Italian Sausage Dinner

That all cooks should know about

Hosting a Thanksgiving dinner.

By Stephanie Maggio owner / chief of staff of the Department Head Maggio.

Hosting a Thanksgiving dinner can be very stressful. The holiday season is already upon us and it seems that we are busy even before the day arrives. First Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day with forward. First, calm down. Here are some tips to relieve a little stress, so you too can enjoy the day with your guests.

First, decide how you want your Thanksgiving Dinner to be established. Want buffet? With this set-up you need a place big enough to describe foods. Your guest will then serve and sit where you have provided. This is a very casual dinner and works well with a list of hosts spacious. Another way to serve your dinner party is potluck style. This way is much less stressful on the host that each of your guests would bring a dish and a dessert in general. The host usually provides the main dishes like turkey, stuffing and gravy. Thus, an average sample of this work would be to let each guest know which items to bring, such as mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls and more. Make sure that if specific order not to end up with tons of green beans! And yet another way to serve Thanksgiving dinner would be a more formal dinner at the table. This is my favorite and a more intimate setting. For a formal framework you would need a large table and the small list of guests. What we do at home is set up two tables side by side. One for adults and for children. Children can chat with me and their adults can visit with each other without separating everyone. So now decide what kind of style you want Thanksgiving dinner, you can plan accordingly.

The second thing you must do is start cooking now. Most baked goods freeze well. You could make and freeze pies, nut breads, cakes and cookies unfrosted. You can freeze uncooked fruit pies, wrapped in plastic wrap and cover with aluminum. To bake, place frozen pie in center of oven at 375 degrees for about 1 1 / 2 hours or until bubbly and golden brown. To freeze nut breads, you'll need to cook as usual and let cool completely. Wrap the bread in the bread cooled freezer according to the size of bread. To thaw, simply place it on the counter for about an hour, then cut as usual. To freeze unfrosted cakes, cake layers cool completely and wrap separately in waxed paper then in paper. Let thaw on the counter completely before frosting. Cookies freeze well. Just cook according to recipes and let cool completely. Store cookies in freezer bags or freezer containers such as lock-n-locks. Just on the fight against the thaw until ready to view and eat. Doing this now will certainly help take a load off.

Plan your guest list. This may sound simple, but what do you think of who you want more of your home, your list can grow to a number impossible! Do you have a large family? If so, you will not have many friends over. This is where you decide who you want to spend the day with. Traditions also play a role in this field. Maybe you have the same year after year, people like Grandma and Grandpa. If so, this will be easy because you already know. Ok, now you have your guest list ready.

Start your shopping early! Do not wait until the week of Thanksgiving to buy what you need. Not only are you risking empty shelves, but it is expensive to purchase at the last minute. There are some great sales starting around Halloween for cooking supplies and more. until now in stock. If the stuffing mix is on sale when you are in the market for milk, pick it up. You will need anyway.