This Thanksgiving, what if you don’t need to add the leaf to the dining room table and lug up extra chairs from the basement? What if you won’t have enough guests to feast on an 18-pound turkey and Costco-sized sides? What if your dinner will resemble a date more than a family gathering? If you’re only cooking for yourself and another person, you’re going to have to find ways to pare down the traditionally massive banquet into a more manageable meal for two, unless you want to be eating leftovers until January.

Fortunately, as interest in cooking for one or two people has increased over the years, so have the suggestions from the culinary world on how to manipulate portions, even during the holidays, when we consume some of the biggest meals of the year.

“With the average American household down to its all-time low of 2.61 people, an entire industry has arisen to accommodate the new scope of our lifestyles, resulting in a major demographic shift impacting eating and meal preparation,” said Debby Maugans Nakos, author of “Small-Batch Baking,” a guide to desserts and breads for one to two people.

Several St. Louis-area cooking instructors said they’ve either taught classes on cooking for two or had students interested in the topic. At the Dierbergs School of Cooking, for instance, Nancy Lorenz, manager of the Ellisville location, has encountered many retirees who want to learn how to cook for themselves and their significant others.

No matter what stage in life, though, there’s a good chance everyone will cook for a small amount of people at some point, Nakos said. If you’ve reached that point this Thanksgiving, there are many approaches you can take in downsizing the annual holiday meal.

For the main dish, you’ve got options. If you don’t want to stray from tradition, Lorenz recommended boneless turkey breast or turkey tenderloins. If you decide on the turkey breast, you could try Nakos’ Rolled Turkey Breast With Cornbread Stuffing and Dried Cranberry Sauce. To prepare the turkey roll with stuffing, she said, lightly pound and nudge the cutlets with a rolling pin into rough rectangles large enough to roll around a cornbread mixture.

Or, you could rethink the meat altogether, Lorenz said. If you want to try something different, you could go with Cornish game hens. This small chicken weighs between 1.5 and 2 pounds and cooks quicker than other, larger holiday roasts.

Another alternative is roasted duck, which Anne Cori, president of Kitchen Conservatory, a Clayton cooking school, prefers. “The whole thing about Thanksgiving is having a whole bird, and duck is elegant enough to be a party food in a way that chicken is not,” she said. Cori recommended her duck à l’orange (see recipe).

Once you’ve decided on the main dish, consider the side items. Many of them can be made quite easily, Nakos said. Oftentimes, it’s just a matter of cutting all of the ingredients from a certain recipe in half.

For starters, sweet potatoes are simple. All you have to do is buy two. To whip up a small batch of sweet potato casserole, cut a standard recipe in half and use 2-cup baking dishes, Nakos said.

For bread or rolls, if you don’t want to purchase a large package, “Small-Batch Baking” offers tons of recipes for loaves small enough for one or two people. To make stuffing, especially for Nakos’ turkey roll recipe, pick up a couple of pieces of cornbread or corn muffins from the deli section of the grocery store.

Other sections of the grocery store also offer ways to reduce the amount of ingredients you put in your cart. For vegetables, consider stopping by the salad bar, where you can select only the amount of veggies you need. This way, you won’t have to purchase packaged or bundled items, which might come with more than enough for two.

Like sweet potatoes, vegetables are a relatively simple side item to scale back. Nakos recommended steaming or simmering a handful of fresh green beans and tossing them with 1 tablespoon of melted butter and some toasted hazelnuts or almonds. Or, you could grab Brussels sprouts (whatever amount you want to eat) and roast them, Cori said. Her recipe: Trim the Brussels sprouts and score the bottoms. Put them on a lined sheet pan and coat them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Then, roast them at 400 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. Cori also suggested creamed parsnips (see recipe).

Unlike sides, desserts for one or two can be tricky, partly because with baking, you can’t always cut recipes exactly in half. “Amounts do not always reduce in straightforward proportions,” Nakos wrote in “Small-Batch Baking.” The recipes in her book, though, provide the formulas for small batches.

For Thanksgiving, she said that to make individual cheesecakes, you can buy individual, 4-inch springform pans at kitchen stores or on the Internet. Or, she suggested using the 8-ounce cans from water chestnuts or bamboo shoots and using them for baking desserts. Make sure to cleanly cut off the tops, remove the paper wrappers, empty the cans and wash them, she said. Another tip: To save money on ingredients, “pick up a mini-snack pack of cookies for the crust, so you don’t have to buy an entire box of cookies to make it,” she said.

If cheesecake doesn’t tempt your palate, consider two recommendations from Cori: a baked apple wrapped in a puff pastry or an individual tart for pumpkin pie, instead of a 9-inch size. Taking steps such as this to reduce the amount of servings will reduce the amount of leftovers lingering around after Thanksgiving. And cutting down on leftovers is one of the primary benefits of learning to cook for two.

“Nobody likes leftovers because you get tired of them,” Cori said. “It’s not that the food isn’t good. It’s just that you really only can eat leftovers for one more meal before you become sick of them or have to make them into something else.”

The key is to think creatively, and, during the holidays, to plan ahead. Even if you’re only cooking for two, try to tackle as much as possible as early as possible. You could bake a dessert, which might need to be refrigerated for a certain period of time before serving anyway, or take care of any side items that could be reheated. This way, on the big day, you can focus your energy on converting recipes and trying out new holiday dishes for two.

