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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!

Hog Wild for Pig Candy

Pig-Candy-Roni-Sues-Chocolates-New-York-NY-tasteasyougo.com
Pig Candy

When my friend Candice and I got together for our second adventure around New York City, we decided to explore the Lower East Side, Chinatown, and Little Italy. It was, after all, the final weekend of the Feast of San Gennaro and we wanted to take in the scene on Mulberry before the celebration ended. That, and the idea of enjoying a cannoli sounded like a fabulous one when we were finalizing the details of our afternoon.

While I waited for Candice to be released from the bus-ride-gone-wrong, I poked my nose around C.T.C. Kitchen Supplies on Grand [299 Grand Street, (212) 219-9452]. I had recently read a mini-review about the store in Time Out New York and was curious to see the place for myself. Let's just say it's a good thing (!) I'm unemployed and watching my spending very, very carefully. Otherwise, I would have walked out of there with teapots and teacups and rice cookers and woks and cutting boards and I would have purchased more than my weight in kitchen supplies.

After Candice finally arrived (poor thing!), we looped our way through the Lower East Side. As we were walking, I suggested that we stop at the Essex Street Market since I had never been before and had wanted to see what kind of shops were there. Being the fabulous friend that she is, Candice agreed and that's how we stumbled upon Roni-Sue's Chocolates.

Jokingly, I asked them if they made chocolate-covered bacon. And the lovely ladies behind the counter said that their Pig Candy was just one of their treats that featured bacon as an ingredient. Roni-Sue's also sells:
To get the full Pig Candy experience, Candice and I ordered one piece of bacon dipped in milk chocolate and one piece dipped in dark chocolate. The salty flavor of the bacon was, of course, accentuated by the sweetness of the chocolate. As sinfully decadent as it was, we were wise to only purchase two pieces -- any more than that would have been too much. When we were finished, we thanked everyone at Roni-Sue's for putting up with our questions and left the Essex Street Market, fueled by the burst of sugar from the Pig Candy, and made our way over to Little Italy.

Since there were so many people celebrating, I didn't have the opportunity to take any pictures. I was too afraid of dropping my camera in the crowd. We also didn't get a chance to buy our cannolis because we got too frustrated trying to maneuver around all of the people. However, the people-watching opportunities more than made up for the missed dessert.

For those outside of New York City wanting to try Pig Candy, or any of the other goodies offered by Roni-Sue's, there is good news -- they do ship their products. Something to consider if you're looking for a gift for that extra-special foodie in your life.

Essex Street Market
120 Essex Street
(212) 260-0421


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