The Night Before Thanksgiving

Rather than offer a What’s-For-Dinner this week, we’re rounding up our night-before-Thanksgiving traditions and non-traditions, and sharing them with you. This post also gives us the opportunity to introduce you to our new staffer, Mike Diago, whose work you should check out here and here. We could not be happier that he’s joined our team. We know you’ll love him, too.

My family doesn’t do a traditional Thanksgiving meal. In fact, we choose a different theme each year: 2018 was all appetizers and sides. 2019 was surf-and-turf with butter-soaked lobster tails and grilled ribeyes. 2020 was Chinese hot pot and whole Dungeness crabs, and 2021 will be a full taquiza spread— homemade tortillas, carne asada, achiote shrimp, botanas, and probably too many salsas. Although we opt for non-traditional themed meals on Turkey Day, I do still crave those traditional flavors around this time so the day before, I’m usually eating a quick version of a Thanksgiving dinner in the form of a sandwich.