Thanksgiving prep

This Thanksgiving will be the fourth I've hosted for friends here in New York (I've hosted one other, in London, that went fine except for the part where the turkey was still frozen after four hours in the oven and I cried while asking the rotisserie chicken guy for the largest one he had) and my goal is to have everything nearly ready by the time guests arrive so I can calmly hand them a cocktail instead of thrusting a bottle of wine at them and resuming my freak out in the kitchen. And this year, I'll be giving up two hours of cooking time to head to the Upper West Side to catch a few giant balloons floating by.

So, to keep turkey day as stress-free as possible, here's what I'm doing in advance:

Tonight I'm...
- making & freezing biscuit dough
- making the pie dough
- making a compound butter to be squished under the skin of the turkey
- making the topping for the sweet potato casserole
- washing all the serving dishes & platters

Wednesday I will...
- make the pumpkin cheesecake
- make the chocolate pie
- make cheese straws 
- roast sweet potatoes
- prep the brussel sprouts
- slice fennel & seed a pomegranate for the salad

Which just leaves the turkey and lots of assembling/heating on the big day. And, hopefully, plenty of time to drink apple cider mimosas with my guests.

a helpful reminder, via craftily ever after.