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5 zero-effort crowd pleasers you can bring to Thanksgiving dinner

By Corey Inscoe
Thanksgiving shortcuts. It's easy to get overwhelmed by menu expectation. But there's no shame in making it easier. That doesn't mean using all prepared foods, it means picking simpler dishes and using a few tips. Our turkey lets you take it either way -- a very simple dry-salting method, or a more involved cider brine and glaze in this photo taken Wednesday, November 9, 2011. Todd Sumlin - tsumlin@charlotteobserver.com
Thanksgiving shortcuts. It's easy to get overwhelmed by menu expectation. But there's no shame in making it easier. That doesn't mean using all prepared foods, it means picking simpler dishes and using a few tips. Our turkey lets you take it either way -- a very simple dry-salting method, or a more involved cider brine and glaze in this photo taken Wednesday, November 9, 2011. Todd Sumlin - tsumlin@charlotteobserver.com Todd Sumlin tsumlin@charlotteobserver.com

You’re busy, stressed out, probably running late for Thanksgiving dinner with the family and/or friends, and there’s no way you’re gonna put in the effort to cook anything, not even Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. We get it.

But Mom/Uncle Lou/Significant Other expect you to bring something to Thanksgiving dinner. You are a grown-ass person, after all.

Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. Here are five things you can bring to Thanksgiving that take pretty much zero effort other than going to a store.

(1) Cans of Birdsong’s MexiCali Stout (or any other Charlotte beer).

People need something to drink at Thanksgiving, right? And this is local, so if you’re heading to out-of-town family you can be all like, “Look I’m bringing you Charlotte-y things!” Plus, if everyone drinks enough maybe they’ll forget that you only brought beer.

Happy #Halloween! #MexiCali Stout is FINALLY here! The tap room opens today at 12pm! We’ll have food trucks all day & music at 4pm! We are tapping a special cask of MexiCali Stout with Habanero Peppers at 6! Our Haunted Brewery Tours are at 7pm, 7:30pm, & 8pm! We’ll be announcing the winners of the costume contest at 9pm! If you’d like to take a haunted brewery tour, we recommend getting here 30 minutes before the tour you’d like to go on! MexiCali Stout cans are only $10 per 4 pack! Cheers! #CLTbeer

A photo posted by Birdsong Brewing Company (@birdsongbrewing) on Oct 31, 2015 at 7:31am PDT

(2) A can of cranberry sauce from Harris Teeter. Or Food Lion. Or wherever.

True story: One time Katie made this fancy cranberry sauce with orange zest and brought it to her family’s Thanksgiving dinner. She claims it was delicious, but she was told that in the future she should either (a) bring cranberry sauce without the zest or (b) not bring cranberry sauce. Moral of the story: Keep it simple, stupid.

(3) Fancy bread …

… from places like Nova’s Bakery or Great Harvest Bread Co. or another bread place that I forgot to name.

This serves two purposes: First, you can use it to sop up all that extra gravy (yum), and then on Friday — or Thursday evening for some — it can be used to make leftover turkey sandwiches (YUM). You’d be a true Thanksgiving Hero.

(4) Store-bought pumpkin pie.

“But from which store, CharlotteFive?” We did the hard work of tasting pies from different stores for you here. Spoiler: The best one came from Fresh Market, and the Costco one is huge and not that bad.

Need a photo to go with a story on tasting six prepared pumpkin pies. I'd like to take a slice of each and photograph them from above, placed together as a single pie. Bottom left clockwise are Whole Foods (the big piece), Harris Teeter, Fresh Market, Publix, Trader Joe's and Costco (front right).
Need a photo to go with a story on tasting six prepared pumpkin pies. I'd like to take a slice of each and photograph them from above, placed together as a single pie. Bottom left clockwise are Whole Foods (the big piece), Harris Teeter, Fresh Market, Publix, Trader Joe's and Costco (front right). Diedra Laird dlaird@charlotteobserver.com

(5) A fried turkey from Bojangles.

You could spend hours stressing out about whether you bought your turkey too early, wondering if you remembered to remove all the stuff from the inside, and hoping it’s done and you’re not gonna get everyone sick. Or you could order a turkey ahead of time and pick it up in the drive thru Thursday morning.

Yeah, that’s more like it. Happy Thanksgiving.

Photos: Todd Sumlin/Charlotte Observer; Diedra Laird/Charlotte Observer

This story was originally published November 25, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "5 zero-effort crowd pleasers you can bring to Thanksgiving dinner."

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