6 Things to Prep Ahead for Thanksgiving Dinner

Hosting Thanksgiving dinner for family and friends can turn your kitchen into complete chaos. Between entertaining guests, basting the turkey, whipping up mashed potatoes, sautéing green beans, and baking dinner rolls, Thanksgiving can turn into a stressful and exhausting day of cooking and cleaning. But by utilizing all of the kitchen essentials, like those in the Samsung Kitchen Suite, you can save time and your sanity by preparing the turkey, side dishes, and desserts in advance. Here are 6 things to prep ahead of Thanksgiving dinner:

1. Thaw the turkey: The golden turkey is the heart of traditional Thanksgiving dinners (aside from the pies, of course). There would be nothing worse than discovering that the main dish is still frozen on Thanksgiving day. To make sure the turkey is ready to roast on Thursday, place it in the refrigerator a few days before Thanksgiving to thaw, allowing a full day for every 5 pounds of turkey. The Samsung French Door refrigerator has ample space to defrost the turkey and store groceries for the week.

2. Cook up the cranberries: Serving a traditional cranberry sauce? Sure, opening a can of jellied cranberries and dumping it into a dish five minutes before dinner is easy, but it probably won't please the Thanksgiving traditionalists at the table. This year, skip the canned cranberries and cook it a few days before, storing the prepared cranberry sauce in the refrigerator in an airtight container. A few hours before Thanksgiving dinner, pull out the container from the refrigerator to bring the cranberry sauce to room temperature.

3. Setting up the stuffing: Very dry bread that soaks in all of the fantastic flavors of the herbs is the key to a scrumptious stuffing. Five to six days before Thanksgiving, cube bread and spread it out on a baking sheet to dry out. Need a couple extra helping hands around the kitchen? Kids will be happy to tear the bread into pieces. Then, on Wednesday, assemble the stuffing and place it in the refrigerator where the flavors will meld before baking it the next day.

4. Mix the dips: When my brother and I were young, our mom put us in charge of making the dips for vegetables while she baked pies the day before Thanksgiving. This is an easy activity for kids who want to help cook the big meal. For a simple onion dip, mix sour cream and an onion seasoning mix packet together and put in a sealed container to chill overnight in the refrigerator for delicious dipping the next day. Cut carrots, celery, and broccoli ahead of time, too, for a quick pre-dinner snack on Thanksgiving.

5. Gather the necessities, dishes and drinks: Get out your great grandma's table linens and dishes prior to Thanksgiving day, rinsing the dishes and ironing the napkins and tablecloth before setting the table. The day before Thanksgiving is also a good time to chill any beverages.

6. Bake the pies: After everyone is sufficiently stuffed with turkey, bring out the pie! Pecan, pumpkin, and other favorite seasonal pies can be made a day in advance. To save baking time, a double oven would make it easy to bake the pecan and pumpkin pies at varying temperatures at the same time.

What things do you prep ahead of Thanksgiving dinner?

Content by Ali Cherie.