Preparing Thanksgiving Early

I usually start the night before with prep work and making the stuffing. I found the following recipe a few years ago and it is the BEST mashed potatoes that I have ever had; and you can make them now to save on time. Let me know if you like them. Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes You can make these ahead several days and store in the fridge. If baking cold, let stand 30 minutes first. INGREDIENTS: 5 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, cubed2 (3 ounce) packages cream cheese 8 ounces sour cream1/2 cup milk2 teaspoons onion saltground black pepper to taste DIRECTIONS: 1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). 2. Place potatoes in a large pot of lightly salted water. Bring to a boil, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, and mash. 3. In a large bowl, mix mashed potatoes, cream cheese, sour cream, milk, onion salt, and pepper. Transfer to a large casserole dish. 4. Cover, and bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven.

You can prepare the mashed potatoes earlier and store them in a crockpot on low temperature. I have had them this way before. They are good. Dressing (stuffing) freezes well.

You can prepare the pies and freeze them woth no problem (cooked) Also if oyu don;t plan on serving the whole turkey you can cook it in advance slice it down and freeze the slices then you can thaw them and serve thm with gravvy maybe I would not freeze potatoes as I have heard it is not a good idea I don't know about the stuffing I have never tried to freeze it but you can prepare the corn bread in advance and freeze it But you can prepare the suffing the day before and the vegetables (if you plan any) as well Keep the mashed potatoes for the last minute

I do most of the prep work the day before Thanksgiving. I make the stuffing, boil the potatoes and the sweet potatoes, and get the house ready. That save a lot of running around later on. If you are having a lot of people, ask for help. Either ask them to bring a dish, or ask them to help with the preparations when they are there. Most of the time people offer, so take them up on it when they do. Don't think that you have to do it all or impress them. If you try to handle it all yourself, you will get stressed and won't enjoy yourself. It would probably be ok to cook some stuff ahead of time and freeze it, but that wouldn't be my first choice. Part of the fun of the holiday is the cooking and the delicious, fresh food. But that's just me. If you want to freeze it, it will probably be fine.