hiii ok i saw your post about thanksgiving foods and recipes and basically this year im having dinner with just my parents and brother cause we moved across the country and none of our family lives near here, anyways i feel really bad that we dont get to be with other family and i want to make something as a surprise for my family, especially since im a bad cook (so easy recipes?) haha any suggestions are amazing thanks :)
Okay, firstly, Don’t worry about making a turkey! They’re really hard to get just right (I’m actually not a fan) and takes all this effort and its just not worth it at all. I suggest getting a ham (if you’re not against ham like if you’re Jewish) (My family is Jewish so this only flies sometimes)
You can get a spiral ham that you basically just put in the oven and cook until the timer pops. Its even already cut for you for the most part. The directions on those are super simple but if you’re not sure, always cook under. You can always put it in for longer. Its a lot harder to save overcooked meat.
It depends on your family, but generally mashed potatoes, canned cranberry jelly (a staple in my parent’s house but I don’t like it), some sort of sweet potato deal, and some veggies. We usually have corn/greenbeans and then of course stuffing.
Mashed potatoes are the best from scratch and are actually super easy:
wash and peel potatoes. Seriously. That’s the entire first step. For a family of four (like yours) I would say a bag of potatoes so you have leftovers
Wash them again (just rinse them) and then cut into cubes about an inch big. It doesn’t matter, but try to make them all relatively the same size so they all cook evenly. Then, put them in a pot large enough to contain them.
Fill the pot with water so there’s about half and inch to an inch above the potatoes, then add a shit ton of salt. You think I’m joking. I’m not. Adding salt to water not only adds flavor, but it also decreases boiling temp. For a big pot of potatoes, its about say oh…. a palmful at least?
Boil until you can mash a cube against the side of the pot easily, then drain in a colander. You’ll want to have an oven on (if not already) and throw the potatoes in on a cookie sheet for a few minutes to let them dry out. This prevents the potatoes from getting slimy. Its a good thing.
Place them all into a bowl.
OKAY that’s the base of making mashed potatoes. From there you can make tater tots or whatever but for basic mash you just want to add butter, milk, and I always add a dash of garlic with my salt and pepper.
I’m not sure where you live, but if its relatively warm this time of year and you have a grill, you should grill corn. Just buy them with the husks on, peel back just to get the silks off and to but some butter inside, and grill them. That’s it. Since corn is so great (you don’t have to cook it at all actually) its really hard to ruin this. At all.
For mains, also consider chicken and fish. Fish is hard to make properly (I know you said you weren’t that good of a cook) but you could always make sashimi! (I kid… kind of.) But if you have a good cut of fish, a few minutes is all it takes. Another good thing? Steaks! Steaks are hard to mess up, especially if they like it medium to rare, and they even have temp gauges to tell you what level its at if you can’t tell by poking it.
Anyway, its late, but tell me what you’re thinking of cooking for your family and I can always post links/pics of recipes I think you might like.
