It is Tuesday before Thanksgiving and your home is a buzz with excitement. Now is the time for a cool head and to start the cooking. It may be hard to resist the temptation to taste all the pies and treats a bit early but you can resist. You may even be so inclined as to make a little extra for your family to sample early. This is a sly method of keeping happy forks from eating the pies two days before Thanksgiving.

Two days before Thanksgiving:

Now is the time to make pumpkin pie, parker house rolls and the stuffing for your turkey. You can refrigerate the pies and stuffing and then pull them out the day of Thanksgiving.

Stick with making only the pumpkin pie and other non-pie desserts. This is not the time to make apple or pecan pie. The crusts of these two pies will not hold up for two days in the refrigerator.

If you will be having a first course

Sweet potatoes can be prepared at this time and stored in the refrigerator until Thanksgiving. With the sweet potatoes and casseroles simply prepare them in their baking dishes and wait to cook them. They will easily transfer from the refrigerator to a pre-heated oven on Thanksgiving and give you an almost seamless meal preparation.

Shauna Hanus is a gourmet cook who specializes in creating gourmet recipes. She has put together a special Thanksgiving e-Cookbook that gives you 73 recipes to cook your leftover turkey as well as two bonus e-books of a special holiday ice cream cookbook that includes favorites like pumpkin pie ice cream and pecan pie ice cream. She has also put together a holiday planning guide to help you have the most enjoyable Thanksgiving ever. You can find all of these at http://www.turkey-leftovers.com

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