Nearly every year I try to post a few recipes and helps for Thanksgiving
dinner. This is pretty much a repost of last year's, with a few additions, but I imagine that some of my newer readers have
missed the ones I've done previously. So, if you need a little help
with the Thanksgiving feast, you are invited to borrow whatever you may
need from these tried-and-true ideas and recipes.
Thanksgiving is this coming Thursday -- so if you still have some planning
to do, grab a pen and paper and make some lists. Then head to the
grocery store -- today, or maybe tonight -- and avoid the rush as much as possible. (I did my Thanksgiving shopping last Thursday.
I posted the following in 2012, and it includes a lot of the same links I'm sharing today, but it might be helpful to someone:
A Gathering of Thanksgiving Tips and Recipes.
For today's post, I'll start with some ideas for
pies, which one might be baking a day or
two ahead of time. Pies are the most intimidating part of the meal for
many people, so I offer you these
Helpful Tips for Thanksgiving Pies.
If pie crust intimidates you (as it does many others), then don't
stress about it. I give you a recipe for an easy oil pastry, but if you
don't want to go that route, then the sheets of refrigerated pie crust
one can buy (I've even seen them in store brands!) work very well. You
can even buy frozen pie shells that aren't half bad. Or if you just
don't want to make pies, you can buy some very nice pies from bakeries
that specialize in them.
Some of our
Favorite Thanksgiving Pie Recipes are included in this post. Maybe you will find a new family favorite!
But what if you are avoiding wheat, or a family member who'll be at your table is eating gluten free? No worries. This
Gluten Free Pie Crust
is easy to make and very good. It's a simple press-in-pan crust and so
it really won't work for a double crust pie. But anyone who has lived
without wheat for any length of time will be so happy to have a pie they
can eat that they won't care if it's just a single crust pie. It works
perfectly for pumpkin pie, for example.
Probably
the next most intimidating part of the meal is the
turkey itself.
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| Photo from Pixabay |
If
you have, or are buying, a frozen turkey, the rule of thumb for thawing
it is to allow 24 hours in the fridge for each 5 pounds of the turkey's
weight. I find this not quite enough, so allowing an extra day would be
my advice. Invariably if I follow that rule of thumb, the giblets are
still frozen in place. Last year I bought my frozen turkey (21 pounds)
on the Thursday before Thanksgiving and put it right into the fridge to
start thawing. So if you have a large turkey like that one and it's frozen -- well, I hope that you don't, because it's pretty much too late to thaw it. You can put it in the fridge now if you like, but you will probably have to go the thawing in cold water route to finish the job. That's something I prefer to avoid.
Thus, if you need a large turkey and the one you bought is still frozen, my advice is to leave it in the freezer -- it was cheap, right? -- and buy a fresh turkey in the size you need. You can cook the other one later, maybe at Christmas time or anytime you're in the mood for turkey.
Cooking it in an oven bag is my best advice
on roasting a turkey. It shortens the time considerably and produces
tender, juicy meat.
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| From my Autumn in the Air booklet (Cracker Barrel, 2001) |
Then there is
gravy, which can also be intimidating and which I stressed about for many years.
People love it and expect it, but making it at the last minute can be
very stressful. Usually there are other people in the kitchen, helping
out with other things, and that complicates matters (even though they are truly
trying to help when they watch over your shoulder and give advice). So for a few years I then turned to
canned or jarred gravy, transferring it to a saucepan and removing the
evidence of the cans and jars well ahead of the guests' arrival.
That
was great, but I found that the gravy packets one can buy actually made even better gravy.
And then finally, I found this recipe:
Easy
Turkey Gravy. It truly is easy and it makes lots and lots of
gravy. If you are feeding people who think there is never enough gravy,
try this. For once they will be satisfied and there may even be some
gravy left to serve with the leftovers or to make hot turkey sandwiches.
So there are a number of good options for gravy: jars, packets, or the above great recipe.
