Thanksgiving to go

Thanksgiving is no exception.

Now that we’re on the run and free time and family time are so precious, most people want dinner to be easy, fast and quick to clean up – even our traditional holiday meals.

The days of getting up at dawn to stuff the turkey and hoist the hefty bird into the oven continue to wane. Many people feel they simply don’t have the time, the cooking skills or the energy to put on a Thanksgiving spread like the ones their grandmothers lovingly cooked. Every year, more and more people are turning to others for help with the traditional fixings.

This year more than half of us will rely on delis and grocery stores to make all or part of our Thanksgiving meal, according to research by the National Restaurant Association. Fifty-three percent of Thursday’s dinners will include ready-to-eat items or be entirely take-out. That’s up from 34 percent in 2001, the National Restaurant Association says. Another 11 percent of Americans will eat their Thanksgiving Day meal at a restaurant. So what happened? Are we really so busy that we can’t, even for one special day, make do without the convenience of ready-made food? Or is it that food makers have mastered the goodness of home cooking?

“What people are telling us is that they want to serve the traditional turkey dinner, but because of their busy lifestyles … they are turning to the Tidyman’s deli to prepare those meals,” says Patty Kilcup, Tidyman’s spokeswoman. The Inland Northwest chain serves about 600 take-out turkey meals each Thanksgiving. That number has been climbing steadily since they first offered the heat-and-serve holiday dinners eight years ago.

Almost all of the grocery stores in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene area offer similar meals. They range in price from about $30 for a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings up to about $50 for a prime rib dinner. Supply is limited so Thanksgiving meals might be hard to find now, but stores are open today and most have abbreviated hours tomorrow if you still need a dinner plan. The meals are also available for Christmas.

Ken Froewiss manager of the deli at the Rosauers supermarket on 29th Avenue says he runs out of pre-cooked dinners every year. This year Rosauers will sell about 70 of the meals from its Lincoln Heights store.

“It’s wonderful. You just heat it and everything is good and there is nothing to clean up,” Froewiss says.

That is precisely why Marliyn Hamilton has been ordering one of the meals from the store for the past five years. Hamilton lives in Bremerton and she, along with her sister and brother-in-law send a Thanksgiving meal to her parents in Spokane each year. “I just thought it would be nice and convenient for them and it’s thanking them for all of the years that they provided for us,” she says. “They just love it. The first year we sent it they were over the moon.”

No trudging out for groceries in the snow or cold, unpredictable weather or slaving over the stove for a meal for two. Most people pick up their turkey take-out meals. Hamilton has it delivered to her parents for an additional fee.

“That’s part of the treat… to sit there and wait. It’s like getting flowers,” she says.

Hamilton usually has it delivered the day before so her parents can look though and see what they’ll be eating. And there is always extra turkey so they don’t miss out on the day-after-Thanksgiving sandwiches, soup and the other post-feast tradition: finding ways to use up the leftovers.

Spokane Club executive chef Ray Delfino says relying on someone else to cook the Thanksgiving bird (and everything else) is another shortcut for busy people. “Family time is very valuable and there is not much free time.”

The Spokane Club offers catered take-out meals for members and its banquet area and restaurant are open Thanksgiving Day. “They just don’t want to go through the extremes of putting together a full dinner,” Delfino says. “It’s a convenience and, for our members, I think they find that time to be valuable to do something else.”

Another thing he has noticed during the cooking classes he teaches is some people simply wouldn’t know how to cook and serve the huge holiday spread that is expected at Thanksgiving. He said about one in four people in his classes don’t know how to cook or wouldn’t know how to make certain dishes.

Even families who aren’t relying on an entire take-out meal for Thanksgiving dinner will get a little help from Marie Callender’s, White Box Pies, Cyrus O’Leary’s or any supermarket bakery.

Some people leave the entire show to someone else; no giblets, no hot stove, no dishes.

Evelyn Morgan is having her Thanksgiving dinner at the Red Brick Cafe in Rosalia, Wash., this year. It is the first time 90-year-old Morgan will dine out on a holiday.

Morgan still cooks plenty, but it was at her son’s suggestion that they decided to go to restaurant tomorrow. They’ll be joined by his fiancée. “You don’t have to do the dishes and make all the mess. You can just get up and walk away from the table,” Morgan says.

The Red Brick Cafe, which just opened Nov. 1, is quickly gaining a reputation for its homemade food, including freshly baked bread and pies. Morgan says she’ll miss the leftovers, but not that much. “Sometimes those get old and you throw them out.”

Red Brick Cafe owner Nancy Schu says the cafe will be open from noon until 4 p.m. When they’re done serving customers, her family is going to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner there as well. “Then we’ll have the dishwasher to do the dishes.”

In his 12 years at the Old Country Buffet on North Reserve Street, kitchen manager Leonard Fry has noticed the steady increase in people each year. Although the National Restaurant Association says people in smaller households and those without children are more likely to dine out on Thanksgiving, Fry says he’s noticed more families and larger groups of people.

“Most people just don’t want to make dinner. With two people working it’s just easier to come here,” Fry says. The restaurant will carve and serve about 260 pounds of turkey Thursday and fill more than 1,300 plates with dinner. (That’s not even counting return trips to the buffet for more green bean casserole or seconds on dressing and sweet potatoes.)

While some opt for a Thanksgiving meal like the one they’d serve at home, others choose elegant. The Davenport Hotel will serve close to 1,000 people Thursday.

“You would have to be a pretty amazing cook to pull off half of what they do,” says Frank Sheridan, who will dine with his wife for their second Thanksgiving. “The buffet they put together at the Davenport is first rate.”

Sheridan says their families are far away and scattered, so they usually dine out together. They dress up, enjoy the ambiance and take their time. “For Thanksgiving it’s pretty much what we’ve always done. There’s no preparation and no clean up. Hotels are the salvation of people who don’t want to make a holiday meal,” he says.

If anyone is busy enough to order in this Thanksgiving, it’s Suzanne Hatcher. She’s the co-owner of the Everyday Gourmet kitchen store and a mom. Her youngest child, Aaron, will be one Thursday. And don’t forget that Friday is the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Her husband Greg does most of the weeknight cooking, but they would never let someone else cook the Thanksgiving bird.

“Never in a million years,” Hatcher said. “Especially because I am so busy that it is nice to do this once a year.”

It’s the ritual and rewards of putting together the traditional meal that make it so important. They rise early together, Suzanne cleans and rinses the turkey, and then Greg stuffs it and gets it ready for the oven. “It’s a project that we’ve practiced many, many times. It’s got that reliable predictability that we know and understand.”

She wouldn’t trade the time cooking together with her husband, the smell of roasting turkey in the oven or even the inevitable mess for a quick dinner or clean dishes.

“We still do the whole thing every year from start to finish. It is only something we do once a year but it’s comforting.”