Wuff hasn't posted a lot of recipes recently, and for that, Vrghr is very sorry.
Last was the "pot o' red Chili" for the office gang. And that gives a little hint on Vrghr's absence.

Wuff tends to do his "post-able creations" when cooking for friends, family, etc. Otherwise, a lot of Vrghr's home cooking is 1-pot "bachelor" type goodies that aren't terribly photogenic, or barely worth the term "recipe". A lot of "dump and go" and heat stuff.

The person wuff had been doing a lot of his cooking with recently came down with some very bad news; she has cancer. She's been going through bouts of radiation treatment and chemo. Naturally, that takes a toll on a person, and she really wasn't able to have wuffy dropping by and making goodies for her.

But she's been feeling better recently, and her family is coming out to Colorado to visit for Thanksgiving and they'd like wuff to help prepare a meal for all.

So wuff is back on the ball planning menu items. New restrictions this year, due to her condition. No white sugar, no highly processes ingredients, no msg, and no raw fish, among others. And other restrictions from some of the guests, such as no soy or gluten. So the creation process is a bit more challenging this year.

Wuff's also very mindful that even the general kitchen messes of a feast like this must be avoided, so Vrghr's looking for new ways to cook things that minimize pans, prep, etc.

Vrghr was asked to do the meat, and only a couple sides. Guest will be bringing other goodies. Wuff is going to do some quick-&-easy appetizers as well. So the plan so far looks like this:

APPS: A "triple buffet crockpot" will host a trio of dips for tortilla & potato chips: "505 white chili chicken", spinach & artichoke, and "cheesy salsa", surrounded by chips of each type. There'll also be a big bowl of chilled shrimp with 2 different cocktail sauces (one has soy, but no sugar, the other no soy but has some sugar in it).

MEAL: Braised Turkey Thighs shredded casserole w/caramelized onion infused mashed 'taters topping, & braising liquid gravy. "Instant Pot" Turkey breast w/turkey gravy. Store-bought HoneyBaked ham.
Sides: The rest of the mashed potatoes, portioned with & without the caramelized onions. Apple Pear Pomegranate sauce. Cranberry Orange Apple (& maybe a bit of rum) sauce.

Those sauces will be sweetened lightly with things like maple syrup, agave, stevia, etc., to avoid extra "plain white" sugar. Hopefully they'll get most of their sweetness from the fruits.

Wuff is going to prep the goodies a day or so before and put them in foil catering trays so we just have to warm them on Thursday. The "Instant Pot" breasts will be made on site, but they only need the multipot and a disposable baking tray to broil the breasts for a moment to crisp and brown the skin. Maybe a pot to reduce the gravy, but wuff can likely finish that in the instant pot too. So minimal mess and cleaning involved. All three dips are "dump and go"; just pour their ingredients into the proper pot of the triple crock buffet server and turn on the heat. Stir as needed. And the shrimp just get thawed and placed in a bowl of crushed ice. So this should be pretty close to no effort and very minor cleanup, hopefully.

And wuff will photo and post recipes for all the things that work!

Wish us luck! Going to have about 20 folks showing up!

Happy Thanksgiving all!