I recently determined that Thanksgiving is not fair. Moms do all the cooking by themselves, while dads and kids watch football and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and occasionally wander into the kitchen to whine about being hungry.

So, this year, I proposed a little switcheroo. I challenged Tyson to make an entire Thanksgiving dinner for me while I watch football in the living room. He’ll be Elissa the Mom, and I’ll be the assistant.

Tyson wanted to make Swedish meatballs for an appetizer. It’s not really a Thanksgiving dish, but we’re breaking all the rules this year anyway, so why not?

You will need:

Meatballs

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon allspice
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• ¼ cup panko
• ¼ cup onion, finely chopped

Sauce

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups beef broth

Naturally, because Tyson is Tyson, he missed a key ingredient; he forgot to add the egg to the meatball mixture. That caused a moment of panic.

Don’t worry, Tyson. I forget stuff all the time. That’s part of being a mom. All of us are frazzled and exhausted and near the end of our ropes, but that just comes with the territory.

And when Tyson told me, “Elissa, you don’t make it look easy — you make it look accomplishable,” I knew he was right.

More of Tyson’s Thanksgiving dishes

• Green bean casserole
• Big Mama’s 5-cheese macaroni & cheese
• Big Mama’s cornbread stuffing
• Big Mama’s candied yams

Watch new videos from Elissa the Mom every Monday, Wednesday and Friday!