Shopping My Pantry For A Holiday Meal

 

I always shop ahead for our meals, special occasions and holidays are no exception.  By the time Thanksgiving rolled around I had everything we needed already purchased and waiting in our pantry and freezer.  Some of these items were purchased months ago and some were leftovers from purchases I made last year.  I love that when I was ready to bake the pumpkin pie and prepare our feast all I had to do was shop from the pantry and our freezer.

 

All of these pots & pans belonged to my grandmothers

Last summer, could've even been spring, I had put up a couple whole chickens in our chest freezer that I'd bought on sale for 77¢ a pound with the idea of using one of them for Thanksgiving.  We normally do turkey or a turkey breast, but I liked the idea of using a chicken this year and keeping things on a smaller scale.  Since then I've acquired additional items as I found them on sale and squirreled them away until the big day.  Then a couple days ahead I went "shopping".

 

A couple days ahead I pulled the chicken from the freezer to thaw.  A day ahead I collected everything I needed to make a pie and prepared it as I usually do.  On the morning of Thanksgiving I pulled together everything I needed to make our meal.  It is really a stress free way to take care of business and a much better way to control the cost as well.  I have plenty of time to buy what I need or want and have the luxury of waiting for sales or even find something on markdown.

 

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and all that time in the kitchen is what I love the most.  Our meal was absolutely delicious.  We had loads of leftovers too.  I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful and scrumptious holiday.