Low effort holiday feasting?

November 19, 2015 12:57 PM

My favorite part of the holidays is the FOOD. I love all the rich, sweet, and special seasonal eats, and I love to make them for my people. Unfortunately, this year, I Just Can't. Thinking about planning and cooking is stressful rather than exciting right now. How can I make nomming as low key as possible in terms of planning/effort, but still awesome? Wanting specific suggestions for Thanksgiving, periChristmas, and New Year's. Family will be visiting at various points. This is in the U.S., and we have a Trader Joe's and a Costco nearby.
posted by moira to Food & Drink (24 answers total)

We started catering in holiday meals a few years ago. Sometimes a local restaurant (there was a restaurant in San Diego that had it down to a science, pickups were assigned times between 7-10am and you never got out of your car), sometimes Honeybaked Ham (I've done both local pickup and shipment where you heat everything yourself).

Even when all we got were bare-bones classics - bird, mashed, rolls, green beans, sauces, pies - it was what everyone wanted and we drank wine and hung out and everyone had a great time and nobody was worn the hell out.

And honestly? Given the amount of money I can spend on on groceries for overambitious menus, the catering is cheaper in the end.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:08 PM on November 19, 2015 [7 favorites]

Seconding a caterer, which is how my parents have handled it in the past.
posted by thomas j wise at 1:10 PM on November 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

I always loved making dinner for family and friends, and my wife would happily buy dinner complete from a restaurant/grocery store. So one year I relented and let her buy her goddamned Wegmans precooked Thanksgiving feast, and wouldn't you know, it was really good. Not as good as mine, natch, but compared to having to prep and cook and clean for hours and hours, yeah, it was A-OK in my book. So we've done this off and on, and that's freed up time for me to make the extras like pierogi, baklava, what have you.

Actually remembered to preview for once! So Lyn Never++!
posted by disconnect at 1:11 PM on November 19, 2015 [5 favorites]

Nthing cater it and love every minute.

My family's Thanksgiving tradition (for 15+ years!) is to buy a FABULOUS box of pre-made turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad and salad dressing, veggies/beans, rolls, butter, gravy, stuffing, and pie... we literally make nothing from home. The box is delicious, maybe a little pricey where we buy it (the San Jose Fairmont Hotel - I think it's $230 for food for 6-8?) but so easy and so so good. It comes with a little coversheet that explains everything you need to do in precise steps to prepare the meal, with a timeline. No thinking required and all noms.
posted by samthemander at 1:14 PM on November 19, 2015

Find a local Mexican place that makes tamales for christmas eve.... mmmmmmmmm, tamales.... get your order in early, though.
posted by Huck500 at 1:16 PM on November 19, 2015 [4 favorites]

Caveat: caterers never give you enough gravy for leftovers. Trader Joe's boxed gravy (as in a juice box of gravy, not a mix) is really good, I use it year-round.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:31 PM on November 19, 2015 [3 favorites]

If you still want to make some things from scratch, you could just pick one course and do that - like, you'll make all the cookies or dessert items, but for everything else you'll just order out.

Or, for Christmas, just have it be a roving cocktail party approach - honestly, all the Christmases when I was a kid I barely remember the dinner part, most of the "Christmas food" i remember is all of the hors-d'ouerve'y things and sweet stuff that were set out all over the place anyway - popcorn, crackers and cheese, nuts, trail mix, these chocolate coffee candies and these mint patty things my aunt always had, and I would just spend the day wandering around and helping myself to random food items as the mood struck. We'd have a dinner, yeah, but that part always felt like "thanksgiving the sequel" in terms of menu to me and it was the snacky stuff that always won out.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:34 PM on November 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Another option is, restaurant reservations. Somebody else cooks, so you aren't already exhausted by the time dinner comes around; somebody else cleans up, so you aren't frazzled by making the house look perfect before the family arrives and then the kitchen cleaning afterwards; and if you (like me!) don't enjoy eating nothing but that ton of leftovers for the next week, there aren't any unless you take a doggy bag home.

But whatever you decide to do, do it fast, because Thanksgiving is just a week away: lots of catering places and restaurants are already filling up.
posted by easily confused at 1:36 PM on November 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

My family started having Thanksgiving out at a restaurant. My grandparents who always hosted were getting old, and because of awkwardness via divorce, there wasn't really a better option. It was a big family Thanksgiving dinner that started a bit earlier in the afternoon (linner, I guess?) and it wasn't bad. Every got to eat what they wanted, no one was stuck having to host, and everyone got to spend time together.

I would also consider catering at your home. When you think about what you're paying in groceries anyway, it may be worth the ease of just having everything set up and ready to go. Your options can range from Boston Market catering all the way up to nice restaurants. I'd do it.

