Rate your Thanksgiving prepared meal

For those of you who ordered Thanksgiving meal kits from restaurants, grocery stores, Costco, etc., how was it? Would you order again?

This year we tried a precooked turkey meal from Berkeley Bowl that cost $180. It fed 6 adults easily with leftovers. Contents were:

12+ lb. Diestel Turkey (fully cooked) 1 QT of Roasted Brussels Sprouts 1 QT of Roasted Butternut Squash 1 PT of Cranberry Relish 1 QT of Turkey Gravy 2 QT of Mashed Potatoes 2 QT of Stuffing 12 Grand Bakery Dinner Rolls 8" Pumpkin Pie

-Turkey took about 2.5 hours to heat at 325F (basting every 30 mins). The bird was actually juicy and everyone commented how tasty it was.

Sides were also precooked and took 30 mins in over to reheat:

-Mashed potatoes - good, nothing unusual

-Gravy - good quality, fairly thick

-Brussels sprouts - tasty, with whole garlic cloves sprinkled in; but the Brussels sprouts still undercooked even after following reheating instructions. Would recommend roasting for another 20 mins.

• Butternut squash - same experience as above, would suggest longer cooking time

• Stuffing - actual bread (crouton size) and seasoning, was better day of than as leftovers

• Cranberry sauce - made from actual cranberries, chunky

-Rolls - baked from local bakery in Oakland (can’t recall name); better tasting when warmed up in oven

The pie was also decent (we aren’t big pumpkin pie folks); someone suggested adding some whipped cream.

The actual pickup was mostly straightforward. You select a date and 30 min timeframe when ordering online. The Berkeley bowl west parking lot was nuts and we ended parking a block away. There is a yellow zone in front of the store that had signs and a phone # to call for curbside pickup but we just walked in. The food comes in a large cardboard box that is fairly bulky. Check that everything is accounted for as our box was missing a pie.