Thanksgiving Tips and Hints, Thanksgiving Dinner Menu
Food & Cooking Tips
How to cook a Hassle-Free Thanksgiving Dinner!
Last Thanksgiving was the first
Thanksgiving meal I've ever cooked, 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. 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 was something the family was used to. I cooked that stuffing in the bird. The Apple Sage and Sausage 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.
The next morning I 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 Apple Sage Stuffing was a success. The Sage Stuffing was hardly touched, it's off next years menu. The carrots didn't go over well, so next year I'll make brussel 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 went along with the mother-in-law about this. She said I needed a 20 pound turkey. 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! Well, we didn't eat even half of the turkey. Next year I plan to cook a 15 pound turkey. (I figure 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 turkey leftover.
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.
Read more about a Hassle Free Thanksgiving
Dinner and how Timing is EVERYTHING!
Our
Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes
Bourbon
Cranberry Sauce
Campbell's Green
Bean Casserole
Fresh
Cranberry Orange Compote
Homemade Turkey Broth
Madeira Gravy
Pearl Onions au Gratin
Sage, Sausage and Apple Stuffing
Tips on Cooking a Turkey
Try
Some of our Tasty & Easy Green Bean Recipes
Blanched Green Beans
Fried 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 Bean Salad
Green Bean Salad, Provencal
Green Beans with Ginger Butter
Green Beans with Shallots
Greek Green Beans
Greek Potatoes and Green Beans
Italian Green Beans (St. Anna Beans)
Oven Roasted Green Beans
Pears with Green Beans & Bacon
Sesame & Portobello Green Beans
Stir-Fried Green Beans with Pork & Chilies
Sweet & Sour Green Beans
Italian Green Bean recipe, St. Anna Bean recipe
This recipe comes courtesy of The Complete Mediterranean, The Beautiful Cookbook. There are several variations of this recipe. Another Tuscan variation of this recipe calls for the addition of one teaspoon of fresh marjoram, which we'd suggest you add right at the end of cooking for the freshest flavor. For a Lebanese flair you can use tomato paste in place of the chopped plum tomatoes and add parsley, mint, dill or oregano to taste.
Greek Green Beans
I found this yummy and easy recipe for Greek green beans on a vegetarian cooking site www.all-creatures.org. As mentioned on our home page, green bean have a world-wide appeal and every culture has adapted them with their own unique taste. Greek's prefer their green beans simmered until the beans are soft. They add onions, tomatoes, garlic and oregano.
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