A Beginner’s Thanksgiving: 7 Recipes That Lighten the Workload
The New York Times
For first-time cooks, or anyone looking to simplify the holiday prep, this special menu minimizes effort and maximizes flavor.
For the fledgling cook, Thanksgiving dinner can seem like the most intimidating meal to make. It’s not often that a civilian is asked to knock out a long succession of dishes, including a giant bird, for a crowd with fixed ideas of how it should all be done.
But it doesn’t have to be like that. I set out to devise a scaled-down menu for beginners — or anyone who wants to achieve the same flavor touchstones without doing more work than necessary.
Most of the dishes can be prepared with little more than a sheet pan and a large skillet. Everything cooks at one temperature — 350 degrees — so you’re not performing mental or physical gymnastics with the oven.
