By Steven Ziegler

I have been helping out lately answering customer questions here at the WEBstaurantStore, and I received the following question from a customer:

I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 100 people. Can you tell me how many full (or half) pans I would need for all of the traditional food items (mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, turkey, gravy, sweet potatoes)? Thanks!

The answer was…well, I didn’t know the answer. And if you do, please leave it in the comments! Why not use this foodservice blog to help one another, right? But in thinking about it, it led me to search out some Thanksgiving resources for the food service operator. It also got me thinking about some of our Thanksgiving related food service products (especially items people normally do not think of). Here is what I found:

• The National Turkey Federation has a great website that promotes the use of turkey, and they have some great resources for both homeowners and the food service operator. Here is a link to their Food Service Turkey Recipes. *They even have the nutritional information!

• The Louisiana Sweet Potato Advertising and Marketing Commission’s The Louisiana Sweet Potato Advertising and Marketing Commission’s terrific website has all kinds of recipes, here is a link to the sweet potato side dish recipes. Most of these recipes make only 8-10 servings, but if you want to up the recipe for you buffet, don’t forget about the WEBstaurantStore’s Recipe Resizer.

• The Idaho Potato Commission’s website really changed my idea of what mashed potatoes are all about. Who knew there were so many mashed potato recipes?

• And for the Italian-style Thanksgiving Dinner, here are some foodservice recipes from the Furmano’s website.

Now, you all know that you have to stock up on dinnerware , serving utensils, chafers, linens , and the like for the holidays. Here are a few Thanksgiving supplies that folks often overlook on our site:

• Increase your yield and cook a perfect turkey every time by using our cooking bags. If you cook without a bag, you will need a baster. To go with turkey, we even stock Turkey Gravy Mix.

• We have everything pumpkin! Libby’s Canned Pumpkin (no shortage here!), Pumpkin Pie spice, Pumpkin Pie Coffee syrup, and pumpkin pie cappuccino mix.

• And, if you are just sick of the same old turkey, why not fry your turkey this year with our Bayou Classic Turkey Fryers?