Top 10 Thanksgiving Hacks!
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and that means lots of cooking. To help make things easier, here are 10 Thanksgiving hacks!
No Roasting Rack? Use Tin Foil!
Roasting racks are a handy tool for getting heat to circulate all around the turkey when cooking. If you don’t have one, you can use tin foil.
Just make a tin foil “rope” and curl it into a spiral that you’ll put under the bird. Voila! Roasting rack. You can also go more traditional and do this with veggies like carrots, onions, and celery.
Fluffy Mashed Potatoes with . . . Baking Powder?
This one sounds odd at first read, but trust us. Adding baking powder to mashed potatoes can help make them nice and fluffy.
Here’s a recipe that explains how much you should add.
Frozen Butter = Better Biscuits
Biscuits are awesome, especially when they’re super flakey. Yum!
This Thanksgiving hack will help them get flakey – freeze your butter and then grate it into the flour. This gets the butter well distributed throughout the flour.
Using Rice for Pie Weights
Need a quick and easy pie weight for parbaking the crust? Just cover the crust in a sheet of tin foil, pour a few cups of dry rice in, and you’re good to go. If you’re looking for a citrus based dessert, be sure to check out our recipe for lemon bars.
The Dishwasher Isn’t Just for Dishes (It’s for Potatoes Too!)
Here’s a simple Thanksgiving hack. If you have a ton of potatoes to wash, just throw them in the dishwasher! Obviously, don’t use soap and run an empty load beforehand (sans soap) to get rid of any residues.
Too Many Potatoes to Peel? Try This!
Have too many potatoes you need to peel and boil and too little time? Try this: run a sharp knife around the middle of the potato, cutting a ring that just pierces the skin. Boil the potatoes as normal. Once they’re done, pour off the boiling water, run them under cold water for a few seconds (until you can handle them), and you can pull the skins right off!
One More Potato Tip: Crock Pot Warmer
Need to keep your mashed potatoes nice and warm until dinner? Just butter up the insert of your crock-pot or slow cooker, pour in a little bit of heavy cream, and then add in the mashed potatoes. Set the temperature to low and give it a stir once an hour.
Chop-Chop! Getting the Veggies Ready Early
Thanksgiving Day is really busy, so make your life a little easier with this Thanksgiving hack. The evening before Thanksgiving, pre-chop all the veggies you’ll need. That’ll save you from a lot of busy-work on Turkey Day.
Turkey Too Dry? Chicken Broth to the Rescue!
Did the turkey lose a little too much moisture? Try drizzling the carved meat with some warm chicken broth. Don’t saturate the meat, of course, just add enough to give it back some of that missing moisture.
Doggie Bags!
If you know you’ll have too much food and won’t get through the leftovers, make some doggie bags with guest’s names on them. You could even buy some disposable containers to make things even easier!
Looking for a great granola bar recipe? Click here.
Thanks to Foodnetwork.com, Rachel Sanders of Tasty.co, Carrie of Making Lemonade, a Lifestyle Blog, SideChef, Courtney of Pizzazzerie, Ashley of Make It & Love it, and Regina Yunghans of kitchn for the great Thanksgiving hacks!
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