My Thanksgiving plan

No more Brussels sprouts.

This is Skylar’s and my sixth year cooking together. I once described us cooking the Thanksgiving meal as two alphas trying to project manage the same dinner. We have come a long way from our first, sorta frustrating Thanksgiving in Skylar’s tiny Bushwick kitchen, opening up to each other’s styles of planning, preparation, and execution. 

We split the cooking duties, but swap at least one responsibility year to year. I’m the baker, so I’m in charge of rolls and dessert, and mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce are Skylar’s domain. I’m more eager to try new flavors and twists, too, and he is more of a traditionalist. Like our meal, we balance each other out. 

Our menu is long, and for the size of the small crowd we feed each year, ridiculous. We don’t have family in the area and our friends are usually out of the country or in New Jersey, but there is, at least, my dear friend Eric, who makes the three-block journey with several bottles of wine.   

This year I want to do more cooking ahead—not so much because we’ve been stressed the day-of, but rather because of all the goddamn dishes. We’ll also pull back on portions. There is only so much stuffing three people can eat.

Below, you’ll find our 2023 menu. I would love to hear about yours. 

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Snacks

I love snacks. I would eat a Thanksgiving worth of snacks. But I have to be careful—too much cheese and I’m full before dinner. 

This year I want to go light and tangy. I’m thinking an endive and radicchio crudité spread and two yogurt/labneh based dips—probably something herby and something spicy. 

That said, I’m sure I will also accidentally make a baked brie. 

Salad

One year we agreed to forgo a green salad, my thought at the time being that a green salad, on a day like Thanksgiving, was a distraction. Health on our one day for shameless indulgence and excess? Well, I was wrong. We had to order sushi the next day to reset our palates—green, light, and raw is now a requirement. 

We’ll make Alison Roman’s leafy herb salad. Something airy, fresh, and acidic. Not a celery stalk in sight. 

Green beans

I’m so sick of roasted Brussels sprouts—they are rarely anything more than a lazy restaurant side—so I was happy Skylar agreed to replace them this year with blistered green beans instead. 

Macaroni and cheese

Neither Skylar nor I grew up in the South, so macaroni and cheese was not on either of our childhood Thanksgiving menus. But my mom did make sublime baked mac, and I was happy to adopt it for our holiday. 

I usually follow Martha’s recipe because its baked bechamel method with cheddar and gouda is similar to my mom’s. I don’t believe in bread crumbs on macaroni and cheese (the same restaurants that serve tough, burnt brussel sprouts serve bread-crumbed mac…), so I skip it. But Martha’s additions of nutmeg and cayenne elevate it just enough.

On the subject of pasta shapes, I am team elbow macaroni. Bowties are wrong. I shudder at the thought of a penne. Skylar prefers cavatappi, which I can agree is the only acceptable elbow substitution. 

Squash 

I’m actually kind of anti-squash on Thanksgiving. There is this idea that, if you don’t eat turkey, you need to replace it with some other “main dish,” but with so many starchy carbs at the table already—the mashed potatoes and mac and cheese—a stuffed squash seems excessive. I do want to have more autumnal flavors in our spread, however, so I’m giving a roasted squash side a try this year—probably mini-honeynuts, with a yogurt and pomegranate seed sauce. 

Stuffing

I didn’t like stuffing as a kid, so it’s been fun to learn to like this dish. We usually follow Alison Roman’s recipe, but now that I eat oysters, Skylar wants to make an oyster stuffing. He plans to Frankenstein Roman’s recipe with something like this. 

For the stuffing bread, we usually pick up a micca loaf from Saraghina Bakery, but this year I will make a sourdough boule. 

Rolls

Skylar would be happy with store-bought Hawaiian rolls, but vegetarian Thanksgiving is about carbs and I simply must dip a warm, pillowy roll in mashed potatoes and gravy. 

I’ve tried different recipes over the years and have always been disappointed by my creations. Being on the garden level, our apartment doesn’t exactly provide the optimal cozy, warm environment for yeast, and my inexperience usually results in edible but disappointing bakes. This year, however, I’ve made enough loaves that I feel prepared to make the dinner rolls of my dreams. I am going to follow this sourdough recipe from The Perfect Loaf. Wish me luck. 

Turkey

I don’t eat turkey, of course, but Skylar makes an entire bird each year, and we force Eric home with a hefty tupperware. 

Skylar follows this dry brined, spatchcocked method from Bon Appétit and I leave the room while he prepares it. He usually orders a free-range heritage bird from Farm To People and follows this recipe for the gravy. 

Gravy

I make this mushroom gravy, but I would happily take suggestions if you have a favorite! Since I’m the only one who eats it, I halve the recipe. 

Cranberry sauce 

Cranberry sauce is another one of those things I didn’t eat as a kid, but Skylar won me over with this orange-bourbon version. 

Mashed potatoes  

Mashed potatoes are Skylar’s thing and he makes a pretty straightforward version with butter, garlic, skin-on red potatoes, heavy cream, and a “small dollop of sour cream.” 

Pumpkin pie 

I tend to make a different dessert every year—usually some type of apple galette, but last year I made a blackberry cornmeal cake. This year I’m going to leave my comfort zone and try my hand at

Asha Loupy

’s pumpkin pie with toasted pistachios. 

Drinks

We’ve done batched martinis, sazeracs, and bourbon apple ciders before, but I always just want ice water and a glass of natty wine. 

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Anything new on your Thanksgiving menu this year? Anyone made the fried sage salsa verde? Worth it?