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
Celeriac
Gratin Recipe, Puree of Celeriac Gratin Recipe
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
Apricot
& Bourbon Pork Tenderloin
Baked
French Toast Casserole (Paula Deen)
Black
Bottoms Cupcakes
Chocolate Pound Cake
Chocolate Truffle Loaf with Raspberry Sauce
Crumb Cake
Dad's
Sweet Stuffed Dates
Egg & Sausage
Scramble
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Grand Marnier French Toast
Greek
Almond Cookies (Kourabiethes)
Italiano
Meat Pie
Leg of Lamb, Creme de menthe
Louisiana
Roasted Pecan Pie
Mrs. Field's Chocolate
Chip Cookies
Pineapple Glazed Ham
Potato
Pancake Recipe, Rösti
Red Velvet
Cake & Butter Cream Icing
Roasted
Tomatoes (Ina Garten)
Split Pea
& Ham Soup, Magic Pan Restaurant
Tasty & Easy Green Bean Recipes
Armenian
Green Beans with Ground Meat and Tomatoes
Blanched
Green Beans
Fried Green Beans
Ginger
Garlic Green Beans
Greek Green Beans
Greek Potatoes and Green Beans
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 Bean Casserole (Campbell's)
Green Bean Casserole (Cook's Illustrated)
Green
Beans in Sour Cream & Tomato Sauce
Green
Beans Provençal,
Cooking Light
Green Bean Salad, Dill, Parsley &
Savory
Green Bean Salad, Feta
& Pecans
Green Bean Salad, Provençal,
Chef Simone Beck
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 Shallots
Italian Green Beans (St. Anna Beans)
Oven
Roasted Green Beans
Pears with Green Beans
& Bacon
Persian Green Beans
& Rice
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
Persian Recipes, Easy Vegetable Recipes, Glazed Carrot Recipe
Carrots glazed with brown sugar, butter and ginger take on a Persian flavor with the addition of raisins, dates and almonds. These candied carrots are
Green Bean Recipes, Garlic-Ginger Green Beans, Cooking Light
This tasty and easy to prepare Ginger Garlic Green Beans recipe is the perfect vegetable side dish. This was featured in Cooking Light.
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