Thanksgiving 2026: The Menu (and How I Actually Pull It Off)

Every year, Thanksgiving starts in a spreadsheet.

I’m not kidding. I spent years as a project manager and I’m a data analyst now, and I cannot help myself. There’s a menu column with the serving dish written right next to each thing (the deviled eggs get the egg plate, the rice and green chile gets the large cream rectangle, and the mince goes in the tart makers). There’s a timeline that runs from the Monday before all the way down to “5:00 PM: EAT.” There’s a shopping list split by store, Whole Foods on one side and Publix on the other. And there’s a column of recipe links, because I will not remember where I found that carrot recipe.

So here’s this year’s menu.

Starters are deviled eggs, crudités with vegetable dip, and Sharon’s pecan cheese ball. The dip is the Knorr one, a packet of Knorr Vegetable Recipe Mix with sour cream, mayo (Duke’s or bust), chopped spinach, scallions, and water chestnuts. It’s not fancy, and it doesn’t need to be. And it’s turned out to be the favorite over the basic ranch dip.

The turkey is the sous vide and fry method I wrote about on Sunday, How I Actually Cook Thanksgiving Turkey, with gravy in two versions, turkey and vegetarian.

The sides: mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing, collard greens, ratatouille, Sharon’s rice and green chile, green bean casserole, and sweet potato stacks. The cream roasted carrots got pulled last year. Maybe I’ll revisit them at some point, but not this year.

And the pies, which y’all have already met in Eight Pies for Six People. This year Kevin’s making the cherry cranberry and the apple, which I’m very happy about. Zach’s chocolate will be silk or cream, depending on how much time I have that morning. All of it gets bourbon brown sugar whipped cream, and there are French 75s and red and white wine to wash it down.

Then there’s the experiment. Last year’s was key lime, and it turned out to be a summer pie that wandered into the wrong holiday. This year it’s Ari’s pear ginger, reworked as a gingered pear galette. And sweet potatoes are getting a shake-up: a sweet potato pie on the dessert table in place of the sweet potato casserole, and sweet potato stacks on the side, from a video that didn’t come with a recipe. Test run first.

How the week actually goes

The timeline is the part that saves me. The early-week stuff moves around depending on my work schedule, but here’s the shape of it, using this year’s dates.

The weekend before, or early in the week: the gravy, and the turkey goes in the bath, then into an ice bath and the fridge.

Monday: clean out the fridge (you need the room, trust me on this one), do the big grocery run, and make the cornbread so it can start staling for the dressing.

Tuesday: cook the rice and build the rice and green chile casserole.

Wednesday is the big one. Prep the vegetables for the crudités and make the dip. Boil the eggs. Cook the collards. Make the pies. Then assemble everything that can be assembled: the ratatouille, and the dressing. All of it goes in the fridge, ready to bake.

Thursday is mostly putting things in the oven and taking them out again. Devil the eggs and make the chocolate pie early, since that one’s best fresh, and set the table. At 3:00 the starters come out and the turkey goes back in the bath to rewarm. At 3:30 the ratatouille, the dressing, and the rice and green chile go in the oven, the potatoes for mash start boiling. Around 4:00 Kevin starts frying. The ratatouille gets uncovered at 4:10, and at 4:30 the potatoes get mashed and the gravy gets warmed. Food hits the table at 4:50, and at 5:00 we eat. The pies go in the oven to warm while we do.

Is it a lot? It’s a lot. But by Thursday most of the work is already done, the spreadsheet tells me what’s next, and I get to actually sit down at my own table.

Do y’all plan Thanksgiving on paper, or wing it? Let me know in the comments.

P.S. The schedule says we eat at 5:00. Most years we sit down closer to 5:30, or even 6:00, and that’s okay. Everyone at my table knows the schedule is more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules. (Thank you, Captain Barbossa.)

P.P.S. Last year’s menu card listed a chocolate “expresso” pie. That wasn’t a typo. Zach always says “expresso” because he knows it drives me crazy, so I gave him his very own “expresso” pie.