Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would love some suggestions/recipes for these. I have one oven which is usually occupied by turkey, stuffing, and rolls.

I usually do stuffing, mashed potatoes and steamed green beans on the stove top-just before the Turkey comes out. Then I do the gravy after the Turkey comes out. I put in a squash casserole (at room temp) and corn pudding (reheating -also at room temp) on the top shelf of the oven and rolls on the bottom shelf - to heat up while the Turkey rests and is then carved. We also have a garden salad and two kinds of cranberry sauce.

not sure why I kept capitalizing Turkey. 🙂

Anonymous wrote:Would love some suggestions/recipes for these. I have one oven which is usually occupied by turkey, stuffing, and rolls.

I usually do stuffing, mashed potatoes and steamed green beans on the stove top-just before the Turkey comes out. Then I do the gravy after the Turkey comes out. I put in a squash casserole (at room temp) and corn pudding (reheating -also at room temp) on the top shelf of the oven and rolls on the bottom shelf - to heat up while the Turkey rests and is then carved. We also have a garden salad and two kinds of cranberry sauce.

If you have a grill, we do brussel sprouts on the grill because you can blast the heat and they're done super fast.

Here's our standard line-up:

Oven:
Pies first thing in the morning
Turkey
When the turkey comes out of the oven to rest, pop in the tray of roasted root vegetables on a lower rack, with stuffing and rolls on an upper rack
When one of those is done, move it someplace warm and cover with foil, put the sweet potatoes (already cooked/mashed with pecan topping sprinkled on top) in to warm up
By the time the turkey is carved, everything else is ready

Stovetop:
Mashed potatoes
Steam sweet potatoes for the casserole
Pan-steamed green beans with butter
Wild rice with butternut squash, cranberries, pecans
Gravy
Cranberry sauce (usually the night before)

Crockpot:
Mulled wine, but Mac n cheese or applesauce would also work

We have cooked the turkey on the grill, and that's good too. But it's harder to get drippings for the gravy. Haven't really incorporated the instant pot yet.

We don't make stuffing. Green beans with slivered almonds, mashed potatoes with bacon, popovers (oven), cranberry sauce, carrot soup, some sort of rice dish.

Mac and Cheese is traditional at our Thanksgiving, and it stays warm nicely in the crock pot.

Dressing in the crock pot is the best!

Stovetop: Wine-marinated mushrooms
1) Melt a stick of salted butter, a few cups of wine (whatever you like), a few cups of vegetable (or beef or chicken) stock, a few glugs of sherry and a cup of boiling water in a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed stock pot
2) Add 4-6 containers of whole-but-small baby bella mushrooms
3) Tasting every now and then, reduce heat after an initial boil and simmer for several hours, adding a few glugs of Worcestershire, maybe some dried herbs, whatever

YUMMMM!

This recipe makes a lot of dressing. You’ll need at least a 5 1/2 to 6 qt crockpot. The dressing that cooks touching the sides of the crock is crispier and the dressing in the middle is moist, so there’s a texture for everyone’s taste.


Slow Cooker Stuffing

8 servings

2 T butter
1 cup or more finely chopped onions
1 cup or more finely chopped celery
12 cups toasted bread crumbs or dressing mix (Pepperidge Farm - 1 1/2 (14 oz pkgs))
1/4-1 cup butter or margarine, melted (enough to flavor bread - 2 sticks)
2 (8 oz) cans sliced mushrooms, drained
1/2 to 1 cup dried cranberries and raisins
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (2 Tbsp dried)
2 tsp poultry seasoning (omit if using seasoned dressing mix)
dash of pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
4 cups chicken stock

1. Sauté onions and celery in butter.
2. Combine bread crumbs, onions, celery, mushrooms and dried cranberries. Add parsley and seasoning.
3. Combine eggs and chicken stock, stir into stuffing mix.
4. Pour into slow cooker and bake on High 1 hour, and on Low an additional 3 hours.*

*All 4 hours on low is fine if you’re not a fan of dryer, crispier stuffing.

I do roasted potatoes/sw potatoes/root veg in the pan with the turkey (so not stovetop, but not taking up more oven space)

Stove top ideas: mashed potatoes, green beans almondine, glazed carrots, butternut squash braised with a little brown sugar, sautéed Brussels sprouts. I usually just do some frozen corn in the microwave too.

A few years ago,, our oven stopped working about a week before Thanksgiving and I had to do the entire meal for 14 on the stovetop/slow cooker/ grill / toaster oven. My husband smoked the turkey and I got all of my recipes for sides from Cooks Illustrated/ America’s Test Kitchen.

I do stuffing in the crock pot—it always comes out great. My dad (RIP) used to do the turkey either on the grill with the rotisserie or deep fry it, which is an outdoor affair. Soooo good!

We have also done the turkey on a gas grill fwiw— works great except the house doesn’t smell like roasting turkey…

What sides do you normally make? Things like mashed potatoes and Mac n cheese (the latter being controversial at Thanksgiving) are easy to do in a slow cooker or instant pot. I make the smitten kitchen green bean casserole on the stovetop and it is delicious!

Would love some suggestions/recipes for these. I have one oven which is usually occupied by turkey, stuffing, and rolls.