Back in May, actor Scott Foley appeared on the TODAY show to promote his new Amazon Prime series It’s Not Like That. While chatting with anchor (and Westporter) Craig Melvin, the conversation turned, as it often does for Scott, to his annual Thanksgiving grocery runs with his wife Marika. “It just became a thing,” he told Craig of the viral holiday content. “Every Thanksgiving, we document this fantastic, terrible time that every person in the United States has shopping for food. We love doing it, and people really get a kick out of it. I get more people coming up to me in the street saying ‘oh my God, I watched your Thanksgiving program’ than I do Scandal fans!”
The legendary Foley family Thanksgivings began about 10 years ago. “Thanksgiving has always been Scott’s favorite holiday,” Marika tells Westport Lifestyle. So Marika, a gifted cook and baker, set out to master the Thanksgiving menu. She took a cooking class with celebrity chef Jet Tila, and received a stack of his recipe cards as a part of the class. She put them together in a binder, along with a spreadsheet of needed grocery items and cooking schedules, which became her Thanksgiving bible. As the lists grew each year, so did the grocery runs, which now include a whirlwind tour of Stop & Shop, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, HomeGoods for place settings and trinkets, Double L Market for specialty items, and, much to Scott’s chagrin, sometimes more.
Here, Marika shares her Thanksgiving roadmap with Westport Lifestyle, from her grocery route to her cooking schedule to her genius day-after tradition.
Making the Menu
Marika starts from the same spreadsheet each year, which has groceries listed out by category, and a timeline for when she plans to make each dish. She starts shopping on Monday of Thanksgiving week, and starts cooking on Tuesday, making pie crusts, cranberry sauce (homemade, but she gets jellied too), stuffing prep, and pie prep. She also makes focaccia and sourdough rolls on Tuesday. Wednesday is for pies, stuffing, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts prep, and gravy, as well as her turkey and pumpkin individual sourdoughs (for more on these, see p. TK). On Thursday she does the mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts, the turkey, and makes ciabattas and focaccia for Friday (see p. TK). It’s a lot to keep track of, which is why she carries around her trusty sparkly clipboard with all her notes.
Marika's Marvelous Biscuits
"I’ve been trying to perfect biscuits for almost 20 years, and I believe I’ve finally achieved it," Marika says. "You tell me!"
Makes 10-12 smaller biscuits or 4-6 sandwich-sized biscuits
Ingredients
3 c. all-purpose flour (plus 1-2 c. of flour for dredging)
3 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1/4 c. + 1 T. sugar (or more to taste)
8-10 T. frozen (or very cold) butter (grated, enough to butter the pan)
1 1/4 c. buttermilk
1 c. heavy cream
Extras
2 T. of melted butter
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
In a bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Grate the cold butter over the top, and use your fingers to rub it into the flour mixture until it resembles sandy pebbles.
Make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk and heavy cream. Mix until the batter is thick, but do not overmix. You should still see streaks of butter/flour.
In a separate bowl, place 1-2 cups of flour. Scoop the dough with two spoons or your hands and dredge it in the flour bowl, swishing it around to coat the dough thoroughly.
Shake off any excess flour and place the biscuit “balls” into the prepared buttered baking dish. Continue this process until all the biscuits are formed and placed in the dish. (I usually place mine in a circle and make two larger ones in the center. Just make sure they are all touching, doesn’t have to be perfectly shaped!)
Bake for 20 minutes. Close to the end of the baking time, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Open the oven door and pour the melted butter over the hot biscuits. Bake for an additional 5 minutes.
Tips:
- Don’t be afraid to experiment with the size of the biscuits.
- You can pour hot honey butter instead of regular butter for a sweeter top.
- I use a deep dish 9-inch pie plate, but you can use any small baking pan with sides. Just make sure the biscuits are touching!
- Don’t skip the chilling and grating of the butter! It’s what makes these biscuits truly marvelous.
Edible Decor
Westport Lifestyle readers know Marika’s bread is legendary: her cottage bakery, Sourdough 17 by Marika, was featured on our October 2025 cover. For Thanksgiving, Marika takes her sourdough and hand-shapes it into turkeys and pumpkins for a bread course that doubles as decor.
Grocery Runs
Last year, Scott posted a whopping 29 videos of himself and Marika #thanksgivingshopping all over Fairfield County. Here, Marika breaks down where she goes—and for what—while she’s prepping for the holiday.
Whole Foods: “I always get the turkey here.”
Trader Joe’s: “For pre-cut things like onions, and some produce.”
Double L Market: “New, and only for specialty items, like celery root or kohlrabi for my Friendsgiving soup stock.”
The liquor store
The Granola Bar: "For a coffee break. Love those ladies!"
HomeGoods
“The Polish Store” (aka Polish Delicatessen in Norwalk): Marika is Polish, and this hidden gem carries some of her family’s favorites. “I get Polish spices, pantry items, Polish flour and sugar, and kielbasa.”
Stop & Shop: “Some produce, the canned cranberry sauce, the German egg noodles I like to use for Friendsgiving soup, and basically anything else we forgot along the way!”
Must-Haves
There are certain things every Foley Thanksgiving has to have. For Scott, it’s the jellied cranberry sauce from a can, and the turkey, which he now deep-fries. “It cooks for 45 minutes and tastes better than the kind that takes all day,” Marika says. For Marika, it’s her sourdough. For the couple’s three kids, it’s her focaccia stuffing, her sweet potato casserole, and her biscuits, although "really, everything." Hard to beat that kind of compliment!
Friendsgiving
One of the best parts of a Foley Thanksgiving is the next day. Dozens of neighbors and friends all bring their leftovers, and Marika makes fresh focaccia and ciabatta for leftover sandwiches. Everyone gets to taste each other’s holiday meals, they play games, and enjoy Marika’s turkey stock soup. It’s become a treasured tradition for their neighbors and friends.
Day-After Soup
This day-after-Thanksgiving turkey stock soup will turn your leftovers into something new and delicious.
Adapted from Chef Jet Tila
Turkey Stock
Makes 2-3 quarts
Ingredients
4-6 turkey wings
Turkey necks, giblets, etc. (from inside turkey)
Olive oil
2 leeks, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 head garlic
Handful of fresh parsley stems
4-5 fresh thyme sprigs
1 T. peppercorns
1-2 bay leaves
Directions
Preheat oven to 400. Rinse turkey pieces and pat dry. Spread turkey pieces on a parchment-paper-lined pan and cook, 20 to 30 minutes. Set aside.
Place a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add just enough oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan. Add the turkey pieces and brown them.
Add the vegetables, parsley, thyme, peppercorns, and bay leaves. Add cold water, to almost fill the pot. Bring to a boil, then immediately lower to a simmer. (Avoid boiling the stock.)
Simmer for 2-3 hours. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain through a fine mesh strainer, then return to pot.