Thanksgiving Hacks: The Big Day

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Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving-Dinner-TablePreviously we posted some pre-Thanksgiving Day hacks for how to prepare for the big day. Today we’ve got some invaluable hacks for the day of. Once you’ve got all your ingredients, prepped what you could the day before, and have your home prepared for your guests, it’s time for the day of cooking. We hope these hacks we’ve culled together for you help and allow you a bit more time to catch up with your Aunt Cindy who flew in from Kalamazoo just to see you.

Think Drinks
If your refrigerator is packed too full and you don’t have room for drinks, use a separate cooler filled with ice. Be sure to tie a bottle opener to the cooler too.
In case you run out of cold drinks or chilled white wine during your festivities, simply wrap a wet paper towel around your bottles and place them in the fridge. They’ll chill within 15 minutes!

Potato Pro
Nobody likes peeling potatoes. Here’s a hot life hack: boil potatoes with the skin on for 15 minutes, then let them cool for 10 minutes. You’ll be able to easily peel them by rubbing them gently.
If you want extra fluffy mashed potatoes, sprinkle a little baking powder in them while mashing. The heat of the potatoes triggers the chemicals in the baking powder, creating carbon dioxide bubbles that make your mashed taters extra fluffy.

Slow Cooker Warmer
Once your mashed potatoes are ready, keep them warm in a slow cooker during dinner. Second helpings will still be warm!

Sugar Magic
Have a recipe that calls for brown sugar, but all you have is a hard lump of the stuff? Here’s an easy hack to solve that problem: place a moist paper towel over your brown sugar in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave it for 30 seconds and voila! You’ll have soft brown sugar.

Turkey Tips
Keep your turkey breasts from drying out in the oven by placing a piece of cheesecloth that has been soaked in butter atop your turkey. It will slowly baste your turkey breasts and protect them from the heat baking down on them.

No roasting rack? No problem! Here are two viable hacks for those who’ve found themselves rackless on Thanksgiving.

  1. Use quartered onions, celery, and carrots on the bottom of your pan. This will raise your turkey off the bottom of the pan, away from the drippings and it will boost the flavor of the drippings for a kick to your gravy.
  2. If you don’t have extra veggies for the above hack, simply crumple up some tinfoil into long rolls about 1 inch thick and then coil them underneath your turkey.
    We hope these Thanksgiving Day hacks help you and that you have a wonderful day with your loved ones!

If you have a great Thanksgiving Day hack, share it with us here!