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Weekend Cook and Tell Round Up: Thanksgiving Pregame

Posted by Caroline Russock, November 25, 2009 at 5:30 PM

[Flickr: riptheskull]

Last week we asked you to break down your Thanksgiving pregame plans for our Weekend Cook and Tell Challenge. We wanted to know what all of you were doing to save time and valuable stove and oven space. Here are some of the responses we are the most thankful for:

10956bbq spent the days leading up to Thanksgiving eating the fridge contents. Also, grabbing a drink at the kick-off of the first football game will make things run smoothly.

avaryne has a few tricks for alleviating the stress of cooking for a crowd: helpful in-laws and a keg of beer.

terplinz's sister-in-law hosts Thanksgiving and sends out an email to all of her guests with a set of rules (to ward off potential kitchen chaos). Rule number one: Only the sister-in-law can use the stove.

TheKitchenWitch is not a fan of Thanksgiving. This year her family will forgo turkey in favor of an Asian feast.

CatBoy stirred up the comments with talk of his green stuffing by his Portuguese grandmother and bread pudding cooked in a pumpkin.

noanise had a Thanksgiving pregame dinner with friends before everyone went their separate ways for family meals. Apple cider-glazed turkey with cider gravy and jalapeño cornbread stuffing were on the menu, followed by a screening of Julie & Julia.

yayfood's Thanksgiving cooking has been planned with military precision. At 15:00 hours (aka 3 p.m.) "Dinner is served and we all have fun!"

ec_washington did a Thanksgiving dry run with friends to make sure all of the recipes were up to par. Take a look at this intern Thanksgiving.

katieelby enlisted her family to help. Mom did the shopping and the pecan pie is already baked.

salpico hosts an ambitious meal for 20. Preassembling a turducken is a crowd-pleasing time saver. Another secret weapon: turkey gravy mix from Williams Sonoma.

I'm getting a jump on my Thanksgiving by prepping a batch of vegetable stock from all of the leftovers in my crisper. My pickled cranberries are curing away and my turkey brine is chilling and getting ready to infuse the bird with all its salty goodness.

A big thank you to all of you who shared your Thanksgiving timesavers for this Weekend Cook and Tell challenge and we hope you enjoys all of your inspired holiday spreads. Be sure to head over to Talk and read about next week's challenge: Thanksgiving Post Game Recap.

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Tags: Thanksgiving, Weekend Cook and Tell