How to Make a Thanksgiving Dinner Menu for two
The thought of planning a Thanksgiving dinner for two people may seem incredibly daunting. After all, Thanksgiving is all about feasting (or at least that's what it's become in the minds of mainstream America,) and cooking a meal for two is naturally going to be somewhat limiting. Planning ahead, knowing what you're going to serve and how much you will need will make the process infinitely easier.*Deciding on the menu -Unless someone likes dark meat, or you know you can use a turkey carcass for soup, there is no point in purchasing an entire turkey just to serve two people. Consider going the route of ham, a turkey breast or even Cornish hens. You can purchase a boneless turkey breast or one with the bone in it. Pheasant is also an option, and will be very much in keeping with a more traditional Thanksgiving. .Decide on what else you intend to serve. Are you going to make dressing, mashed or sweet potatoes, bread, rolls, veggies, pie, cranberry? All of that should be decided in advance.
- What are your options? -
If you go the route of a packaged stuffing, the average package will have about four servings, so that means that there is enough for two people to enjoy for Thanksgiving dinner and have just enough leftovers for another meal. Instead of buying an entire pound of cranberries, consider buying a can of cranberry sauce. You can add your own cut up orange chunks to it, and that will really give it a more unique flavor.
Instead of going to the trouble of making mashed potatoes and a fancy sweet potato dish, do one or the other. Maybe you want to go a healthier route and make baked sweet potatoes. That will also be infinitely easier for you. Be sure to wrap the sweet potatoes in foil when you bake them (or in wax paper if you bake them in the microwave,) and poke holes in them so they don't explode everywhere.
If you don't want to make a huge pie, consider making small individual pies. If you have too much pumpkin custard leftover, make additional pies to freeze. Nothing says you have to make a pie, though. You could opt to have a pumpkin mousse instead. If possible, cut recipes in half. That will keep you from having to deal with so much in the way of leftovers.
- Timing is key -
If you are making a meal for yourself and one other person, there's probably a good chance that cooking space is at a real premium. You will need to get creative about how to finagle things. You might want to cook some things in advance, microwave potatoes instead of baking them, microwave a vegetable, and cook your dressing on top of the stove. That will free your oven for other things. You can even cook a small turkey, a turkey breast, Cornish hens or ham in a crock pot. Use a crock pot liner to eliminate some of the messy clean up.
- Make it special -
It isn't hard to make a romantic and special Thanksgiving dinner for two people. Use some attractive table linen. If you have a good set of dishes, use those. You don't have to have a "special" Thanksgiving table cloth. Fall colored table linen is perfect, or you can use whatever you have. Use cloth napkins to create a more elegant look. Wine glasses will look prettier than regular glasses, and you can add candlelight to add even more ambiance to your table.
A Thanksgiving dinner for two can be fun, romantic and even enjoyable to prepare. If you turn it into something that the two of you can do together, the actual preparation of the meal can be a great bonding experience. When you sit down to the meal, you can enjoy the rewards of your hard efforts. Be sure you do the clean up as you go so you don't wind up having to do it all after the meal.
