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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!

Tequila Lime Guacamole

Fort Lauderdale, FL | Taste As You Go
Fort Lauderdale, FL

As soon as I returned from my vacation in Fort Lauderdale, my brain and my stomach decided to team up for the purpose of convincing me that I wanted to eat mass quantities of tacos as soon as possible. Eventually, this craving was overpowered in quick succession by the consumption of Indian food and then the desire for and devouring of a cheeseburger. Now I'm back to square one without the adequate supplies in my kitchen for tacos (and, really, who wants to do all that work when it would just be me eating them?) or the option of having them delivered to my apartment. Instead, I had to compromise and work with what I had.

Ingredients for Guacamole | Taste As You Go
Ingredients for Guacamole

Looks like the perfect start to a batch of guacamole! I could pair the freshly made guacamole with some blue corn tortilla chips and pretend that all of the other components of a taco were there.

Tequila Lime Guacamole | Taste As You Go
Tequila Lime Guacamole | Taste As You Go

Now, by looking at this guacamole, you would never suspect that there's a secret ingredient inside. While I love my basic recipe for guacamole, I wanted to kick it up a bit. To add a little depth to the flavor. So, I did something most New Yorkers wouldn't dare to do and went downstairs to ask my neighbor if she had any tequila she could spare. She did - score! I went back up to my kitchen and added just a splash to the guacamole.

Oh my goodness! We're talking a whole new ballgame here! The tequila really brought the flavors of the lime and the cilantro together. With the hint of garlic and jalapeno pepper in the background, I was bordering on perfect with this guacamole. I am in serious awe that I didn't eat the entire bowl right then and there. But I was good and put the guacamole in the refrigerator to chill while I returned the bottle of tequila to my neighbor and while I cleaned up the kitchen.

Tequila Lime Guacamole | Taste As You Go
Tequila Lime Guacamole

I will tell you right now, it was worth the wait.


Tequila Lime Guacamole


INGREDIENTS
  • 2 Haas avocados
  • 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 lime
  • Tequila
  • 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
  • 1 large jalapeno pepper, halved, seeded, and minced

INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Split the avocados in half. Remove the pits and scoop out the flesh into a glass or stainless steel bowl.

  2. Add the Kosher salt and garlic and mash.

  3. Halve the lime and squeeze the juice over the mashed avocados. Add a splash of tequila. (Be careful, you don't want too much in there!)

  4. Add the cilantro and minced jalapeno and combine thoroughly with avocados.

  5. Taste and add more salt, lime, and/or more jalapeno if desired. Serve immediately.

Food Tip: To prevent the guacamole from browning while in the refrigerator, lay a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole and press down gently, pushing out any air between the dip and the plastic wrap. Doing so will slow down the oxidation of the avocado caused by the exposure to the oxygen in the air.

(PS. You still have one more week to enter the Zagat.com Premium Membership Giveaway!)

Guacamole on Foodista

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