Imagine going to bed Thanksgiving Eve and sleeping in Thanksgiving morning. I always thought you had to get up at 5 a.m. on Thanksgiving to wrestle with a raw bird. That is until I found two recipes from Southern Plate. And boy am I thankful!
I followed Christy’s instructions for making dressing in the crock pot. Not only is it delicious, it frees up oven space. Plus, I took her advice and put the turkey in the oven to cook overnight. Both were such a success they have forever changed the Thanksgiving menu:
- Overnight Turkey (Easy, Delicious and Always Moist!)
- Crock Pot Dressing (minus the chicken for the Thanksgiving meal)
- Asparagus Casserole (Grandpa and Grandma’s recipe)
- Sweet Potato Casserole
- Mashed Potatoes
- Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese – a request from the children
- Rolls
- Grandma’s pies<—————the best part!
A few other Thanksgiving Eve tips I found last year:
*Six Tips for Easier Clean Up After a Big Thanksgiving Meal from Hillbillyhousewife
- *Wash your potatoes in the dishwasher?? from Happy Housewife. I did this and it was wonderful!
- *Thanksgiving recipes leftovers roundup thanks to $5dinners
*Preschoolers as Part of the Action – remember to include your little chefs too 🙂
And of course, with Thanksgiving, comes Christmas…
*Cruise through the holidays – The Holiday Control Journal by the Flylady
*Here’s one last handy dandy guideline. A week-by-week guide with a steady pace to be ready. Christmas organization timetable from Menus for Moms
Updated from the 2009 Hodgepodge archives
Whoa – potatoes in the dishwasher… LOVE IT! Now if I could just find a way to peel them that quickly 🙂
I can’t get used to this early thing…out west, we ate holiday dinners in the evening like other dinners, at dusk. So my mom always slept in and put the turkey in the oven at 10 or 11 am! Evening made it feel more fancy, and we used candlelight, stem glasses, etc. Of course, we didn’t get the opportunity to get hungry again later and make those turkey and stuffing sandwiches, since we ate so late. =) This worked for our family, but of course not everyone would like this idea. That’s the nice thing about sharing. =)
PS…Sweet Potato Crunch is one of our favorites, too. I got that recipe from my husband’s Southern grandma. I later shared it with my family in California, and now they all request it every year. In fact, I get in trouble with my husband if I don’t double the recipe so that he can have it for breakfast the next day! =)
Great stuff! I have to try the potatos in the dishwasher…that’s the worst part about making them from scratch!