Rolled Turkey Breast With Cornbread Stuffing and Dried Cranberry Sauce
Courtesy of Debby Maugans Nakos

Yield: 2 servings

2 Tbsp. and 2 tsp. butter
1 small red onion, chopped (about 3/4 cup)
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/3 cup finely diced celery
1/2 tsp. dried rubbed sage
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 cup lightly packed crumbled day-old cornbread (one 5- or 6-ounce corn muffin)
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 cup canned low-salt chicken broth
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 (6-ounce) turkey cutlets or steaks (1/2-inch thick)
3 Tbsp. port
2 Tbsp. dried cranberries or cherries

• Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a medium ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and sprinkle with sugar, and sauté until golden brown, about 12 minutes.
• Add the celery, and sauté until tender and the onions are caramelized, about 5 to 8 minutes.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the sage and thyme. Add the cornbread, pecans, and 2 tablespoons of chicken broth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Pound the turkey cutlets with a rolling pin between 2 pieces of wax paper to 1/4-inch thickness, using the rolling pin to press the tenderloin into a rough rectangle. Mound the cornbread mixture in the center of the turkey slices, forming into logs down the center. Fold the turkey over the stuffing and tie the roll with kitchen string in several places. Clean the skillet.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the turkey rolls in a clean ovenproof skillet. Melt 1 tablespoon of remaining butter and brush all over rolls. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Put the ovenproof skillet in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until turkey is lightly browned and stuffing is hot, turning occasionally to brown evenly. Transfer turkey rolls to a plate and tent with foil to keep them warm.
• Using oven mitts to protect your hands, pour the port into the skillet and place it over medium heat. Cook until the liquid is dark and reduced to about 1 tablespoon, stirring to loosen browned bits, or about 2 minutes.
• Add remaining 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of broth and dried cranberries; cook until liquid is reduced by half, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in the remaining 2 teaspoons of butter.
• To serve, slice the turkey rolls and arrange on serving plates. Spoon the cranberry sauce over the rolls.

Pumpkin Maple Cheesecakes
Reprinted with permission from Debby Maugans Nakos’ “Small-Batch Baking” (Workman Publishing Co.)

Yield: 2 cheesecakes

1 (2-ounce) mini package shortbread, pecan shortbread or vanilla cream-filled cookies, crumbled
3 Tbsp. finely chopped pecans, toasted
1 Tbsp. butter
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 tsp. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
Pinch of salt
1 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. well-beaten egg or egg substitute
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp. whipping cream
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp. pure maple syrup
Toasted pecans (optional)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 2 4-inch springform pans or 2 cleaned 8-ounce cans; line bottoms of cans, if using, with circles of waxed paper or parchment. Place the springform pans or cans in a square baking pan with 2-inch sides.
• Mix the cookie crumbs, pecans and butter; press in the bottoms of springform pans or cans. Bake until lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Cool.
• Beat the cream cheese and brown sugar in a medium bowl at medium speed with a hand-held electric mixer until smooth, 25 to 30 seconds. Add the pumpkin, flour, pumpkin pie spice, and salt; beat until blended, 10 to 15 seconds. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the egg, 1 tablespoon of the cream and 1 tablespoon of the syrup just until blended, 10 to 15 seconds. Pour into the pans.
• Pour boiling water into the baking pan to come 1/2 inch up sides of springform pans. Bake until the tops of the cheesecakes are dry and puffed, about 27 minutes.
• Carefully remove the springform pans or cans from water bath and cool completely on wire rack. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, 6 hours or overnight.
• Boil the remaining cream and maple syrup until sauce reduces to 1/4 cup, about 5 to 7 minutes. Let cool completely and serve over the cheesecakes. Garnish with the toasted pecans, if desired.

Duck à l’Orange
Courtesy of Kitchen Conservatory’s Anne Cori

1 duck
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. Grand Marnier
2 cups veal stock
1 lemon
5 oranges
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/3 cup red wine vinegar

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Season the duck with salt and pepper. Put it in a roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees and cook for an hour.
Pour off the fat and deglaze the pan with the veal stock.
• To make a sauce, zest the lemon and 3 oranges and set aside.
• Juice 3 of the oranges. Peel and section the remaining 2 oranges.
Combine the sugar and vinegar in a saucepan and cook until golden brown. Add the orange juice and stir in the deglazed juices and veal stock. Add the sectioned oranges.
Add the zest and Grand Marnier to the sauce.

Cranberry Swiss Chard
Courtesy of Kitchen Conservatory’s Anne Cori

4 Tbsp. butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb. Swiss chard, stemmed and washed
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
6 Tbsp. maple syrup
1/2 cup cranberries
Salt and pepper to taste

• Melt the butter in a sauté pan and sauté the garlic for a minute.
Add the chard and cook for a minute, until it starts to wilt.
• Add the vinegar, maple syrup and cranberries. Cook until the liquid reduces to a syrupy glaze. Season with salt and pepper.

Creamed Parsnips
Courtesy of Kitchen Conservatory’s Anne Cori

1/2 lb. parsnips, peeled and cut
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup butter
Salt and pepper to taste

• Boil the parsnips in salted water until tender.
• Purée in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients until smooth. Reheat.