Jenna,

Well, to be honest, yes I can taste the sour cream/cream cheese but I like both. I don't consider them to interfere with the gravy. But, that said, everybody's taste buds are different and at the Thanksgiving meal, even in August, people often want familiar tastes/textures. To be safe, I'd try them out beforehand.

I make mashed potatoes with butter/milk, return them to the pot the potatoes were cooked in and set them on a back burner. Between the warmth coming from the oven and whatever is cooking on the remaining burners - the mashed potatoes stay ready for serving about 30-45 minutes. They also stay warm in a Nesco.

Enjoy having everybody at your house again.

/tricia

When I make mashed potatoes it's almost always using the make-ahead recipe these days, because this recipe also freezes well. I freeze them in dollops (use a large ice cream scoop to portion and quick-freeze them on a cookie sheet and transfer to a FoodSaver bag when completely frozen) or small plastic containers (pop out of the containers, stack the potato "bricks" and vacuum-seal in a FoodSaver bag) to use later. This is how I "preserve" my small crop of potatoes each year, as well as when I find a buy-one-get-one bargain when potatoes go on sale during the holidays. This way I only make mashed potatoes a few times a year, but always have them on-hand in the freezer. A couple thawed dollops will cover a small shepherd's pie or casserole.

If you happen to have a slow cooker with a removable dish, this is a good use for that appliance. One less thing you have to find room for in your oven. You can make the potatoes and put them in the dish, cover tightly, refrigerate them a day ahead of time. Take them out of the refrigerator about 3-1/2 hours before needed and reheat on LOW. Stir them a couple times during reheating. You have the option of taking the dish out of the slow-cooker for serving, or leaving it in and plugged in, set on LOW to keep them warm on the buffet.

If I had one tip about making them, don't over-beat your potatoes. Gluey mashed potatoes come from over-beating them (happens quickly when using an electric beater or food processor instead of a potato masher - and a husband conscripted for the task ;-), not the extra ingredients of sour cream and cream cheese.

As the wise tricia mentioned. Try a couple recipes and see which one you like. You may like one that only has cream cheese rather than both cream cheese and sour cream. You can always freeze them to use later, like I do.

I made "Thanksgiving" in August 3-years ago when our Army Officer son-in-law was deploying and his Army friend had just returned and was stationed at Ft. Riley, not far from where we live, and he came for the off-season festivities.

Instead of baking pumpkin pie, I made pumpkin pudding and topped each parfait dish with whipped cream and a baked pastry leaf cut from pastry with a small leaf cookie cutter.

PUMPKIN PUDDING
1 can (15-oz.) canned pumpkin
1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice
1-1/2 c. milk
3.5-oz. pk. Instant Vanilla Pudding (can use sugar-free)

Mix pumpkin an pumpkin pie spice together in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Slowly stir in the milk. Mix well. Add the instant pudding mix and stir slowly for about one minute until it thickens. Transfer to a serving bowl or individual servings and chill before serving.

-Grainlady

The Pioneer Woman recipe, which calls for cream cheese, etc., results in very heavy, dense mashed potatoes. I tried it last Thanksgiving and will not use it again because the family prefers the lighter, fluffier, traditional version. Just an FYI.

I know that there are some side dishes that can be made a head, but for me, mashed potatoes is not one of them. Mashed potatoes is the easiest part of the dinner to make. The flavour, in my opinion, suffers when they are made ahead, or made ahead and frozen. Just not the same as freshly made mashed potatoes. Again, just my opinion.

Like Tricia, if I was concerned about time, I would make the mashed potatoes and keep them warm for 20 to 30 minutes while doing the finishing touches to your Thanksgiving dinner. As Tricia mentions, they will stay warm sitting on a back burner, or while the turkey is resting, place the potatoes in the still warm oven. But don't cover the potatoes totally with a lid. Place a paper towel over the bowl before covering with a lid. This will prevent condensation from dripping back into the potatoes.

~Ann

I personally like PW's make-ahead mashed potatoes but if I didn't want to add cream cheese, etc. I'd give Cooks Illustrated's recipe a shot. A couple tricks, including cooking the potatoes half-way in the MW supposedly eliminates texture problems when reheated. They also add a half cup of heavy cream per 5 pounds of potatoes after the desired consistency is achieved, before storing. I can look up and post the recipe if interested.

FOAS, I saw that CI recipe a while ago, but have not tried it.

I also don't care for the sour cream/cream cheese additions to mashed potatoes, I want milk and butter, some salt and potatoes, that's pretty much it.

I warm up mashed potatoes by just taking them out the the refrigerator, adding a little more milk and butter and heating in the microwave, whip them until they are less stiff. Of course, that's small amounts, not big ones.

Annie

Grainlady, thank you for the quick pumpkin pudding recipe!

bcskye-

Ironically enough, the recipe was developed by a poster here for her father and submitted in a recipe contest, but I'm sorry to say I can't recall her "name" and the prize-winning details.

It's a recipe I first made as a volunteer at the public library during the summer children's reading program. We read books together about pumpkins and then we make the pudding. The recipe has had a long life in this town because for about a decade, 25 kids have taken it home with them each summer when we use it in the summer reading program.

