1) Starting prepping ingredients like garlic, carrots, celery and onions a few days in advance and keep them in a airtight Ziploc bags. This will make your life so much easier.
2) Go to your grocer and order your turkey fresh not frozen you will notice the difference.
3) For a more memorable dinner make everything from scratch, from the gravy, stuffing to the cranberry sauce. (I will give you recipes for all these on my next newsletter)
4) Have lots of homemade turkey or chicken stock on hand to baste your turkey, make your stuffing and gravy, the more the better.
5) Create a delicious holiday aroma throughout your house by boiling a pot of water with orange rind, cinnamon sticks, whole star anise and cloves.
6) For easier carving remove the wishbone before roasting. Stash it in the roasting tray so it will cook so you can still make a wish.
7) To add more flavor to your turkey try putting a half cup of coffee beans in the cavity of your turkey.
8) Use your oven space wisely: make dishes like mash potatoes ahead of time and heat them in a double boiler to save room in the oven for things that take up more room.
9) Have fun upbeat music playing when people enter your house then switch it piano or jazz during dinner.
10) Leave your turkey unwrapped in the refrigerator overnight. It will make the skin crisper when you cook it.
11) Before roasting your turkey insert several metal skewers into each thigh. They will direct the heat to the thighs more efficiently, and the faster the thighs cook, the less time the breast has to dry out.
12) Set out some bottles of wine and champagne with several flavored liquors so people can create their own drinks.
13) In order to keep people out of the kitchen have some games planed out, like touch football or beam bag toss.
14) This is the start of the holiday season so why not break out the eggnog, and spike it with cognac or rum.
15) If oven space is tight I recommend 2 smaller birds instead of 1 larger one.
16) If stove space is tight try serving a green bean salad.
17) If you are having a large group of people I recommend place cards; this will make it much easier come meal time.
18) This year try serving dinner buffet style. You can set it up in the kitchen you will find it make things much easier.
19) If you want to serve a different vegetable try frying Brussels sprouts with say and citrus sauce.
20) Serve your cranberry sauce in a hollowed-out apples, it will add color to your table.
21) Have everyone make a list and read what they are thankful for.
22) Take some leftover turkey and place it in a food processor with potatoes and stuffing. Then pan fry it with eggs in the morning.
23) Making your clean up easier and free up your sink have a soaps plastic tub to pre soak plates and silverware.
24) Buy white Chinese food takeout boxes for your guest to take home any leftovers.
25) And most important clean out your refrigerator ahead of time. Then have some tabled storage containers set so you are not trying to cram thing in all at once.