Also, if you have family visiting on days other than the actual holidays, don't be afraid to order pizza and pasta or something non-traditional. You can only eat turkey so many days in a row, right? You don't need to stick to the classics.
posted by AppleTurnover at 3:27 PM on November 19, 2015

This may or may not work for your family, but if you can convince people to not be totally religiously attached to traditional holiday meals (which usually consist of some kind of slow roasted meat and a large number of sides), it can make it a lot easier. Having something like Lasagna for Christmas or Homemade Mac n Cheese for Thanksgiving is a whole lot simpler (and you can put it together a couple days in advance if necessary) than the whole to do, we've found. Supplemented with salads and some store bought desserts and it's plenty festive.

On Christmas Eve we have an Appetizer party where everyone brings something to snack/graze on in lieu of dinner.

For holiday baking, especially cookies, bar cookies are way simpler than making pan after pan of individual cookies.
posted by katyggls at 3:33 PM on November 19, 2015

My husband's family does everything grazing-style for Christmas, and it's fun because no matter what time people come over, there is something to eat and you don't have to worry about if everything "goes together" - you just grab what you want to eat and leave it at that. For people who want a ton at once, they can do it. For people who want to try a bit of everything all day, that's an option to. They usually often do things like pierogis and meatballs in a crockpot, veggie tray, and tons and tons of cookies and sweets. Trader Joe's has tons of stuff that would work well for this - including lots of cheeses and crackers, cookies, seasonal treats, frozen appetizers, etc
posted by nuclear_soup at 3:40 PM on November 19, 2015

We throw money at Whole Foods. It still has to be heated up, but it works for us, and we get the joy of leftovers. TJ's is a great supplement for extra stuffing and stuff.

If there's no Whole Foods near you, some other deli/bakery/restaurant/etc. place may be offering a complete, heat-at-home dinner.
posted by wintersweet at 3:54 PM on November 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

A few thoughts:

- I have some family who have a tradition that the night before Thanksgiving, they do a bunch of pizzas from one of those take-and-bake places. This is great for if you have a bunch of family coming for more than just the holiday. You can order a bunch of different kinds, and you can get then earlier in the day and only bake them once everyone is there.

- One thing to consider is getting everything BUT the turkey (or ham, or whatever animal main course) catered. Turkey, for instance, is pretty straightforward and doesn't require a ton of labor, but having one cooking in the oven while guests arrive and are hanging out is nice and festive. It's everything else that's a pain in the ass (side dishes, appetizers, desserts, salads, etc).
posted by lunasol at 4:13 PM on November 19, 2015

Everyone makes fun of turduckens, but they are super delicious and stupid easy. You just throw it in the oven for like 4 hours. There's no carving, you just slice it. We've done it several times. A nicer grocery store in your area might carry them or be able to special order. We have also gotten them shipped. Here's one here's another.

For appetizers, I'd get frozen mini quiches. They should have those at TJ's or Costco.

TJ's corn pudding (frozen) is an excellent side. Yummmmmm. Looks like they have a whole buncha frozen thanksgiving sides that are probably delish.

Get a pie at Whole Foods or the like. I got a great chocolate pecan pie from WF once. TJ's also has frozen pies that I'm sure are great.
posted by radioamy at 5:00 PM on November 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

We do Snacky Dinner for New Year's, where we put out a bunch of cheese and crackers, olives, salami or prosciutto, crudite, shrimp cocktail, maybe some strawberries or pomegranate. Champagne for the adults, of course. It's so, so perfect -- light, festive, and you can graze all night if you like.
posted by Andrhia at 5:01 PM on November 19, 2015

Our Christmas Eve tradition (inherited from my husband's family) is chili and hot chocolate. Because he married a Texan, it's now chili/frito pie and hot chocolate and beer and wine.

I'm definitely a big fan of the nontraditional but still with a sense of occasion.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:32 PM on November 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Costco has surprisingly high quality prepared food in general and especially for the holidays. If you have a big group, Costco is where it's at. One browsing trip through the aisles and you'll see way more tasty things than you have time to serve. In fact, what I have done in the past is go to Costco with a list of meals to be planned for, and as I threw stuff in the cart, note each item where it goes in the meal schedule, that way I make sure everything is covered and that I don't buy 4x more than I need. (But I do throw in some extras just to be sure.)

