Good morning! It might be a bit too early to start cooking for Thanksgiving, but it’s never too early to start planning. Are you making your lists, ordering turkeys (or a duck, in our case) and clearing out the fridge? Me neither! But I plan to start today. We’ve got this. See below for some make-ahead ideas.
So many of you are getting ahead of the Thanksgiving game, as evidenced by the large number of requests in our Thanksgiving inbox for dishes you can assemble ahead of the big day. (By the way: Thanks for your emails! We may not be able to respond to all of them, but we’re reading and enjoying them all.)
This elotes-flavored street corn pudding — a fabulous recipe from the chef Ernest Servantes, adapted by Brett Anderson and Genevieve Ko — is the cover girl of this collection of our best Thanksgiving sides, and can be prepared ahead of time. (That is, if you can resist the smell of fresh-from-the-oven sweet corn pudding dotted with roasted jalapeños.) Per Genevieve: “To make ahead, bake and let cool to room temperature and then cover and refrigerate for up to one week. Reheat at 325 degrees until heated through. Top with the crema, Tajín and crumbled queso fresco before serving.”
Want more plan-ahead perfection? My colleagues Alexa Weibel and Allison Jiang have assembled this collection of 30 make-ahead Thanksgiving recipes that will save you time, including my red wine cranberry sauce with honey and Carolina Gelen’s luscious pumpkin date tiramisù.
View this recipe: Street corn pudding
More food for thought
So what to eat tonight? A superfast, no-yeast pizza? A creamy orzotto with roasted carrots that happens to be vegan? Or perhaps you’d like a vegetarian riff on Bolognese, which uses up an entire tube of tomato paste.
And before you go
I’ll leave you with a make-ahead recipe that’s not Thanksgiving-related, per se, but will absolutely prove handy for those late-November days spent gathering groceries, wrestling the inflatable mattress into shape and shuttling relatives to and from the airport.
See you tomorrow.
Melissa Clark has been writing about food for The New York Times since 1997 and is the author of 46 cookbooks. You can reach her at hellomelissa@nytimes.com.
Editors: Mia Leimkuhler and Li Goldstein. Host photo by Melanie Dunea. For help with your New York Times Cooking subscription, please email cookingcare@nytimes.com. Was this email forwarded to you? You can sign up for our New York Times Cooking newsletter here.
