These suggestions apply to any holiday meal, but I'm posting here specifically for Thanksgiving.

There are tons of recipes online, but here's some tips if you're cooking and especially if it's the first time you're doing a big meal.

1) If you have a self-clean oven, clean it several days before Thanksgiving.

Why? What if it's not that dirty? The self-cleaning option (dry heat, not the low-heat "steam" method) will crank your oven up to its highest setting. If there's any chance your oven will fail on Thanksgiving Day, this cleaning and "test" will hopefully uncover the problem early.

True story, I did have an oven that failed on the morning of Christmas Eve, and was very lucky that the small shop where I bought it could send someone out that day to fix it.

2) Prepare as much as possible in advance, or partially prepare it in advance.

For example, cranberry sauce or orange-cranberry relish can be made a week in advance and will actually taste better if it sits in the fridge for a while. I'll be using relish that I canned last year. You can also make baked goods a day ahead. If you really want that pie to be hot for dessert, you can make the crust and fill the pie a week early and freeze it. Then when you sit down for dinner, pop it in the still-warm oven and it will be ready for dessert.

3) If this is your first time with a whole turkey, make sure you either buy it thawed or allow several days for it to completely thaw in the fridge.

A whole turkey frozen takes a looong time to thaw.

4) Make chicken or turkey stock in advance.

On the day-of, you're going to want a lot of flavorful stock for gravy, stuffing, etc. Your homemade stock is much better than store bought and very easy to make. Refrigerate the stock for a few days to use, or freeze it for longer periods.

5) Do not stuff the bird.

Turkeys cook unevenly anyway and putting the stuffing inside the bird makes this worse. Instead, put thew stuffing in a pan and use your homemade stock to give it the same flavor as bird-stuffed stuffing.

6) If you like beans, consider making a three-bean salad.

I know, it's not traditional. But it serves a few purposes. One, it can be made days in advance. Two, it can be put out early with some bread to make an appetizer or snack. This is especially useful if the turkey is taking longer than expected. Third, when Cousin Julie shows up and announces she is now 100% vegan and won't eat turkey, the bean salad is high in protein, very filling and 100% vegan. Combined with veggies, salad and some bread, it can make a complete meal.

7) OMG! The oven DID break on Thanksgiving Day! What do I do???

Don't panic, this can be fixed. Being prepared for possible problems is the easiest way to deal with it.

The #1 easiest way to fix the problem is to buy an Instant Pot in advance, a large one. You can also solve this by using the stove top or a slow cooker on the high setting, but the instant pot will be the quickest. If using other cooking methods, these steps will take longer.

If thew oven broke before you started cooking the turkey, you have the option of keeping the turkey for later and switching to any other meat that you have. Note -- if using the instant pot, the meat CAN be frozen to start.

If the turkey was partially cooked when the oven failed, you'll have to use the turkey now. Remove it from the oven and let it sit on the counter for 15 minutes so you can handle it. (If you didn't start cooking when the oven failed but still want to use the raw turkey, just put it on the counter).

If you have a large instant pot and a 7-8 lb turkey, you can put the turkey into the pot as a whole bird, following this recipe: https://lifemadesweeter.com/instant-pot-whole-turkey/

If the bird is larger, you are going to cut the turkey into portions that will fit into the instant pot. You should be able to put in the breast whole, or cut in half. Leave the bone in if possible. If the bird is quite large, you may need to cook the turkey in two batches, in which case, refrigerate one raw half while the other is cooking. Each 7-8 pound "batch" will take about 45 minutes to cook, so it will be done much sooner than an oven bird -- plenty of time to cook in two batches. You can keep the first batch warm with a hot plate, or start the meal early while the second batch finishes. The turkey will not look as nice, but will actually taste better than oven-roasted as it will be more moist and juicy.

If you opt out of using the bird when the oven fails, you can switch to another meat and use any instant pot recipe online. For example, you could make chili from scratch in an instant pot in under 30 minutes, a bit longer if you use dried beans but still really fast.

If the meat is frozen, as a rule of thumb, increase the cook time when pressure cooking frozen meat by at least 50 percent. For example, bone-in chicken pieces that typically require 10 minutes of pressure cooking will need about 15 minutes of pressure cooking when frozen.

If you'd rather quick-thaw the meat and then follow the recipe, here's a link for thawing ground meat, for 1-2 pounds, 1 cup of water and 5 minutes under pressure: https://temeculablogs.com/instant-pot-frozen-ground-beef/

You can also prepare other oven dishes using the instant pot, such as baked sweet potatoes. However, if you were going to throw a pie in the oven last minute and the oven is down, you'll be missing the dessert.

I hope these ideas help. Most important thing is to have a backup plan in mind in case something doesn't work the way you intended.