That said: the easier, simpler solution is to order a catered meal; or go to a restaurant. One year we went to a casino buffet and it was AWESOME.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:16 PM on November 19, 2015

The Costcos where I live are currently offering fresh organic and GIGANTIC pumpkin pies for only six bucks. Not sure of the exact diameter but by volume these are at least double the size of a normal pie. I regard this as a terrific holiday bargain. Grab one of these once a week and serve anyone who will eat it fresh organic pumpkin pie with whip cream. You will have many new friends by the end of the season.
posted by jcworth at 7:30 PM on November 19, 2015

This sweet and sour brisket (from Joy of Cooking) is a great "day before" dish. You can set it out and it's delicious warm, cold or room temp. Put your main focus on one centerpiece dish and the rest can be out of jars or cans or defrosted. For my holiday parties, I've tended toward a giant platter of veggies with sour cream/garlic dip, cheese plates, baguettes, deviled eggs, and pie.

My mom had a tradition of New Year's Day's being a "grazing" day. There were cold cuts and potato salad and pickles and other stuff on the table, so she could put her attention on college football.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:41 PM on November 19, 2015

Consider doing something totally off the wall and going with non-traditional food. Our "crazy" thing to resort to one Christmas was our comfort food version of tacos - and it's been requested for a variety of holidays since. In our extended family, "tacos" means burrito size soft flour tortillas, hamburger with taco seasoning, lots of rice a roni (usually chicken rather than beef, oddly), at least two and sometimes more kinds of shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes and onions, maybe chopped olives, whatever salsa, sour cream, and often cottage cheese *yes, really - some of us like it instead of sour cream*... and any other ingredients people feel like adding. Plus whatever snacks and deserts anyone feels like bringing.

It's relatively quick and easy to put together by oneself or assign people to bring various parts, it can be made ahead of time, it's reasonably cheap, it's easy increased in quantity, and it's filling. Plus, there's nothing wrong with extras... leftovers are easy, and if you make sure there are tortilla chips for nachos on hand, you get variety, too.
posted by stormyteal at 9:03 PM on November 19, 2015

Our compromise this year is that we are ordering the turkey from a local caterer who lets you pick them up, still warm from the oven, on Thursday at noon. We will handle the side dishes ourselves.

We debated just catering the entire thing, and may end up doing that in the future, but this way we can do some easy sides just the way we like them, and not have the annual cursing-sweating-turkey-tying while watching Alton-Brown's-Youtube-video-on-how-to-truss-a-turkey holiday.
posted by instead of three wishes at 6:23 AM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

I love the snacky holiday dinner or mid-day meals. For at least one of them, I rely on a fish market that does a lot of nice soups and chowders and smoked fish. A smoked fish platter with capers and onions is wonderful.
posted by BibiRose at 10:01 AM on November 20, 2015

Nthing the Costco/Grocery store "Thanksgiving in a box" approach. There were 2-3 years where my whole family was in a constant state of flux with everyone in various stages of moving, house remodeling, etc. and nobody wanted to deal with the logistics (or make anyone else in the family deal with them either,) so we just took care of the bird ourselves but ordered everything else from our local supermarket chain.

For something like $65 we got a big cardboard box containing already-cooked tubs of mashed potatoes, squash, gravy, stuffing, choice of two pies, and choice of cranberry sauce (the real kind or the wonderful gelatinous holds-the-shape-of-the-can style) that was enough for 8 adults. It just needed reheating, and it was as good as anything any of us would have made from scratch. Various family members supplemented with some extra sides and desserts, but nobody was saddled with preparing ALL the things, and it was such a relaxed way to go.

And years earlier, while stranded on the other side of the country by ourselves, Mrs. usonian and I did a smaller "Complete Thanksgiving dinner for two" deal from the local "fancy" grocery store that was really good too.
posted by usonian at 11:13 AM on November 20, 2015

Your local supermarket will offer a full-bird/ham meal and it will be cromulent. Also, affordable. Our Publix offers tastings, so you can confirm that all of their stuff is on point. Call your local market deli and ask about a tasting.

Another option is pot luck. My mom, who is in her seventies and it mostly bionic at this point, has finally admitted that she can't do it any more. They do a pot luck with family and friends and it's still lovely.

I can attest that no one ever has turned down the Honeybaked ham, and they do a heat and serve turkey that is outrageously yummy.

There are a ton of convenience foods out there that allow you to hack the hell out of the holiday.

Ore-Ida Steam and Mash Potatoes

Dry Stuffing, sautéed frozen Mirpoix (in butter), pre-sliced mushrooms and some chicken broth, boo-yah, stuffing.

A bakery near you makes amazing pies.

I learned a long time ago that you can slave in the kitchen and source the most amazing ingredients, but at the end of the day, it's the company that makes the holiday.

Have a peaceful and blessed holiday season with your family and friends.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:30 PM on November 20, 2015