For those who have been really busy this season and didn't get time to prepare a menu for Thanksgiving dinner, here's a list of dishes you can cook for the traditional three course dinners.
Appetizers:
- Mexican salad: Make a nice Mexican salad with black beans, garbanzo beans, celery, onions, bell peppers and jalapeno. Season it with salt, black pepper, olive oil, lime juice and honey.
- Cocktail Sausages: Heat some grape jelly and barbecue sauce and stir in smoked sausages. This simple recipe makes for a great appetizer.
- Goat Cheese Torte: Prepare a torte with goat cheese, herbs, spices, tomato etc and serve it with bread for starters.
- Nachos and cheese dip: Nachos and a nice dip can also be added to the appetizers.
Main Course:
- Herb roasted Turkey: Turkey roasted in oven with a mixture of fresh and dried herbs applied all over it makes for a great main course dish.
- Bread and celery stuffing: A quick and tasty stuffing to fill your Turkey with.
- Turkey gravy: A perfect Turkey meal is not complete without the gravy made from flour, Turkey broth and poultry juices.
- Mashed Potatoes: Mashed potatoes can be prepared a night before and refrigerated.
- Cranberry sauce: Made from fresh or canned cranberries and mixed with raspberry vinegar, this sauce is a great side dish.
- Caesar salad: Mix a Caesar salad using chicken, cucumber, pineapple and other veggies. Add some Caesar dressing (available in market), cream and olive oil.
- Green bean casserole:A very famous side dish for Thanksgiving dinner. It's made with green beans mixed with cream.
Desserts:
- Apple pie: An American meal cannot be completed without the famous Apple Pie for dessert. Serve it with some ice cream and the kids will love it.
- Strawberry trifle: It's prepared from fresh strawberries and bananas layered with cake and pudding.
- Pecan Pie: Pecan pie is another traditional dessert served for Thanksgiving dinner. It's made with thin crust pastry and pecans and eaten warm with ice cream scooped over it.
- Pumpkin pie: It is an open faced crust that contains a smooth filling made with eggs, sugar, pumpkin syrup, cream and some spices.
Beverages:
Wine is a traditional drink for Thanksgiving. Other choices for the beverage are apple cider, cocktails etc. Kids can be served some fresh juices or mock tails.
Preparations can be done in advance for the dinner so that you have minimum worries on the Thanksgiving Day and you can concentrate on decorating and setting up the table.