-Grainlady

The pudding sounds really good. Pumpkin pie is necessary at holiday time. And one of the only pies that i do not care about crust at all.
Potatoes do freeze well. I have a 'thanksgiving meal' in the freezer. Has it all...turkey, gravy, wild mushroom stuffing, potatoes, even cranberry sauce. Like a TV dinner. (we usually freeze 2-4 leftover meals and have them by january...)
I usually have a volunteer to do the potatoes. Pretty simple. Maybe someone will take over and wash, cut, and boil then smash? Might be nice to have fresh....just a thought.

I have a friend with a small kitchen who likes to host holiday meals for her family. She sets each one up with a small area of counter space or table space, and gives them a specific task. It works fine for her family, but they've done it that way for a long time. I don't know if it was a gradual process or not. Come to think of it, we mostly did that when I was a child, too. Then I had a mother-in-law who didn't operate that way, so did it all myself.

I think it's a concept that a lot of us who are less physically capable than they used to be, or even just getting older, would do well to start implementing. I do this with more casual dinners, bit haven't been up to hosting a special holiday meal in a long time. Of course it doesn't help that my dining room is craft clutter central!

Thank you everyone!

Grainlady, you solved a problem I was having with by suggesting your recipe. It's printed out and attached to my notes and already on my shopping list. We live in Arizona and like a lot of other places, the temps here have been so high that we've been compared to Death Valley temps. Ugh! We were up to 128-129 for a couple days. Double ugh! But hey, it's cooled down to 121 for the past couple of days. :) The pumpkin parfaits couldn't be more perfect and will be one less thing to heat the house up and something the younger kids can put together.

We downsized drastically when we bought this home and moved about seven months ago. My kitchen doesn't have half the counter and prep space that I had before...or any other space that we had before. Liz, our friends and family will be helping but I'm kinda OCD about my Thanksgiving dinners. But in planning I'm realizing that it's time to get over it. Strangely, not so much with other meals and since everyone is volunteering kitchen clean-up, meal suggestions, shopping and cooking it's really going to make it easy.

So far we have about 35 people arriving in a two week period, with a 4-day window when everyone will be here together. We're expecting that number to rise somewhat in the next couple of weeks. We're lucky that we live very close to a lake and boats, PWC's and a couple motorhomes will be in the mix and arriving as well as our boat and pool, even tho it's a smallish pool.

A surprise that we got yesterday was that our neighbor offered us the use of his house! We live in a town where a very significant percent of the homes are owned by out-of-towners as vacation homes and snow bird homes so they sit unoccupied most of the time. Our one neighbor, who we've only met/seen three times had come out to check on his house from out of state and we asked him if it would be ok if our visitors could park in front of his home (on the street) if he wasn't going to be here. Half an hour later his wife came over with the keys to their house and asked if we wanted to use it. We was absolutely stunned! Even today I can't believe it but I did call around and found a cleaning company for after all the company leaves. My husband and I also decided to pay for one month's of their water and other utilities bills so that they aren't incurring a cost as well as take them out for a nice dinner when they're back in town.

I made PW's recipe yesterday and my husband didn't complain too much but he wasn't overly excited about it either. I froze a good portion of it as I want to see how it is after defrosting and warming. But, like Annie, I like mashed potatoes the traditonal way and have always made it that way with butter, a little cream and S&P. So that will most likely be the route I take, especially if someone else does all the peeling.That is probably the one thing I hate to do in any meal that calls for potatoes.

Here's the basics of how I plan on doing all the hot foods:

2 turkeys - one stuffed, the other not - the 'empty' one done outside in the roaster the day before and the stuffed one done in the roaster outside the day of.

Ham - spiral, wrapped in foil and warmed on the grill

Two sides (yet to be determined, but sure one will be spiced yams) will be done in crock pots...you guessed it, outside.

Deviled eggs started the day before. I'm also toying with the idea of making LindaC's cranberry Jezebel but haven't decided for sure. I've had the recipe for years but have never made it.

Potatoes will be done inside and like suggested above, will put them on a back burner. Just so happens that I have a warmer spot on my stove that I've never used so thanx for the suggestion/reminder. I also have two warming plates so I'm sure those will be in use as well.

Any other sides will be lighter and cold dishes and easy to make ahead.

Our niece's BF makes breads and he's already volunteered to do all the bread and roll making, as well as breakfast rolls. Think that will be done at the neighbor's house.

Alot of the eating will be done sitting on the floor or any other place that can be found. Nothing formal about this get-together or turkey dinner.

One thing I never do is make appies.........I want everyone very hungry, so a light fruit breakfast the morning of the turkey dinner. Which is why they probably all think my meals are so spectacular because they're all half starving by the time dinner was completely ready.

I'm sorry this got so long and that I've been rambling on. I am so very excited about next month and all the company that will be here. We have some wonderful long time friends and family and it's going to be oh-so worth all the time and effort.

Thank you all again!

Jenna

Jenna, it sounds like everything's planned out nicely. What a wonderful time you'll have!