Thanksgiving Prep: 2010

Our kitchen is all set and ready for the big day!

Having this beautiful kitchen certainly tops my list of things I'm thankful for this year -- we are so blessed, and I'm excited to cook and officially break in this new kitchen over the next few days.

Last year was the first time Frog Prince and I had Thanksgiving at our home.  Back in our tiny apartment, dear 3131, we cooked "Giant" -- the first turkey we ever purchased.

Giant was delicious -- locally harvested from a delightful Amish farmer!  We are excited for this year's bird too, and are looking forward to all the yummy leftovers.  But, first, there's a lot of cooking to be done!

The Menu

Turkey {made on the grill!}

Gravy

Wild Rice Stuffing

Grandma's Mashed Potatoes

Lucy's Dinner Rolls

Green Bean Casserole Hot Dish

Sweet Potatoes and Cranberries {new} - Mom's bringing

Squash - Leftover {just reheat}

Sweet Potato Pie with Molasses Crinkle Crust

Mom's Apple Pie - Mom's bringing

My goal with holiday meal prep is to do as much before hand as possible, and then set up a schedule to aid in making sure the meal is ready at the same time!  I do this by determining the "eat time" and working backwards.  We hope to eat lunch around 1pm, and with that in mind, I know when to start.  Here's the breakdown of how we're setting up this week to get ready for Thanksgiving -- reducing stress and stressing the JOY of cooking this festive meal!

The Breakdown
Sunday
-Hit up the grocery store for any last minute items {mushrooms!!}


Monday
-Make a loaf of bread for the stuffing; this will bring us to enough bread for the recipe. {done}
-Cook up the wild rice; store it in the fridge until Thursday morning. {done}
-Make molasses crinkle dough; store in the freezer until Thursday morning.  Maybe bake a few cookies while I'm at it :) {done}


Tuesday
-Make cream of mushroom soup for the green beans; store in fridge until Thursday.
-Pull bread out of the freezer for the stuffing.


Wednesday
-AM: Tear apart bread into bite-sized pieces and set out on the counter to dry out.
-PM: Pick up turkey from mom, make celery/onion mix for the stuffing, assemble breakfast for Thanksgiving day.

Thanksgiving Day
7:00 am - Turn on the crockpot to cook our breakfast casserole, and remove molasses crinkle cookie dough from the freezer {for the pie crust}
7:30 am - Prep the Turkey for the grill; Frog Prince gets grill heated up
8:00 am -  Turkey on the grill!
8:30ish -- Breakfast break
9:00 am - Dinner rolls in the bread machine{double batch}; mix together green beans
9:30 am - Bake pie crust; prep filling
10:30 am - Sweet Potato Pie in the oven
11:00 am - Prep Stuffing; Shape dough into rolls (cover to rise)
11:45 am - Wild Rice Stuffing into the oven
12:30 pm - Lucy's dinner rolls into the oven
12:30 pm - Green Bean hot dish into the oven
12:45 pm - Turkey out; allow to set. Make gravy.
~1pm - Happy Thanksgiving!

We'll enjoy pie in the afternoon along with homemade vanilla ice cream {already made}, and fresh spiced whipped cream.

This post is linked to:

• Tasty Tuesdays
• Delicious Dishes
• Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop
• Slightly Indulgent Tuesday