Today's holiday dinners may not be prepared exactly the way Norman Rockwell envisioned, but with consumers more pressed for time — and less confident in the kitchen — a growing number of shoppers are searching for easier ways to impress friends and family when they play host on Thanksgiving or Christmas.

“The holidays are a time to gather with family and friends and eat well and enjoy the finer things, yet so many of today's consumers are hesitant about their ability to pull all of that together,” said Roger Fickenscher, manager of food development for Snohomish, Wash.-based Dream Dinners. “That's what we're trying to offer — to say, ‘We understand that you may feel a little overwhelmed with this, because you're putting in 46 hours at the office, the kids have soccer practice and piano lessons, and those things are colliding with a holiday schedule.’”

The sentiments are similar at Charleston, S.C.-based Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co., which opened a Dream Dinners franchise at one of its Columbia, S.C., locations this spring. Housed inside the supermarket, the meal assembly area features a kitchen with fully equipped meal assembly stations, where shoppers pay a fixed price for all of the ingredients and instruction needed to quickly put together dozens of meal servings for their families. The meals are then taken home and frozen, ready to be cooked at any time.

Although enrollments at the meal assembly center slowed down a bit during the summer, business picked up significantly when the school year began, and the popularity of the program has grown even more as the holidays approach, noted Rita Postell, manager of employee and community relations for the supermarket chain.

“A lot of people have a special, traditional dish that they want to prepare [for holiday meals], but they don't necessarily want to reinvent the wheel and do everything,” she said. “This gives them that option, because everyone gets a little stressed during that time of the year, and they certainly want to be able to enjoy the holidays without feeling like they're chained in the kitchen the whole time.”

CUSTOM-MADE

In an effort to accommodate shoppers who want turkey and all the trimmings ready to go on the big day, as well as other shoppers who may just want to simplify side dish preparation, for example, the Dream Dinners program is divided into two segments.

Customers can purchase a holiday meal solution that includes a boneless turkey breast from Jenny-O, as well as a selection of hors d'oeuvres and a New York-style cheesecake with pumpkin and apricot sauce. All of these products are frozen passthrough, and don't require any assembly, Fickenscher said.

Separately, Dream Dinners locations are offering a “side station” workshop this year, featuring casseroles and other side dishes that Fickenscher described as “traditional with a slant.” Developed by the company's chefs with the editors of Southern Living magazine, the dishes include a three-cheese mashed potato casserole, a green bean and mushroom casserole, sausage stuffing mix, turkey gravy and fresh cranberry relish.

“It's another enhancement to the experience of grocery shopping,” said Postell. “The community has really appreciated this convenience.”