Its All In the Scheduling!
This year I have made no formal Thanksgiving meal plans. Our trip to Florida for Thanksgiving with my parents was postponed till December so I think we'll venture to the mountains to spend the day with Mike's mom.
In leiu of my annual Thanksgiving Day Menu I thought I'd do something a bit different. I stumbled across my "Thanksgiving Day Schedule" for the meal that I had written out last year. I love not only to plan a meal but also be totally on top of things and organized so that on the day I am not stressed out and making everyone around me miserable.
*** It is really fantastic to try and make certain things ahead of time. I made my side dishes and desserts the day before and put them in the fridge. There is absolutely no difference in flavor...in fact, it tastes better because they have time to grow in intenisty of flavor and depth.
Here was last years menu:
Maple Oat Dinner Rolls
Organic Roast Turkey
Cornbread & Sausage Stuffing
Gravy
Roasted garlic mashed potatoes
Sauteed Green Beans with Red Peppers
Sweet Potato Casserole
Dessert:
Pumpkin Pie
Chocolate Mousse Cake
Homemade Pumpkin Ice Cream
I used this schedule last year and the meal went off without a hitch!
At the end I'll put a couple of my thoughts and tips on it all as well.
So here it is: maybe you can find it somewhat useful for your Thanksgiving this year.
Thanksgiving Day Schedule (on the day of the meal)...dinner at 5:30pm
2pm Start Turkey @ 2pm-2:30pm (cooks 2 1/2 to 3 hours)
3pm Make dough for rolls (rise 1 hr 30 minutes)
3:30 Take stuffing & sweet potato casserole out of the fridge and let sit on the counter a bit.
3:30 Wash and cut fresh green beans and red peppers.
4:00 Cut potatoes and boil the water. Boil potatoes and put them in a water bath (**see end note)
4:30 Shape dough into rolls and let rise on the pan before putting them in the oven.
5:00 Take turkey out of the oven (**see end note)
Put rolls into the oven with casserole and stuffing.
Start cooking green beans and red peppers.
Make gravy from turkey drippings.
5:30 Time to eat!!!
***Side Notes***
~Check appropriate times for your turkey. For some reason people think that turkeys have to cook all day long. NOT TRUE!! I really like Barefoot Contessa's recipe for Roast Turkey. Its absolute perfection everytime.
~I roast the garlic the day before as well. Check this out to learn how.
~ After your potatoes boil you could either leave them in the water till ready to mash or go ahead and mash them and put them in the oven on low heat. Unless you have 2 ovens though, you won't be able to do the latter.
