Tag Archives | Thanksgiving Recipes

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

By Toni 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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Grocery Shopping Tips: “Toni’s 12 Days of Thanksgiving”

By Toni on November 14, 2011 in Videos

Thanksgiving Made Easy

It’s less than two weeks until Thanksgiving Day! And if you’re cooking Thanksgiving Dinner For A Large Group, my Thanksgiving guide can help. If you haven’t already downloaded the grocery shopping list for Toni’s 12 Days of Thanksgiving, you can click on the link below.

click here to download grocery shopping list

Shop early to take advantage of pre-Thanksgiving Day sales at the grocery stores. But you’ll want to hold off on purchasing fresh produce like lettuce, fresh green beans and spinach until a few days before Thanksgiving.

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Win Thanksgiving Party Design from BellaGreyDesigns

By Toni on November 13, 2011 in Survival Guide for Busy Moms

Making Delicious Thanksgiving Memories

This year we’ve teamed up with Jennifer from Bella Grey Designs to create some fabulous party decor for our Thanksgiving Dinner. This week you can win a customized set in our Manic Monday Giveaway and #mealplanning Twitter Party!

A customized menu to print and frame makes a fabulous focal point to decorate a hutch or side table.

Customized party circles can be used for napkin ring holders, cupcake toppers… or whatever your imagination can create- the possibilities are endless.

And, my most favorite pieces are the customized recipe tent cards marking each dish from our Thanksgiving Menu.

Jennifer has also designed seating tent cards for you to write in the name of each guest for assigned seating.

Manic Monday Giveaway from The Organized Cook

These party decorations ready for you to print from your computer are available from the Bella Grey Designs Etsy Shop but you can win a personalized set this week on Facebook as part of our Manic Monday Giveaway this week.

Entry options:

Thursdays Just Got More Organized

Be sure to join us this Thursday evening for our #mealplanning Twitter party. This week we want everyone to share a Thanksgiving Dinner cooking, shopping or preparation tip. That’s right, we’re “talking turkey” and we want to hear from you!

We’ll also be giving away another party set from Bella Grey Design during the party.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

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Thanksgiving Dinner Traditions

By Toni on November 12, 2011 in Making Dinner

The Tradition

Most everyone has Thanksgiving Day traditions. For over a decade our family tradition is for me to cook for our entire family. Our home celebrates Thanksgiving Day with anywhere from 20 to 35 people and I do all of the cooking.

Why? For starters I love it. And the fact I’ve made planning and organizing for this holiday into an almost exact science helps too. But it took many years before I finally got it right.

In fact, this morning I flipped through an old file folder housing a hodgepodge of plans, notes and recipes from Thanksgiving Days past, dating as far back as 1999.

My plans were always loosely the same: invitation lists and notes, kids activity ideas, menus, recipes, grocery shopping lists and suggestions scribbled on sticky notes for the following year.

Only a few years ago did I decide it was time to ditch the paper file folder and make it digital.

What I’ve Learned

The biggest lesson I’ve learned from cooking Thanksgiving Dinner For A Large Group is that I needed to figure a way to enjoy the day and spend more time with my family and less time running around like a turkey with my head chopped off.

It took a few years for me to realize that I missed relaxing and having any meaningful conversation with relatives that I may only get to see once or twice a year. I also realized that I really didn’t get to spend time with my kids on Thanksgiving Day because I never left the kitchen. I read somewhere the average American consumes nearly 5,000 calories on Thanksgiving Day. Personally, I was lucky to get in 500 calories over the course of the day because I was too busy to eat. By the time I got dinner on the table, I sat down for perhaps 5 minutes before jumping up to get coffee on and desserts prepped.

I figured out it was time to put some of my organizing skills to practice: Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner For A Large Group: What I’ve Learned.

Toni’s 12 Days of Thanksgiving

Toni’s 12-day guide breaks up the overwhelming job of preparing for Thanksgiving Dinner into small daily tasks, allowing busy moms to spend the holiday enjoying family and friends instead of slaving away at the stove. With daily tips, recipes and videos, Toni will help make this holiday less stressful. Sign up now for Toni’s weekly newsletters to receive “Toni’s 12 Days of Thanksgiving”. Sign up here.

Plan. Organize. Enjoy.

Toni’s 12 Days of Thanksgiving goes something like this: do one or two small tasks every day for 12 days before Thanksgiving. The result- stress-free holiday with lots of time to do what matters most to you by spending time with friends and family.

And now I’m sharing my plan with you. If you’re not signed up to receive our free weekly newsletter through our rss feed, sign up now and stay tuned to receive your daily plan beginning November 11th. This year I’m including menus, recipes, printables, activity ideas, grocery shopping lists, giveaways, videos, coupons and decorating tips each day for 12 days.

Here’s what’s on the menu this year.