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Friendsgiving Potluck Checklist

Medium 24 items · 1 week
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testuser Published 1 day ago
Cooking

If you are hosting Friendsgiving as a potluck, most of your job is coordination. You cook the main dish, often a turkey, and you decide who brings what, so the table ends up with sides, a salad and drinks as well as four pies.

On the day itself, oven space runs out first. A turkey can hold the oven for hours, so ask every guest whether their dish arrives ready to serve, needs reheating or still has to bake, and plan the oven around their answers before anyone turns up with a raw casserole.

Ask about allergies and diets when you send the invitation, and pass the answers on to the people cooking. Whoever brings the stuffing needs to know before they shop that someone at the table cannot eat gluten.

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  1. Pick a date and a start time — Avoid Thanksgiving weekend itself, so guests are still free to travel to family.
  2. Settle the guest list against the seats and chairs you have
  3. Send the invitations — Give the time and address. Say plainly that it is a potluck and that you will assign dishes.
  4. Ask each guest about allergies and diets
  5. Decide what you will cook yourself — Usually the main dish, plus the gravy if it is made from the turkey drippings.
  6. Write a dish list by course — Starters, sides, salad, bread, dessert and drinks. Give sides the most slots.
  7. Assign each dish to a named guest — A shared list everyone can see stops two people bringing the same thing.
  8. Ask each cook whether their dish is ready to serve, needs reheating or needs baking
  9. Pass on the allergy and diet answers to each cook
  10. Ask cooks to bring their own serving spoon
  11. Plan an oven and stovetop timetable — The turkey rests after it comes out, and that window is when other dishes can bake or reheat.
  12. Start thawing the turkey in the fridge with days to spare — Allow about one day in the fridge for every 4 to 5 pounds.
  13. Count plates, glasses, cutlery and napkins — Borrow or buy what you are short of now, not on the morning.
  14. Clear fridge space for cold dishes — A cooler with ice on the porch or balcony takes the drinks out of the fridge.
  15. Make a card for each dish with its name and main allergens
  16. Text the group a reminder the day before — Repeat the arrival time and each person's dish.
  17. Set up the serving table the night before — Hot dishes arriving in their baking pans need trivets or folded towels under them.
  18. Buy ice
  19. Clear space for coats and clean the bathroom
  20. Roast the turkey
  21. Put each dish's card out as it arrives — Stick masking tape with the owner's name under the dish at the same time, so it goes home with the right person.
  22. Keep hot dishes hot and cold dishes cold through the meal — Get leftovers into the fridge within two hours of serving. Food left out longer than that goes in the bin.
  23. Have takeaway containers ready for leftovers — Guests can take home what is left of their own dish plus a share of the turkey.
  24. Wash and return every dish that came from a guest
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