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Preparing Ahead: The Key to a Successful Thanksgiving Feast |
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As most everyone who has ever cooked for a large Thanksgiving Day gathering knows, the key is planning and pre-preparation for as many dishes as possible. If you have family members willing to brink desserts, or their favorite dish, it helps too, because you can focus on things like decor, expanding the eating area, if you have large gatherings, and making sure everything is perfect for your guests.
If Turkey and stuffing (or ‘dressing’ in the south, where it is made with cornbread instead of other bread) are on the menu, try this simple suggestion: Rather than cooking the stuffing inside your bird, boil and bone a chicken the day before, bake cornbread (or get the bread ready that you intend to use) completely prepare the stuffing according to the recipe you like best, and put it in the refrigerator in a baking pan, ready to pop into the oven the next morning.
If you find turkey dry, or bland, simply take 10 chicken bullion cubes, a diced onion, minced garlic cloves, 2 Tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 Tablespoons of seasoned meat tenderizer, red pepper to taste, and two quarts of water. Cook until only one quart remains. Strain this cooled liquid through a cheesecloth, or fine wire strainer; use the onions and garlic in your stuffing or mashed potatoes, and buy a meat injector (looks like a giant syringe with a huge needle, and inject the spicy mixture into your thawed turkey.
This can be allowed to marinate overnight, but it actually works best if injected right before cooking the turkey, because it tends to drain out some if left over night. This method works for fried, baked, or smoked turkeys. Prepare all desserts the night before, and things like veggie trays, salads, cranberry sauce can be done the night before as well.
Bake or buy muffins that can be eaten by hand for breakfast, so you don’t have to worry about breakfast, or a breakfast mess, and you can even have your table set and decorated the night before.
Be certain to have plenty of relaxing activities, like movies for the post dinner lethargy that we all seem to have after eating Thanksgiving Dinner, but remember to have activities to keep the children entertained as well. They enjoy movies, for relaxing, but will have plenty of energy left.
Marshmallow Straw Contest
This is a new version of apple dunking. Take a large plastic bowl, fill it half way with ice water, and float full size marshmallows in it. Each child has a straw, cut in half. (Shorter straws are easier to suck and hold the marshmallow) Then have a contest to see who can get the marshmallow picked up in the shortest amount of time. Do this with only one or two children at a time so there will not be too many kids trying to catch the marshmallows at once. They can even eat the marshmallow when they capture it. Pumpkin Bowling
Knock over the bowling pins. Make a strike or a spare. Select several miniature pumpkins for this game. You need extras in case a few split or break. Place plastic soda bottles, with dried beans in the bottom to weight them just a bit, as bowling pins several feet away on the lawn or floor of the room. You can let the kids decorate the soda bottles with Halloween objects before the game. Measure off several feet. Give each child two tries to knock down the pins. I strike is worth two pieces of candy. A spare is worth one piece of candy.
If your idea of Thanksgiving could only be the traditional Thanksgiving feast, then find all the comfort you need in the most traditional Thanksgiving ever. The turkey is observed as a compulsory dish of the Thanksgiving dinner even today. No matter through which method it is cooked with stuffing and gravy on the side, turkey remains the main attraction of the Thanksgiving dinner and will keep whetting th appetite of all your guests. Try decorating your Thanksgiving Day dinner table with some simple food garnishing. For assigned seating try these free printable place name cards.
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Here's one of the most unbelievable Thanksgiving facts: The Guinness Book of Records states that the greatest dressed weight recorded for a turkey is 39.09 kg (86 lbs), at the annual "heaviest turkey" competition held in London, England on December 12, 1989.
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