Holidays
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
my first thanksgiving
im not a great cook and i really dont cook much either... well, this is going to be my first thanksgiving that i actually have to cook, with the help of my fiance of course. But i still dont even know where to start. im so nervous!
Any helpful websites or easy menu ideas??
Any helpful websites or easy menu ideas??
Re: my first thanksgiving
I mentioned this in an another post, but I cannot praise those turkeys-in-a-bag enough. Jennie-O makes the most popular version, but other brands are starting to make them to. It makes the turkey a no-brainer. You can take the turkey straight from the freezer to the oven (they come pre-seasoned) the day of, and a little thermostat thingy-ma-bob pops out when it is done. People always rave and ask us for our recipe.
As far as websites, check out The Pioneer Woman. She has a lot of great recipes that aren't very hard. I also have found quite a few things on Pinterest that I want to try this year.
The key to de-stressing is to plan ahead and keep it simple. A few really delicious dishes are better than trying to overextend yourself on a dozen things. Also, embrace mistakes! They make good stories later. :-)
I tried a new side dish last year that was quite the hit. It is roasted garlic cauliflower. All you need is the following:
-1 cauliflower
-1 onion (I prefer yellow, but white is fine)
-Jar of minced garlic, or a few fresh garlic gloves
-Olive Oil
-Rosemary (optional)
-Lemon Juice (optional)
Get a cake or casserole pan and drizzle a good amount of olive oil along the bottom, then break apart the cauliflower into small pieces and place them in a thin layer. Add minced garlic and sliced onion, and rosemary/lemon juice if desired. Drizzle olive oil along the top, then mix it all together so everything gets evenly covered. Place in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. Mix it up about every 10 minutes so everything gets evenly cooked. And enjoy.
If you don't want to cook the Turkey look into buying a fried Turkey from your Church, a local church or organization (Boy Scouts, Knights of Columbus, etc.). They are yummy!
Your H might think frying a Turkey is fun? A trick is to fill the fryer with water before you put oil in. Set the turkey in the fryer with water. Take it out. Mark where the water line is at now. Then fill the fryer with oil just below the line. Also make sure the Turkey is fully defrosted. Frozen turkey and hot oil is not a good mix.
As for sides roasting the veggies is an easy way to make yummy sides. Bacon, Onion, Green Beans. Parsnips and carrots. Sweet potato slices with brown sugar and butter. Traditional mashed potatoes are always good and not difficult to make.
ETA: I have co-hosted Thanksgiving for several years now. The location changes every year but the hostesses stay the same. Whoever's house Thanksgiving is being held at Makes the Turkey and makes one or two sides/ deserts. The rest of the hostesses bring the other sides and desserts.
This year my mother is making a turkey and ham. My father will make his cranberry sauce. No one but him makes it. My MIL will make all the deserts. My Aunt will be bringing the breads, pickles and olives, and veggies snacks. I will be cooking the rest of the side dishes. My cousin will bring a couple bottles of wine this year.
For your menu - what do you usually eat on Thanksgiving? No need to go reinventing the wheel. Whatever your family has been eating at Thanksgiving for the last 10 years will work this year as well.
Honestly, I think Thanksgiving is the easiest meal ever. So much can be done before and just reheated - mashed potato, cranberries, fruit pies. Turkeys can just be ignored in the oven all day. Pilsbury and the grocery store make wonderful rolls if you don't want to bake your own.
Last time I hosted, I planned what I wanted to cook, told everybody what I had planned, and invited people bring whatever they thought was missing.
Remember: Thanksgiving is just a Sunday dinner with a few extra food items.
Here's how I handled having to host Thanksgiving last year with my husband. We had 5 people for dinner. We invited the rest of the family (my brother and his family had dinner with her parents) and friends for dessert.
For the turkey: we started defrosting it I think 5 days before thanksgiving in the fridge. We used the Reynolds Turkey bag to cook it in according to the instructions included in the box. We rubbed the turkey with olive oil, then seasoned it with Rosemary, Lemon Pepper seasoning. (Any seasoning that you like on your chicken would work.) We filled the cavity of the turkey with onions, rosemary, and apple.
BETTYCROCKER.COM was my savior for the rest of my menu! I love that website for easy recipes without the hassle of finding exotic ingredients.
My family always has: mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, a vegetable, stuffing, rolls, cranberry sauce, pickles & olives., gravy. I think I made green bean casserole for my husband. (blech!)
Mashed potatoes: i followed my family's way of making them: boil potatoes and mash with butter and milk. (I threatened to make instant potatoes, my mom threw a fit.LOL) Same concept for the mashed sweet potatoes, or make them however your family prefers.
Vegetable: It varies by year, but sometimes we make carrots, green beans, broccoli, something with color. I made broccoli and cauliflower mixed with butter and some herbs. Whatever your family prefers. I have used frozen veggies in past years.
Stuffing: I have used the boxed variety, we have a family recipe that I won't attempt. Whatever you feel comfortable with.
Rolls: I found a good beer and cheddar roll recipe on betty crocker that was easy to make. Other years when I was in charge of bringing the rolls I have bought the frozen variety.
Cranberry Sauce: I was feeling extravagant so I made homemade cranberry sauce for the first time. It was good, but needed a little tweaking. My dad and I fight over the canned jelly variety.
Gravy: If you can get the drippings when the turkey comes out, you can use that to make the gravy, otherwise to be on the safe side, have a few cans or jars of turkey gravy on hand just in case.
I printed out the recipes I needed (I saved them all together in a separate section of my cookbook for future use.) and read them over several times to make sure I understood the ingredients, instructions and cooking times. I made everything ahead that I could: the rolls, cranberry sauce, olive tray, peeling veggies. If something called for several seasonings I packaged them together so that when I was making the item I could just dump the baggie of seasoning into the recipe instead of wasting time finding the seasoning and measuring spoon, etc.
I made a list of all the pots needed too and if I needed to borrow something. (I don't own a platter or olive tray.)
I worked backwards from the dinner time to determine when the turkey needed to start and each of the other food items. I set the table right after the turkey went into the oven since we had a two hour window that we didn't need to do anything until we made the rest of the food.
If anyone offers to bring something: Let them! I put my mom in charge of pumpkin pie, apple pie and she made a blueberry pie.
Sorry this was so long, but I hope this helps! Good luck! I love cooking with my husband.
We do this too and I think it is crucial. A few days before, we take out all the serving bowls/platters/utensils and put post-its on them that say "mashed potatoes" or "stuffed mushrooms" or whatever. That way, we know if we are missing anything and on the day of the holiday, we know where everything goes.
This is a fantastic idea. Smart thing to do for any party you host.
I did that too, because at the end there were 3 of us working in the kitchen with no space, and that way we all knew where the finished product went into without me scratching my head. LOL