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2024 Thanksgiving Menu and Meal Prep Timeline

* image These past few months have been busy for our family, especially since our oldest joined a local swim team. Between juggling our work schedules and balancing school with practices... we're all pretty wiped out. Although it's a lot of work, I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. Preparing the holiday meal for our family fills my heart with joy, and I can't wait to get started. To make things easier for me, I don't deviate much from  our first Thanksgiving  as a family. The dishes I make are familiar ones, and the recipes for them live at my fingertips. Keeping the same menu year after year means I don't have to spend time researching recipes or planning a new one. Here are my tried-and-true Thanksgiving recipes, as well as my prep timeline for the big day!

Simple Spicy Spaghetti Sauce

Since I've been trying to kick a cold, I've been eating more than my fair share of garlic this week. When I saw that cans of Tuttorosso crushed tomatoes were priced "2 for $3" at the market, I knew I just had to pick up a couple of cans and make some tomato sauce. I managed to make enough for dinner that night (and leftovers the next day) and plenty to freeze for future use. This sauce certainly has some pow, so feel free to adjust the amounts of the ingredients to suit your personal tastes more.

Simple Spicy Spaghetti Sauce
Printable Recipe

INGREDIENTS
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes with basil
  • 1/2 cup dry red wine
  • 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • Salt and pepper, to taste


INSTRUCTIONS

  1. In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over moderate heat. Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring frequently to prevent burning, until garlic is fragrant.

  2. Pour in crushed tomatoes and red wine. Bring to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat to low and add red pepper, oregano, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes.

  4. Serve immediately over some freshly cooked pasta. If you are going to freeze any of the sauce, be sure to allow the sauce to cool completely before placing in the freezer.

Food Tip: Crushing dried herbs and spices in the palm of your hand before cooking will release the oils in those herbs and spices, allowing for a quicker release of flavor.

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Comments

gail said…
yea garlic!!! Nice recipe, I like the red pepper too..mmm. Feel 100% soon :)
Meg said…
What a fantastic recipe! I am craving Italian now!
Gail - This sauce certainly has some kick to it! I'm glad I stopped at three cloves of garlic!

I hope I feel 100% soon, too. Have a great weekend!
Meg - Thanks! It was such an easy sauce to put together, I almost feel guilty about calling it a recipe. Hope you get to eat Italian soon!
sj said…
That sauce sounds really good. I hope you feel better sweetie! :(

BTW... got the tea today... that stuff is awesome! Thanks for the suggestion!
Jo - Thanks for the well-wishing! I'm in the coughing stage of the cold, which means I'm getting better (based on past colds). But, for me, the coughing stage usually lasts a while and my throat gets really irritated. *sigh*

And you got the tea already? That was quick! I hope it works for you!!
two cans - do you have a mini army over there - the sauce sounds great!
Doggybloggy - Oh, trust me. When I poured both cans into the saucepan, I seriously thought to myself, "What the heck am I going to do with all that sauce?" But I'm glad I did it because I have four cups of the stuff in the freezer, and I love the idea of using my homemade sauce for future recipes that something from a jar! ;-)
Hi Michelle!

This sauce looks great and I'm a big fan of garlic everywhere (not in breakfast..by the moment!).
The touch of dry red wine is very nice, in my case I'm more for a semi-sweet white wine.

By the way, tea + honey are very useful for the cold!
test it comm said…
Simple and tasty. Just the way I like it.
Gera - I've never tried using white wine in a red sauce before. I'll have to try that the next time I have a bottle of white handy.

And thanks for the suggestion about the tea and honey. I've been drinking a lot of tea this week and, when I'm home, using a bit of honey to soothe my throat. I'll be glad when this cold is completely gone!
Kevin - Seeing as I wasn't feeling too great this week, I didn't want to exhaust myself with a complicated recipe. This one was so easy to make and it's easy to adjust to personal tastes. And, well, having loads of it in the freezer for future use doesn't hurt either. :-)