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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!

Pink Grapefruit Tart

Pink Grapefruit
(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

We've all been there before. You're overcome with this incredible urge to create your next culinary masterpiece only to discover that your refrigerator is mostly empty and your cupboards are mostly bare. The frigid temperatures outside your nice, warm home are preventing you from running out to pick up some items at the grocery store, so you're left asking yourself, "Now what?"

I found myself in this particular predicament last week. I wanted something sweet but didn't have the proper ingredients for a batch of cookies or brownies. (I also didn't have the motivation to spend the entire afternoon baking.) I remembered I had a sheet of frozen puff pastry leftover after making my Forelle Pear Tart, so that was a start. Then I remembered I had a pink grapefruit in the refrigerator that was begging to be eaten. The wheels in my brain started turning... Could I really create a tart with grapefruit?

Pink Grapefruit Tart - Photo by Taste As You Go
Pink Grapefruit Tart

Turns out, the answer is yes! The tart turned out deliciously and pairs perfectly with a hot cup of coffee. I was worried about making the tart too sweet and masking the flavor of the grapefruit, but the grapefruit was unmistakably still there.

This recipe is a great example of tasting as you go. Grapefruits will differ in flavor, so it's important to taste a bit of the grapefruit you use before proceeding with the addition of the sweeteners. You may need more or less than the amounts I've suggested below. If you trust your taste buds, I guarantee, this recipe will deliver!

Pink Grapefruit Tart
Printable Recipe


INGREDIENTS
  • 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, defrosted according to package instructions
  • 1 pink grapefruit, segmented
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 2 tablespoons sugar, divided

INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. Place puff pastry on lined baking sheet. To prevent too much "puff," prick the pastry a few times with a fork.
  3. In a bowl, gently toss the grapefruit segments with the honey and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Taste and then add more honey or sugar if necessary.
  4. Crimp the edges of the pastry, then arrange the grapefruit segments on the puff pastry, making sure not to add too much extra juice. The extra juice will make the pastry soggy and the grapefruit will burn before the pastry has sufficiently baked.
  5. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with the remaining sugar, and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.
  6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

Grapefruit on Foodista

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Comments

V.Streit said…
I'm not a big grapefruit fan, but this looks amazing.
Veronica - Thank you! I was really worried that I was hit with a bit of the "crazy" when I decided to put grapefruit on puff pastry and stick it in the oven. Thankfully, I added just enough sweetener to the fruit to make it pleasant to eat. :-)
if you can wait 5 minutes - this looks very tasty!
doggybloggy - It was difficult to wait that 5 minutes after pulling the tart out of the oven for the final time! If you're willing to risk burning the roof of your mouth, go ahead and cut and serve around 3 minutes out. :-)
FOODalogue said…
Your creation intrigues me...not too gooey sweet, I imagine. I actually have a delicious pumelo (half grapefruit-half orange) and some frozen puff pastry in the freezer. mmmm, maybe.
FOODalogue - Definitely not gooey sweet. The Forelle Pear Tart I made was much sweeter because I used quite a bit of brown sugar. This tart had the perfect balance of tart from the grapefruit and sweet from the honey and sugar.

Another thing I was considering doing with the tart was drizzling just a bit of chocolate on the top to add a bit more sweetness after it came out of the oven. But I held back. The chocolate might work well with the pumelo tart... If you decide to try making it!
Oh wow! What a cool idea. Never would have thought to use grapefruit like this. Thanks a bunch.

+Jessie
a.k.a. The Hungry Mouse
Jessie - Just goes to show you that desperation can sometimes result in really great surprises. :-)
Hi Michelle!

Cooking is like that.. experiment with the ingredients you've at the moment and better if turns out delicious!!
Super tasty recipe very well done..some chocolate on top always fit well :)

Gera .:. sweetsfoods
James said…
What a brilliant idea - fresh n' easy. I'm thinking brunch item served with greek yogurt...
This looks wonderful! Grapefruit with honey sounds like a stellar combination -- I will have to try this recipe! Thanks for sharing :)
Gera - I'm very relieved it turned out delicious! Sometimes you think you're going to have a winner when all is said and done and you wind up having something the complete opposite! Next time I make this, I'll probably try to jazz it up with some spices and/or chocolate drizzled on the top. Why stop experimenting, right?
James - Thanks! And the suggestion of serving the tart with some greek yogurt is a great one! I'll have to try the combination out next time. :-)
Nirvana - Thank you so much! Sometimes, when I just eat a half of a grapefruit for breakfast, I drizzle some honey on top instead of sprinkling with the more traditional sugar. So, it seemed to make sense in my head that I should use some honey in this recipe. Let me know what you think if you do try it! :-)
soma said…
Lovely easy recipe. Thanks for sharing..
Soma (www.ecurry.com)
Soma - Thanks for stopping by!