Thanksgiving Time Savers

One of the best Thanksgiving time savers that I put to work yesterday (and the day before) would make my great-grandmother's head spin backwards. Yeah, I was raised to believe that it was a sin or at the very least something to be embarrassed about if the can opener came into play at any time during the preparation of the holiday feast.

The rest of the year, the dancing glove was the enemy but on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter canned goods were left in the cabinet or better yet, the grocery store. The exception was, of course, something that you had canned yourself in a Mason jar.

This year, with all of the stress and extra workload in keeping the house disinfected so that everybody won't get MRSA that doesn't already have it, I bit the bullet and took a few shortcuts. And I have to tell you that of all the heretofore forbidden Thanksgiving time savers, canned chicken broth was the absolute BEST!

Led to believe that the taste of canned broth was easily detected when compared to homemade, I had never experimented with it. Under the gun this year, I forgot to buy a hen and simmer it to have my broth ready to make the dressing and gravy. After a quick and surreptitious dash to the grocery before lunch, six cans of Sweet Sue saved the day. The empty cans were bagged, hidden and buried in the dumpster and NOBODY said a thing about any of the recipes having a slightly "off" flavor.

Not having to make room in the refrigerator to store the homemade broth alone probably saved me an hour! That may not sound like much but on a busy holiday, every hour counts.

I would be curious to know if you discovered any Thanksgiving time savers that you might want to share. As for me, you can bet that I've got six more cans of this stuff on my grocery list to have on hand for Christmas. Am I proud that I jumped in and did what I had to do to make Thanksgiving dinner a success? You bet I am! Am I going to tell my grandmother what I did? Well, no. In fact, the canned broth is written in code on my grocery list and I plan to hide the cans in the trunk of the car. Will I be found out? You will have to return to Family Recipes, Babies and Parenting Issues to see more Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday time savers and to see if anybody outs me.