10 Thanksgiving Hacks You Should Probably Try, And 5 You Can Skip

For my entire life, I've been making mashed potatoes by boiling potatoes in water, then adding milk, butter, salt, and pepper while mashing. But while scouring the internet for a more unique recipe, I came across chef Tyler Florence's version. Rather than boiling his potatoes in water, he says to boil them in cream and butter. He also adds garlic, thyme, and bay leaf, which I decided to leave out.

Once the potatoes are done boiling after about 20 minutes, strain them but reserve the creamy liquid. When it's time to mash the potatoes, add the cream until the potatoes reach your desired thickness.

This soup recipe could not be easier, and because you're using pumpkin puree and all liquid ingredients, there's no blending required. Just dump the pumpkin puree, coconut milk, and green curry paste in a sauce pan. Let the ingredients simmer, stirring from time to time, until combined. All together, this will take about 10 minutes. Here is the recipe I used if you want something to reference!

I followed this simple recipe, and I combined a can of green beans, a can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup, and half a container of French's fried onions in a baking dish. I mixed everything up and baked the casserole for 40 minutes until it started bubbling. Then, I added the rest of the fried onions and baked the casserole for five more minutes until they were browned.

OK, full disclosure, I'd never even heard of pommes Anna until I saw this easy recipe from food blog, Friday Night Cake. After all, what could possibly be bad about potatoes, blue cheese, and butter?

I followed the recipe instructions and I peeled the potatoes and sliced them very thinly and as evenly as I could. While I sliced the potatoes, I melted butter and creamy blue cheese in a sauce pan until it was combined. In a baking dish, I layered the sliced potatoes and the blue cheese and butter mixture, then I baked it in the oven for just under an hour until the potatoes were bubbling, tender, and completely cooked through.

If you google "baked sweet potato rounds" you'll find tons of iterations on this dish all over the internet. They all start with sweet potato rounds, which I tossed with salt, pepper, and olive oil, and roasted in the oven for about 30 minutes. You can definitely get creative here and top the roasted sweet potatoes with whatever ingredients you like best. I topped mine with creamy goat cheese and crushed pecans, but you could also try whipped cream cheese and bacon or melted marshmallow and brown sugar, just for some additional inspiration.

This such a great party app because they are cheap to throw together, and they're an easy, shareable finger food to put out when your guests arrive. You could also definitely make them as a dinner side dish. In any case, they're a total crowd pleaser and they require very minimal effort.

My rating: 🦃🦃🦃🦃/🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃

I followed an awesome sausage stuffing recipe I've made before and loved, except instead of Italian sausage, I used Beyond Meat's meatless sausage, and to keep things vegetarian I used vegetable broth in place of chicken broth.

Start off by sautéing the celery, onion, and garlic in butter. Then, in a large mixing bowl, combine the buttery vegetables and the stuffing cubes. Next, cook the Beyond Meat sausage in the buttery pan until it's browned and cooked through. Add the sausage to the breadcrumb mixture and add the herbs.

Place everything in a baking dish and bake in the oven for just over an hour until the top is golden-brown and crispy.

I've tried making vegan mac 'n' cheese before, but I always find the flavors pretty unsatisfying and nothing like real cheese. I found this recipe on food blog, Chocolate Covered Katie, and it seemed to have pretty rave reviews.

I'm not going to pretend this recipe was as good as real, homemade mac 'n' cheese, but it was actually really good and I would absolutely make it again. While not quite the same as a cheese sauce, the cashew and nutritional yeast mixture is creamy, savory and really good. If you're looking for a vegan-friendly recipe that anyone will enjoy, give this one a try.

My rating: 🦃🦃🦃🦃/🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃

If you've never had a Paloma before, it's a super refreshing cocktail made with tequila or mezcal, fresh lime juice, grapefruit juice, and club soda-- sort of like a grapefruit margarita. For these Palomas, I followed this recipe, but I used grapefruit White Claw in place of regular club soda.

If I had to stick to one drink for the rest of my life, I would probably choose sangria. It's so versatile and you can make it taste appropriate for any season. For this version, I roughly followed this Food Network recipe, but instead of club soda I used raspberry White Claw. For this drink I stuck to fresh raspberries, but I usually like dressing up my fall sangria with seasonal fruits like apple or pear. The best part about sangria is that you can customize it with whatever flavors you like best.

This sangria is such an easy drink (seriously, it goes down like juice), and it's a practical big batch cocktail for a holiday crowd. It is definitely on the lighter side, thanks to white wine and raspberries, but so if I made it again I would make it feel more wintery by using a red wine like Garnacha, more seasonal fruit, and some spices like cinnamon and star anise.

