14 Days to an Easy Thanksgiving - Pie Crust and Thawing your Turkey

Thanksgiving is a great time of year, no doubt. For those of us who are in charge or are being hosts, it can get a little stressful and overwhelming. This series is 14 days to an easy Thanksgiving and it will walk you through the 14 days before Thanksgiving and what you can do to get ready each day, just a little project or task that will make your Thanksgiving day EASY! Most of the things are great family time ideas and things your kids can help with too!

DAY 8 – Pie dough and thawing your turkey

We are less than a week away from Thanksgiving and so you will be able to start doing food preparations every day now. This will help take a lot of stress off the day before and the day of, and will take just a little time. You can make your pie crust now, have it ready (either in a ball or in pie tins), and keep it refrigerated up until the day of or the day before. This little bit of time spent now will also give you a chance to let your kids help since you won’t be so rushed to get everything done.

Need a great recipe for pie crust?

This is for one crust (so if you want a top and bottom you will need to double this)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
1/4 cup ice water

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
Roll dough out to fit a 9-inch pie plate. Place crust on pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate

Thanks to Dana for this recipe

Today you need to consider when you should start thawing out your turkey. How long does it take to thaw out a turkey? The general rule of thumb is to give it about 1 day for every 5 lbs of fowl. So if you have a 15 lb turkey, it will take 3 full days to thaw in your refrigerator. Figure out your Turkey’s weight and then mark down the day you need to pull it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to start thawing. If you don’t have your turkey yet – GET IT NOW! 🙂