Tourist Tuesday: Tiny Fridge Thanksgiving

Friends, I’m sorry. I don’t have a regular Tourist Tuesday post today. But, instead of that, I thought you might find it amusing to see how Ryan and I are preparing. In short, it IS possible to fit a turkey in a tiny dorm fridge. And it’s almost a 10 pound turkey too. Here’s a photo to prove it.

What’s all this food? I’ll tell you. Our Thanksgiving menu is going to look something like this:

• Turkey
• Gravy
• Stuffing
• Mom’s sweet potato recipe (which I’ll post tomorrow)
• Green vegetable
• Mashed potatoes
• Cranberry sauce (both can shaped and whole cranberries)
• Arroz con gandules
• Apple pie
• Pumpkin pie

So then I made a list of all the ingredients we’d need, I checked the cabinets to see what we already had, and then I placed an order online to have everything delivered. Ain’t no way I was going to be lugging everything back myself like a pack mule! I also made a list of the non-food items we’d need – things like craft materials so we can draw hand turkeys (I’m not kidding), a folding chair, and a roasting pan. That’s right ya’ll, our flat is fully stocked.

Unfortunately our best option ended up being a frozen turkey, so we had to get it way early, and now it’s owning the fridge. It’s the green thing in the picture above.

If you can believe it, we actually had a shelf that we had to remove in order to fit the turkey. I also took every else out of the fridge, put the turkey in, and then I played kitchen Tetris as I tried to shove everything else around it. Some things couldn’t fit, so we’re pretending to be European and we’re leaving our eggs at room temperature.

Also, I ended up with a ton of produce. I ordered more than I thought I needed because I wasn’t sure what size fruits and potatoes I’d get. I ended up with ENORMOUS sizes of everything. I ordered 12 apples because I want a tall fat pie. I have like 5 pounds of potatoes. And I ordered 10 sweet potatoes because my mom said 6-8 were needed for her recipe, and I wanted to make two smaller batches. I ended up with potatoes as big as my face. Look at it! These two are as big as a carton of eggs.

As you can see my fridge is full, my cabinets are stocked, my counters are overflowing. It’s truly Thanksgiving! This is only my second time hosting Thanksgiving so I’m a little nervous. I’m trying out two ways to keep myself organized. Here they are:

First, I’m writing out the menu with what bowls and utensils it needs. So things like “cranberry sauce in small white bowl with spoon” or “sweet potatoes in red casserole with large serving spoon.” I think this is going to help me for two reasons. One, I’ll know what dishes I need, so I know what needs to stay clean, or what might be missing. Two, it’s guaranteed I’m going to get stressed and nervous and turn into a psycho, and that list will help take some of the nitty-gritty particulars out of brain and into the world so Ryan will essentially be able to read my mind. He already knows I’m going to get crazy and is prepared to run around and pick up things at the store, set the table, taste test, and be my moral support.

Second, I’m made a calender that started on Saturday and goes to Thursday. It lists what bits need to be done when. You know, things like making the pie crust before I actually need to make the pie. Hopefully this will cut down on Thursday drama and will allow dinner to  happen at a normal time.

What are you eating for Thanksgiving? Even if you’re not hosting, what are you cooking? Is your fridge exploding? I want to know all about it. If you want to share, please put it in the comments below!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin