meeg124
11-23-2006, 12:17 AM
Instead of going out to eat, we had our Thanksgiving dinner tonight. I'm stuffed and worn out. I've been cooking all day and then ate way too much!
I have a couple of tips that I've picked up over the years that I wanted to share, to help make your holiday dinner prep a little easier:
Mashed potatoes can be kept warm in your crock pot. The article where I read this stated that their test showed the potatoes didn't loose any integrity up to 12 hours in the crock pot. So, what I did today, was put the turkey in the oven and then I cooked and mashed the potatoes. When they were done, I put them in my crock pot on the low setting. After about an hour I turned it to keep warm. That way there was no last minute mashing to worry about. I just put them on the table in the crock.
If you whip your own cream, you can put dollops of this on a parchmnet lined cookie sheet and then freeze. When you're done with dinner, pull them out to defrost and when you're ready to eat dessert, the cream is all ready for your pies. If you have a Kitchen Aide stand mixer, this works great for whipping cream in no time. It helps to put your bowl and wisk attachment in the freezer first, for about 20 minutes.
Mother Helper tip: I had a friends 13 year old daughter come and play with Caden this morning, while I was doing a lot of prep work and making the appetizers and desserts. She was here for about 6 hours, kept Caden entertained and ran him around so much, he was totally ready for his nap!
When it was time to clean up after the meal, I made a deal with my husband. I would clean up tonight but he has to do all the dishes for the next 5 days. :thumb
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
Megan
I have a couple of tips that I've picked up over the years that I wanted to share, to help make your holiday dinner prep a little easier:
Mashed potatoes can be kept warm in your crock pot. The article where I read this stated that their test showed the potatoes didn't loose any integrity up to 12 hours in the crock pot. So, what I did today, was put the turkey in the oven and then I cooked and mashed the potatoes. When they were done, I put them in my crock pot on the low setting. After about an hour I turned it to keep warm. That way there was no last minute mashing to worry about. I just put them on the table in the crock.
If you whip your own cream, you can put dollops of this on a parchmnet lined cookie sheet and then freeze. When you're done with dinner, pull them out to defrost and when you're ready to eat dessert, the cream is all ready for your pies. If you have a Kitchen Aide stand mixer, this works great for whipping cream in no time. It helps to put your bowl and wisk attachment in the freezer first, for about 20 minutes.
Mother Helper tip: I had a friends 13 year old daughter come and play with Caden this morning, while I was doing a lot of prep work and making the appetizers and desserts. She was here for about 6 hours, kept Caden entertained and ran him around so much, he was totally ready for his nap!
When it was time to clean up after the meal, I made a deal with my husband. I would clean up tonight but he has to do all the dishes for the next 5 days. :thumb
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
Megan