Thanksgiving Tips: A Holiday Blog Post
Welcome back to the SchnellerCo blog! As most of you know, I usually do a segment called Recipes with Ricardo where I share a fun recipe for the family to enjoy. However, this week is Thanksgiving! That means you all know what you’ll be cooking already (I know I sure do!). I figured the best way to help was to give y’all some last minute tips to have the best Thanksgiving meal ever. Whether you’re spending it with family, friends, your significant other, or your dog, this is a time to give thanks, and nothing says “thank you” like a table full of food and a belly full of turkey!
Before we start, this is the song I’ve been listening to all week. Starring Donna McKechnie in Neil Simon’s musical Promises, Promises, I believe this to be the greatest Thanksgiving song of all time.
Turkey:
Rub your turkey in butter/oil before putting in oven. This ensures a moist meat and relieves you from having to baste it. Basting, while fun, can make the temperature fluctuate too much and it’s safer to just butter up your turkey beforehand.
If you want a very moist turkey, put butter/oil under the skin.
Gravy:
Don’t make gravy in an aluminum pan! This might turn your gravy gray which won’t affect your flavor, but will look unappetizing.
If your gravy is too salty, add brown sugar.
If your gravy is lumpy, throw it in the blender for no more than a minute (you don’t want it to be too thin either!)
Mashed Potatoes:
Boil your potatoes beforehand. This makes peeling them a breeze! Instead of striking them over and over with the peeler, the skins slide right off.
Add butter to your potatoes first. This makes the consistency of the potatoes even.
When adding your liquid, don’t pour it all in one fell swoop, go little by little so that the potatoes can absorb the moisture.
Mac and Cheese:
Add a special ingredient to your recipe to make it stand out from every other mac and cheese of the year (my secret ingredient is nutmeg)
Use at least two cheeses, but no more than five.
Salt your water when cooking your pasta so that the pasta is well seasoned.
Grocery Shopping:
Go Tuesday morning! I cannot emphasize this enough (I work in a grocery store), Wednesday will be chaos. The stores get re-stocked at night, so if you go in the early morning you’ll have the best chance of getting your ingredients. Additionally, some stores will not be open for Thanksgiving day proper. I’ve included a short list below, if your store isn’t on there, I’d call them just to check.
Kroger, Sprouts, and Whole Foods will be open on Thanksgiving day.
Target, Walmart, Aldi, Trader Joe’s, Sam’s Club, Costco, and Publix will not be open on Thanksgiving day.
Sources:
I did some research for this, if you’d like to read the articles I read, my sources are below
Last Tip:
Tell those you love that you’re grateful for them. It never hurts to tell the people you love that you love them. I am grateful for my friends, family, and all the blog readers who come to our site every week to learn something new. We here at SchnellerCo are genuinely grateful for everyone who wants to chat with us, collaborate with us, purchase from us, or just say hi. We are grateful for YOU! Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving y’all!
