November 23, 2019

WEEKLY MENU 11.24.19

Weekly Menu 11.24.19 is up to the challenge of planning dinner for the best week of the food year.

Some parts of our weekly Menu 11.24.19 might look a little familiar. We cook pretty much the same leftovers every year – they’re as much a part of the holiday as the formal dinner.

What’s your favorite part of Thanksgiving?

Mine is having family close and enjoying every minute of it. Second, though, is a tie between the Mashed Potatoes and Sausage Cornbread Stuffing. Plus the Green Bean Casserole. Oh, and the Pecan Pie with fresh whipped cream. Man – the Gingered Cranberry Sauce. Oh yeah. We’re having turkey too. ♥

I’m licking my chops over here.

We’re having a big dinner to start the week – which is completely different than the big dinner we’re having later in the week. Guinness Braised Beef is really just an absolutely fabulous beef stew. We’re serving that with roasted baby potatoes and carrots – they’re separate on the menu, but I’ll combine them and bake them at the same time. The oven will be on for the beef anyway – I’m conserving energy!

Tuesday is a travel day for our incoming middle son – so we’re having his favorite dinner – Chicken Fra. It’s a super easy last minute meal. Plus, while it is poultry, it couldn’t be more different than the roasted turkey we’ll have on Thursday.

If you take a look at the Thanksgiving 101 post, you’ll see that I recommend doing a lot of the Thanksgiving prep on Wednesday. Because I’m cooking the meal of the year the next day, we do take out. We’re talking Greeks (so good for us – hotdogs and hamburgers smothered in Greek sauce). Four of the five of us are running the Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning though. Take one guess who’s not? The Greeks might not set the boysies up for their best ever time.

Baby Boy wants to beat Bert’s time this year~

We’ll see how it goes – no matter what we eat on Wednesday, I know I’m not making it. I’ll probably insist on something everyone likes though. It’s a mom thing. Last year we brought in meatballs (from our favorite Italian restaurant) and kept them warm in the crock pot until dinner time. Then we made some hoagie buns into garlic toast in the oven and smothered the whole thing with cheese.

Use your crock pot (affiliate link) on Thanksgiving too – put the mashed potatoes in the insert after making them on Wednesday and pop it into the fridge. I take them out, dot with butter and put them in the crock pot on low early afternoon. Keep an eye on them – I usually turn them to “warm” well before dinner.

Mix leftover cranberry sauce with some mayo to make an awesome topping for the hot turkey and Swiss sliders.

Prove irrefutably that leftover potatoes are better than no potatoes:

Shape the mashed spuds into flattened balls and brown in butter melted over medium high heat in a cast iron skillet (affiliate link). Voila – Potato Croquettes. Yum.