Thanksgiving Menu

Devin and I have finalized our Thanksgiving Dinner menu and we are also coming up with ideas to save time and sanity on Thanksgiving morning.  My mother-in-law will be bring a couple of dishes.  We will be cooking and baking several dishes this week and freeze them.  Others we will prepare the day before and reheat in slowcookers.   That leaves us with only turkey, ham and gravy to cook on Thanksgiving morning.  Hopefully that will also mean less mess to clean up!!

Turkey--I buy a large turkey!  We eat leftovers for a day or two and then I boil the carcass to remove other    meat to make casseroles or soups and save the broth for my Christmas dressing!  This will be baked that morning.

Ham---Again, I buy large!  Same principle as for the turkey and the extra ham and the hambone are great for seasoning peas, green beans and dried beans.  This will be baked that morning.

Dressing-My mother-in-law is bringing it this year.  I really love to make dressing so this is hard for me!!

Gravy--made with turkey giblets, onions, shredded carrots and flour for thickening.  Not difficult to make at all and oh, so fabulous on the dressing and mashed potatoes.  Did I really just open and heat a can of cream of chicken soup and call it gravy years ago?  This will also be made on Thanksgiving morning.

Sweet potatoes--My mother-in-law is also bringing these.

Mashed potatoes-Made the day before and reheated in the slowcooker.

Sweet and sour green beans--A family must for holidays!!  We will make these the day before and reheat in a  slowcooker.  Recipe will be posted later.

Squash casserole--Made this week and put in the freezer.  Will thaw out the day before and be ready for the oven on Thursday.

Glazed carrots--Prepared the day before and heated in a slowcooker (yes, I have three of them!)

Green salad-prepared the day before

Cranberry/apple casserole--Delicous with dressing, it has replaced the canned cranberry sauce in our house.  I will also post this recipe later this week.  I will make two or three of these this week and freeze them.

Deviled eggs-Prepared by Kaelan the day before Thanksgiving.

Rolls and bread-Baked this week and frozen.

Honey butter-Prepared the day before Thanksgiving.

Buttermilk pie-Prepared and frozen this week.

Chocolate Chess pie--Prepared and frozen this week.

Blueberry pie--Made the day before Thanksgiving.

Apple pie--Made the day before Thanksgiving.

If there is any recipe that anyone would like to see, just leave me a comment.  Otherwise we will be schooling, cleaning house and preparing our hearts for Thanksgiving.