Tag Archives | Thanksgiving dinner menu

Dishing about Dishes- Day 3: Toni’s 12 Days of Thanksgiving

By on November 14, 2011 in Survival Guide for Busy Moms

Cooking Thanksgiving For A Large Group

Create a stress-less Thanksgiving Day this year with Toni’s 12 Days of Thankgiving.

Thanksgiving Planning by Toni Spilsbury The Organized Cook

win customized Thanksgiving party printables by Bella Grey Designs

It’s Day 3 and we’re dishing about…. well, dishes.

Today is the day I decide which dishes are best to use for my “make-ahead” recipes like Toni’s Perfect Cranberry Sauce and Mushroom Shallot Sauce for our steamed green beans, and which serving dishes I will be using for each recipe.

So which food storage containers are best to use?  Personally, I like the glass storage that can go from the freezer/refrigerator straight into the oven like Pyrex Food Storage Containers or Versaglass by Ziploc.

Pyrex Bake, Serve And Store Sets on sale $29.86 regular $34.99

By storing food in these airtight containers, reheating is a cinch.

 

What’s In A Dish

I’ve been caught too many times on Thanksgiving Day rummaging through my cupboards at the last minute looking for a serving dish.

It took me a few years to realize that if I pull my serving dishes out ahead of time and label them so I know which recipes go where, Thanksgiving Dinner is a lot stressful.  It also gives me the opportunity to do a quick wash on the Fall serving bowls and platters that may have collected some dust over the past year.

So, if you can find the space- whether it’s a hardly-used formal dining room table, folding table or anywhere your dishes can be safely out of the way, it’s worth the time to get them ready.

Typically I use a sticky note or piece of paper, and one year I used my label maker.  But this year I’m lucky enough to have had Bella Grey Designs create recipe tent cards for my entire Thanksgiving menu.

If you can spare the space and set up serving dishes in exactly the same order you would like them to go on Thanksgiving Day, that’s even better.

Thanksgiving Grocery Shopping

If you haven’t done the grocery shopping yet for your Thanksgiving Dinner, don’t forget to check out our last minute grocery shopping tips!

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Herb Roasted Turkey

By on October 7, 2011 in Survival Guide for Busy Moms

Thanksgiving Recipes

Herb Roasted Turkey

Ingredients:

  1. Turkey, 1 10-20 pound frozen turkey,  read below about selecting the right turkey for you, and defrosting the turkey
  2. butter- 1/2 cup (1 stick), softened
  3. dried thyme, rosemary and sage- 1 tbspn each
  4. Onion- 1 large, quartered
  5. celery- 3 leafy stalks
  6. fresh rosemary sprigs
  7. roasting bag- 1 large
  8. roasting pan- 1 large

Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. Mix together softened butter, thyme, rosemary and sage.
  3. Wash turkey, and pat dry.
  4. Rub outside of turkey with butter mixture; use hands to massage all over.
  5. Place onion slices, celery stalks, and fresh rosemary sprigs inside of turkey.
  6. I prefer to use a turkey roasting bag and disposable roasting pan.  Place turkey breast side up inside of roasting bag then place in roasting pan (don’t tie bag, simply fold ends over).
  7. Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes per pound and until thickest part of the thigh registers 180 degrees F (for a 12 pound turkey this would be 3 hours.
  8. Baste turkey with pan drippings every 30 minutes.
  9. For the last thirty minutes of cooking remove turkey from bag by cutting bag open and pulling out so that turkey can get crispy brown on the outside

Let’s Talk Turkey

Stuffed Turkey vs. Un-Stuffed Turkey

I’ve never been a stuffing-in-the-turkey person; so instead, I take fresh herbs like sage, thyme and rosemary with leafy stalks of celery and onion halves to stuff in my turkey before baking.

Fresh Turkey vs. Frozen Turkey

According to whatscookingamerica.net a frozen turkey may be fresher than a fresh turkey.  Frozen turkeys have been flash frozen immediately after being butchered while the “fresh” turkeys can sit in stores for days.

 

 

 

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