Looking for a little help with your Thanksgiving dinner menu? Kickstart your feast with these great recipes.
Kickstart with Thanksgiving Recipes
Warmth and goodness surround people as they anticipate eating their Thanksgiving dinner. Yet craziness and chaos fill the minds of the cooks that have to make it happen! While I can’t actually be in your kitchen to help (I’ll be sweating up a storm in my own) I can at least offer some recipes to get you started. Here are some links that will take you to specific recipes, or to pages with a variety of options for that course.
Thanksgiving Battle Plan
Some may chuckle when I refer to the need for a Thanksgiving battle plan. But anyone who’s ever tackled a Thanksgiving meal, knows exactly what I mean. If you are a newbie tackling Thanksgiving for the first time, you need a battle plan! Here’s what I mean by battle plan:
Careful Recipe Selection
To ensure success and maintain your sanity, it is important to select the right recipes. By this I mean:
- Don’t select multiple difficult recipes – If you plan to make one or two special recipes that are more time-consuming, select easy recipes to round out the rest of the menu.
- Buy vs. Make vs. Let Someone Bring – Decide what to make yourself vs. what to purchase or let someone else bring. Have someone bring the pie, buy cheese and crackers as an easy appetizer, you get the idea.
- Select a mix of flavors, textures and colors – Your family expects certain dishes as part of the this carb-laden meal. It is nice however to create some visual appeal with a mix of color, as well as a variety of textures and flavors. A great way to add variety to your menu is with sides, salads and relishes. One idea, is to try this colorful, crisp Celery Apple and Spiced Pecan Salad.
- Look for Make Ahead Options – For those options you decide to make yourself, select as many recipes as possible that can be prepared in advance. If it’s served chilled or at room temperature, just take it out at the right time and serve it. If it needs to be hot, select recipes that can be prepared ahead of time and then heated shortly before serving.
- Strategy for Heating Everything – One of the biggest challenges for a Thanksgiving meal, is trying to get everything hot onto the table at the same time. So it’s important to have a plan for what will be cooked in the oven, vs. the stove top, microwave or even a crock pot. If you have double ovens, you’re in better shape. Be thankful for that blessing! If not, remember to select recipes that take advantage of the different heating options you have available.
Have a Time Table
I highly recommend writing out an actual time-table. Start by deciding when you want to serve the meal and work backwards from that point. Write down when the turkey needs to go into the oven, including the prep to for the turkey. Add the cook times for the rest of the dishes to schedule as well as when to put out the non-heated items. Even though setting out the cranberry sauce, salad, rolls, butter, filling water glasses etc.. isn’t as time critical, you will have a handy list ready for people who offer to help. Bonus!
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