Stuffing (or dressing) can also be a source of discouragement. I usually use a bag of
Pepperidge Farm cornbread stuffing mix, prepare it with celery and onion as the
package instructions suggest, and also add dried cranberries. In my
tips and recipes post ( the first link at top) I detail how I cook it in a slow
cooker. Just don't leave it in there for too long, as it will burn and
dry out.
Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes
is my go-to recipe for making mashed potatoes for a lot of people. One
year I was seriously thinking of using the Idahoan instant mashed
potatoes, which are actually very good and are only $1 per packet, but
my hubby urged me not to because he loves the make-ahead mashed potatoes
so
much!
Sweet Potato Casserole
is our family's festive sweet potato recipe. I've made it with canned
sweet potatoes and it comes out just fine. I don't make it every year
because personally, my husband and I prefer buttercup squash. But if we
are having a lot of people, I'll usually do the sweet potatoes as
well. (For sweet potatoes as a general rule, we prefer them roasted.)
Broccoli Casserole is another great side dish that always goes over well. This is a recipe from my sister-in-law Dawn.
I
tend to skip serving
rolls when there is so much other good food on the
table, but if your family won't let you, then try these:
Homemade Dinner Rolls. They're a homemade crescent roll and are really delicious. My daughter Carrie has a recipe for Honey Rolls that her family loves at Thanksgiving. You can find that recipe here:
Carrie’s Honey Rolls. They are a pan type roll and a must-have for her family's Thanksgiving dinner.
If your family insists on
creamed onions (as mine does), here's the recipe I use:
Scalloped Onions. It uses the frozen small onions. Life is far
too short to peel those little pearl onions. I always buy the frozen
(unsauced) ones and make my own sauce.
Cranberry
sauce or relish can be purchased and is just fine. If you want to make
your own, try the Taste of Home site for some good recipes, or you may
be able to find one here.
Cran-Apple Sauce
is one delicious option. Some of the bags of fresh cranberries also
feature a cranberry sauce recipe, and I have made those, often
substituting brown sugar for white, which gives a nicer flavor in my
opinion.
For a memory of my childhood Thanksgivings at my grandmother's farmhouse, you might like to read
A Thanksgiving Memory
for a little nostalgia.
By the way, that's my grandmother in the photo
above, and the recipe is for my great-grandmother's Date Cake, which
was somewhat of a tradition at our holiday dinners. It was served
thickly frosted with white frosting and with walnut or pecan halves
pressed into the frosting. It was never a favorite of mine and I
haven't made it since, but every year I think I may make one for either
Thanksgiving or Christmas -- just for old time's sake!
And if you enjoy vintage things, you might like to take a peek at this
Children's Book of Thanksgiving Prayers. This was actually sold as a greeting card, I believe.
Setting the Thanksgiving table is always an enjoyable task, and I like to get it taken care of well ahead of time. I've made a
few Thanksgiving table toppers, hot mats, and so on over the years. These
Thanksgiving Candle Mats always make an appearance on our Thanksgiving table!
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| Some years I bring out the cornucopia! |
I have very few photos that show our actual Thanksgiving table; in fact, I could only find this one below, from 2010. That one was more of a "Friendsgiving", as most of our guests were friends rather than family. That cloth looks like a peach color, but it's a faded orange. I put one of my simple homemade table runners on it and you can easily see that I mixed patterns of dishes and glassware since we don't own a full set of anything (other than Christmas dishes). Just proof that you can have a lovely and festive table just using what you have!
For
more Thanksgiving posts, click on the "Thanksgiving" label in the word
cloud of labels in the right sidebar. You may find some surprises I've
forgotten about!
Lastly, I want to mention my
my Thanksgiving Pinterest Board.
If you could use some new recipes, printables, or other Thanksgiving
ideas, you will want to visit this board for inspiration. I plan to
revisit it myself soon!
I hope that this oft-repeated advice is helpful to someone this holiday and that it might make your celebration a little more delicious. Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
