Instructions: This advice is for all the home cooks who believe they must spend hours sweating over a hot stove to make Thanksgiving dinner: Its OK to cheat. Really.

The world wont end if you:
Serve premade dinner rolls instead of making them from scratch.

Make a main dish other than turkey.

Buy a premade dessert, such as cake or a pie, and add your own sauce so it looks like you baked it yourself.

Buy a whole dinner and put it on your serving plates to make it look like you cooked it yourself.

It is OK to do all of those things. In fact, the advice comes from two local chefs, Mark Myrick of The Apricot Cafe in Patterson and Ernie Sanders of Wellington Station in Turlock.

Both agree that using shortcuts on whats probably the biggest and busiest cooking day of the year will make things much easier for harried home chefs.

"Dont be embarrassed," says Sanders. "Everyone does it. Trying to get the whole thing done yourself is unreasonable." Sanders and Myrick, who did cooking demonstrations at Modestos Certified Farmers Market earlier this year, will make return visits Saturday to share that advice and more pre-Thanksgiving pointers and recipes.

This time, their demonstrations are part of what the farmers market organizers call the Farmers Market Holiday Table.

As they have since spring, vendors will be on hand selling all kinds of wares - produce, fresh and dried fruit, jams, nuts, breads, plants, flowers - to help people prepare their holiday meals, organizer Carol Bogdanich says. But there will be a more festive atmosphere Saturday with face-painting, a clown and live music.

Myrick and Sanders will conduct their cooking demonstrations around 10 a.m. Now back to the part about cheating and simplifying Thanksgiving. People believe that cooking lots of food is a must. Dont buy into that thinking, Myrick says.

"A lot of people have this expectation they must make 10 different things," Myrick says. "But really half will get eaten and half doesnt."
You can use shortcuts that wont hurt the quality and will make things easier.

Myrick removes the bones from his whole turkey before roasting. "Some people think thats sacrilegious," he says. "They want to see a whole turkey and have Dad carve it."
But a deboned bird takes half as much time to cook. The bones can be used to make stock.

Even Sanders has experienced the stress of trying to put together a big Thanksgiving meal for family. The biggest lesson he learned from his ordeal is one now often heard: Plan ahead.

"I strongly recommend people make as much as they can ahead of time." Vegetables can be blanched the day before then reheated just before serving, Sanders says.

Blanch by dipping the vegetables in boiling water. Remove from the hot water then immediately place in ice water to halt the cooking.

Sanders suggests smaller families who dont want to eat turkey sandwiches through Christmas consider - gasp!- making another main dish other than turkey.

One of his favorite, which is what hell make at Saturdays market, is roast pork tenderloin with cranberry-apple chutney, which gives diners many of the elements they expect to eat on Thanksgiving.

"This is so easy to make," Sanders assures. "There are only two steps: brown the onions and throw everything else together." Myrick will prepare harvest fruit turkey roulade, a dish that only requires turkey breasts and thighs instead of a whole bird.

Hell also make a dessert, cranberry, and apricot tartlets with brandy cream sauce.

Both are simple, he says. Especially the dessert. "You can buy the tart shells or make your own. You probably have to used canned apricots. And thats OK. "Its sweet and tart, and its really good with ice cream," Myrick says.

Regardless of what your holiday dinner plan is, both say to remember one thing: Dont worry about impressing everyone. Just try to relax, have fun and enjoy yourself during the holiday.

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