Thanksgiving Tips and Hints, Thanksgiving Dinner Menu
How to cook a Hassle-Free Thanksgiving Dinner!
Please check out our easy to print Thanksgiving recipes for Chestnut Stuffing and Tangy Cranberry Apple Chutney. The perfect Thanksgiving side dishes!
Wondering
how to use that leftover turkey? Looking for a Homemade turkey soup recipe? Try
our tasty Mulligatawny Soup
recipe.
Check out our Green
Bean Recipes to find the perfect Thanksgiving side dish
I
cooked my first full-fledged Thanksgiving dinner at the tender age of 48. I'd
always had a parent's house to go to, or a friends house, or had gone to a restaurant/buffet
for Thanksgiving with friends. I am now married and between my mother-in-law,
my sister-in-law and myself we decided that I'd be responsible for Thanksgiving
dinner. Luckily there are only eight of us. But cooking for them wasn't going
to be exactly easy.
I like cooking. I also like experimenting with recipes and trying new things. Luckily so does my husband. Not so much for the rest of his family. The first Thanksgiving meal I ate with them was at my mother-in-laws home. When I put the green bean casserole dish I had brought on the table my husband's nephew said "ugh, what's that?" Uh oh. They'd never had a green bean casserole before. Luckily he tried it and liked it.
As I said, I like cooking and experimenting with new recipes, but I also like traditional dishes that I've grown up with. If I was going to make this Thanksgiving dinner a treat for everyone, and enjoyable for me to cook I'd have to do some planning. I'd have to cook a few things on the basic and plain side, the way the family is used to them, but I'd also have to have a few recipes to keep me happy.
Here is my Thanksgiving Dinner Menu:
Turkey
with Sage Stuffing
Gla
zed
Ham
Sage Sausage & Apple Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet
Potatoes
Peas
Candied Carrots
Pearl Onions au Gratin
Green Bean
Casserole
Creamed
Corn
Cranberry Jelly
Cranberry Compote
Madeira Gravy
Rolls
Strawberry
Trifle
White Chocolate Cake/Choc Icing
Quite a menu to undertake for the first Thanksgiving, wouldn't you say?
Well, believe it or not it went off without a hitch. When I said we'd eat at 5:30-5:45
everything was ready by 5:45, and everything was hot and ready to go. The secret
to this successful and hassle free Thanksgiving dinner was all in the TIMING.
The first thing I did in order to keep everybody happy was to cook what everyone was used to eating and add a few things in to see how well they went over. The Sage Stuffing cooked in the turkey was something the family was used to. The Sage Sausage and Apple Stuffing was stuffing that my first boyfriends mother used to make and I loved it. I cooked it in a baking dish in the oven. The peas, green bean casserole and the creamed corn were what the family was used to eating. The Pearl Onions au Gratin and Candied Carrots were new. The fresh Cranberry Compote was a new recipe.
Once dinner was over, family was gone and I had some quiet time II made notes about the dinner. I had too many peas, as well as too much creamed corn, cranberry jelly and rolls. Next year I won't make as much. The Sage Sausage and Apple Stuffing was a success. The Sage Stuffing was hardly touched. I wouldn't make it again except I like the fact that it help to keep the turkey moist, so it's a necessity, maybe not as much next time though. The carrots didn't go over well, so next year I'll make brussels sprouts (everybody likes them). The ham was delicious, so we'll have one again next year. The Madeira gravy was a huge hit, it stays.
As for the turkey? It was delicious and WAY TOO BIG! I knew from everything I read it said 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of turkey per person and that this turkey was going to be WAY TOO BIG! My husband insisted on a 20 lb. turkey. Well, we didn't eat even half of the turkey. Next year I plan to cook a 15 pound turkey. I'll work my way down to a moderate sized turkey slowly as to not shock the family. I don't need to have all that leftover turkey.
Timing is EVERYTHING.
We
haven't discussed the most important thing yet. Timing. I had a list of what time
I needed to put everything into the oven. I made everything I could make the day
before. I stored them in the downstairs refrigerator. Those things, the Pearl
Onions au Gratin and the stuffing had to return to room temperature before they
went into the oven. I even had the time I had to get them out of the refrigerator.
You'll find our Thanksgiving cooking time
line here
Thanksgiving
Recipes
Bourbon
Cranberry Sauce
Campbell's Green
Bean Casserole
Chestnut
Stuffing
Fresh
Cranberry Orange Compote
Homemade Turkey Broth
Madeira Gravy
Pearl Onions au Gratin
Sage Sausage and Apple Stuffing
Tangy Cranberry Apple Chutney
Tips on Cooking a Turkey
Christmas
Recipes
Christmas Brunch Recipes
Baked
French Toast Casserole (Paula Deen)
Egg
& Sausage Scramble
Grand
Marnier French Toast
Potato
Pancakes, Rosti
Christmas Dessert Recipes
Cake Recipes, Cookie Recipes, Pie Recipes
Christmas Dinner Recipes
Apricot
& Bourbon Pork Tenderloin
Garlic
Mashed Potatoes
Italiano
Meat Pie
Leg of Lamb, Creme de menthe
Pineapple
Glazed Ham
Tasty & Easy Green Bean Recipes
Armenian Green Beans with Ground Meat and Tomatoes (Fassoulia)
Blanched
Green Beans
Cream
of Green Bean Soup (Company's Coming)
Fried
Green Beans
Dilly Green Beans
Recipe - Canning Recipe
Ginger Garlic Green
Beans
Greek Green Beans
Greek
Potatoes and Green Beans
Green
Bean Soup (Company's Coming)
Green
Beans a'la Waterman's
Green Beans Almondine
Green Beans Almondine (with a hint of lemon)
Green Beans Almondine (with an Asian flair)
Green Beans Almondine (with mushrooms)
Green
Beans and Prosciutto Pasta Salad
Green Bean
Casserole (Campbell's)
Green Bean Casserole
(Cook's Illustrated)
Green
Beans, Endive & Boston Lettuce Salad
Green
Beans in Sour Cream & Tomato Sauce
Green
Beans Provençal, Chef Simone Beck
Green
Beans Provençal, Cooking Light
Green
Bean Salad, Dill, Parsley & Savory
Green
Bean Salad, Feta & Pecans
Green
Bean Salad, Soy Glazed Almonds, Cilantro
Green
Beans with Coconut
Green Beans with Ginger
Butter
Green Beans with Onion Paste (Madhur
Jaffrey)
Green Beans
with Roman Mustard
Green
Beans with Shallots
Italian Green Beans (St.
Anna Beans)
Lemon Green Bean & Celery Salad
Oven Roasted Green Beans
Pears
with Green Beans & Bacon
Persian
Green Beans & Rice (Lubia Polo)
Sautéed
Green Beans with Hazelnut Crumbs
Sesame &
Portobello Green Beans
Sicilian Green Bean & Fennel Salad (Cooking Light)
Stir-Fried Green Beans with Pork & Chilies
Sweet & Sour Green Beans
Thai
Green Beans (Cooking Light)
Three
Bean Salad Recipe
White Bean,
Green Bean & Red Bell Pepper Salad
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