My rating: 🦃🦃🦃/🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃

I used this recipe from food blog, Feast in Thyme, as a reference. The recipe calls for mint-infused simple syrup, which felt a little extra, so I used regular simple syrup and tossed in some mint leaves as a garnish. I muddled the berries at the bottom of the glasses, then mixed together the bourbon, lime juice, simple syrup, and White Claw. Then I served the drinks over ice.

I don't usually love bourbon, but this cocktail was a great combination of slightly sweet and zesty. It was definitely a stiff drink (and I don't really enjoy the taste of Bourbon) so next time I would add a little cherry juice in addition to the cherry spiked seltzer. This is a really easy recipe to turn into a big batch cocktail and serve to a crowd.

My rating: 🦃🦃🦃🦃/🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃

Confession: I can't make an apple pie (or any pie) without burning the edges to a crisp. So when I came across this very basic trick, I was a little taken aback. Just fasten a thin rim of aluminum foil around the edges of the pie and bake it in the oven as you normally would. How had I never thought of this before...and would it actually work?

Well, this pie hack is the truth. Always have a roll of aluminum foil on hand and say goodbye to burnt pie crust for life.

My rating: 🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃/🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃

Every Thanksgiving, I see recipes for slow cooker turkey on Pinterest and all over the internet, and every year I ask myself, can that possibly, actually, really work or taste any good? So this year I took my Crock Pot and I put slow cooker turkey to the test.

Chop up all the ingredients (apple, oranges, celery, carrot, onion, garlic, herbs) and stuff the turkey. Rub the turkey with olive oil and spices and place it in the slow cooker. Cover the lid and cook it on high for about eight hours until cooked through. My slow cooker wouldn't quite close with the turkey inside, so I placed a layer of aluminum foil over the turkey to seal it shut.

Well, I'll be damned. Not only can you cook an entire Thanksgiving turkey in a slow cooker, but it actually tastes really good. Before you try this at home though, there are a few things you should know. First of all, this is not a crispy turkey. In fact, it's more the consistency of pulled chicken, and when you go to carve it, it more or less falls apart. That being said, this is by far the most moist turkey I've ever eaten. If you're someone who finds turkey dry and flavorless, this is a recipe you should try. But if you prioritize that crispy skin, don't mess with the slow cooker.

Maybe you're a horrible baker or you're tight on oven space, or perhaps you ran out of time and need a quick dessert idea. Enter: These apple "nachos." They come together in about ten minutes flat. Just slice your apples (you don't even need to peel them), and drizzle them in hot caramel, melted white chocolate, and nut butter. Top the apple slices with pieces of your favorite candy bar and crumbled pretzel pieces.

Let's be real: These dessert nachos are never going to be as good as an apple crisp, but if you need a quick and easy apple dessert on the table, this is a fine option. I heated up the whole plate in the microwave for about 15 seconds so that the sliced apples got warm and all the toppings melted, and it ended up being a good move. Next time, I'd also serve this dessert with a few scoops of ice cream.

My rating: 🦃🦃/🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃

For some reason, baking always intimidates me. There's something about the thought of taking out my handheld mixer that makes me nervous. But this icebox cake is actually very straightforward. First, you beat the cream and sugar in an electric mixer. Put some aside to use as the whipped cream topping, then in the remainder, mix in the pumpkin puree, vanilla extract, and spices until everything is incorporated. I followed these instructions from The Recipe Critic.

Line a pan with graham crackers and top it with a layer of the pumpkin filling. Continue doing this until you've made four layers of graham crackers and pumpkin filling. Then, place the whole pan in the refrigerator for at least four hours.

When I removed the dessert from the fridge, the cake had hardened and the filling had sort of seeped into the graham cracker crust so it was soft and spongy. It had a very similar flavor to pumpkin pie, except the filling is more like an airy soufflé.

I found this recipe on How Sweet Eats, and it's really just three steps total. My grocery store didn't have graham cracker crumbs, so I crushed them by hand 🙄. To make the graham cracker crust, just combine the graham cracker crumbs with melted butter. Using the back of a spoon, press the crust into the bottom of a jar, cup, or ramekin — whatever you're using to serve these babies.

Next, make the sweet potato cheesecake filling. Using an electric mixer, whip together the cream cheese and mascarpone cheese until smooth. Then add the sweet potato puree, condensed milk, vanilla, and spices.

Pour the mixture over the graham cracker crust and transfer the cups into the fridge for at least four hours so the filling hardens into a cheesecake-like texture.