day before.

I usually chop or dice any bell peppers, onions, celery, etc. the
previous day, while I'm baking pies, etc.

Myrl Jeffcoat
http://www.myrljeffcoat.com