Easy and Relaxing Thanksgiving Recipes

Posted by SheSue on November 20, 2008 under Awesome Events

Is this your Thanksgiving turkey?

Thanksgiving Day is the traditional American holiday on which we give thanks for the many blessings we enjoy. It’s also the day that many women get up at the crack of dawn to spend the day preparing the feast. I remember by mother being exhausted when it was time to sit down and eat! All of this effort was not without its rewards, as the family enjoyed the food and regaled Mom with compliments.

Fast forward to today. My mom is gone and I spend Thanksgiving with my husband’s family. We try to make it more of a pot luck type of affair. Everybody brings something, but that still leaves a lot of work for my mother-in-law. So I went in search of ways to make the holiday easier when the time comes for me to host the big day. What I was looking for was easy Thanksgiving recipes and do-ahead recipes. At the same time, I wanted the dishes to be every bit as tasty. The goal was to give me more time to spend with my family on Thanksgiving, rather than being stuck in the kitchen with the hot oven.

Thanksgiving table

The star of the dinner table is typically the turkey. If you’re still basting that turkey ten times throughout the day, wondering why it takes six hours to cook instead of the four hours it’s supposed to, listen up. Here’s the secret. Melt a full cube of butter in a measuring cup and add whatever seasonings you enjoy. With your fingers, carefully separate the breast and thigh skin from the meat. Be careful not to split the skin. Enlist someone to help hoist the bird up, while you pour the melted butter in between skin and meat. With your hands, distribute the butter evenly so that it touches every bit of meat you can reach. Set the turkey on a rack in the roasting pan and cover with foil. You now have the best self-basting turkey ever! Don’t open the oven until it’s cooked according to the weight and time given on the package. This is guaranteed turkey perfection.

Now lets look at food that can be prepared ahead of time. By spending just an hour each day the week before Thanksgiving, you can get way ahead of the game. So much so that, come Thanksgiving Day, all you need to do is stuff the bird and pop it in the oven. Then you get to kick back and have fun with the family.

Here are some of the traditional Thanksgiving dishes that can be prepared in advance: cranberry sauce, biscuits and rolls, pies, rice dishes and appetizers. Many actually taste better when seasonings marinate for a day or two. Biscuits, rolls and pies can be made a week in advance, as these freeze well for at least a couple of weeks. You won’t spend more than an hour for each. Prepare your cranberry sauce on Tuesday for the best flavor. Green salads or veggies take but a few minutes. You set the table on Wednesday night!