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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!

Almond Butter Cookies

These Almond Butter Cookies are positively delicious and so addictive, you're going to want to double the recipe when you make them! 

Almond-Butter-Cookies-tasteasyougo.com

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Every now and then, the wind howls outside and a cold blast of air makes its way through our drafty windows and into the house. No matter what I do, I simply can't get warm. Wearing multiple layers of fleece, wrapping a chenille blanket around myself, and sipping on mugs filled with velvety hot chocolate... They've all failed me.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature isn't going to bail me out of this situation either. The next few days look to be pretty darn cold, and the Lehigh Valley will likely be seeing its first significant snowstorm of the season this weekend.

Before I resort to wearing my bathrobe over my multiple layers of fleece or burying myself beneath our thick down comforter and staying put until spring, I'm going to do something a little unconventional.

Almond-Butter-Cookies-tasteasyougo.com

I'm going to bake cookies. Because baking cookies makes the house feel cozy and warm, and there's nothing like the smell of a fresh batch being pulled out of the oven.

Specifically, though, I'm going to bake these cookies.

These rich, delicious, melt-in-your mouth Almond Butter Cookies that are as addictive to eat as they are simple to make.

Almond-Butter-Cookies-tasteasyougo.com

The fact that these cookies call for a full cup of butter may have something to do with why it's impossible to eat just one of them.

Or maybe it's the combined perfume of the almond extract and the vanilla sugar that disables the part of your brain responsible for impulse control, thus leaving you in a stupefied state as you try and figure out how you could have possibly eaten a dozen cookies within the span of ten minutes... without any help from friends or loved ones.

Whatever it is, just promise me you won't fight it. Allow yourself to be drawn in.

Almond-Butter-Cookies-tasteasyougo.com

Almond-Butter-Cookies-tasteasyougo.com

If you've ever made Snickerdoodles before, then you'll be right at home with these cookies. I wouldn't be surprised if you were hit by waves of nostalgia as you form the balls of cookie dough, roll them in sugar, and then flatten them slightly before baking.

Almond-Butter-Cookies-tasteasyougo.com

Seriously, the result is pure bliss.

Now... I just have to see if these cookies possess the power to help me forget about the wintry cold out there!

Almond-Butter-Cookies-tasteasyougo.com

PS. As you may have guessed by now, these cookies are made with almond extract and butter (and a bunch of other ingredients). If you thought I was sharing a cookie recipe made with actual almond butter, then I apologize. Maybe one day... Just not today. ;-)

Almond Butter Cookies
Recipe by Taste As You Go // adapted from Penzeys Spices | Printable Recipe

These Almond Butter Cookies are positively delicious and so addictive, you're going to want to double the recipe when you make them!

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 12-15 minutes (per batch)
Total time: 40-45 minutes
Yield: About 2 1/2 dozen cookies

INGREDIENTS
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup sugar, divided
  • 2 teaspoons almond extract
  • 1 teaspoon salt, divided
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour

INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  2. Using a stand-mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and 1/2 cup of sugar until fluffy.
  3. Add the almond extract and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and beat until well mixed.
  4. Add the flour slowly and mix until just incorporated, taking care not to over-mix.
  5. In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar, the vanilla sugar, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
  6. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls then roll the balls in the sugar/salt mixture until evenly coated.
  7. Place the balls on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpat, and then press lightly on them with the bottom of a measuring cup or drinking glass to flatten.
  8. Bake the cookies until just golden around the edges, 12-15 minutes.
  9. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
  10. Store the cookies in an air-tight container.

Want more butter cookie recipes? Try these:



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One year agoMenu Plan: January 18 - January 24
Two years agoMenu Plan: January 19 - January 25
Three years agoSushi Zen - New York, NY
Four years agoFood Memories of Atlanta: Carpe Diem Cafe & Bistro
Five years agoNYC Restaurant Week - Winter 2011
Six years agoE&I Deli & Grocery Menu
Seven years agoReading Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma

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