Thanksgiving Side Dish-Mashed Potatoes Make Ahead

I have to tell you a story about a Thanksgiving nightmare!

I am sure we all have varying degrees of one.  Mine is a good one and will keep you from sleeping for a week.  So be prepared to get some things done with all the sleep you will be missing.

Here's how it goes...

We moved into our current home 10 years ago.  The house was built in 1987 and it needed a lot of work.  But, my architect husband and I were up for the challenge?!  It had good bones and everything was in working condition.  Just needed some TLC and updating.  No biggie, right?  Well, we had been in the house for about 7 months and my parents were coming to celebrate Thanksgiving in our new home.  Excitement abounded!  Needless to say, cooking tragedy happened!  My stovetop stopped working the night before Thanksgiving, all but 1 burner!  Yep, you heard right.  Thanksgiving is probably the one time of year that I have ALL the burners going at once.  I had my menu all planned out and was able to manage with one burner!!!  I started super, super early and cooked each thing one by one.  It's a distant memory now, but I remember the panic...how was everything going to work?

So, I love it when I can prepare Thanksgiving dishes ahead of time and then reheat them right before serving.  Relieves a lot of stress.  And I am prepared in case the stovetop quits!  You never know, right?

I have an awesome make ahead Mashed Potatoes recipe that you will want to include on your menu.

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes

This recipe serves a crowd, is easy and you can make it ahead.  Believe it or not, it actually comes from Hungry Jack.

Ingredients:

1 (15.3 oz) box Hungry Jack Mashed Potatoes

6 cups of water

1 1/2 sticks butter

2 tsp garlic salt

2 tsp onion salt

2 cups milk

2 8oz pkgs cream cheese

16 oz sour cream

paprika

cooking spray

chives (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray.  Set aside.

Heat water, butter, garlic and onion in a large pot.  Bring to a boil.

Remove from heat.  Add the cream cheese, milk and sour cream.  Stir until smooth.

Stir in the potatoes and mix until all are combined.  

Spread into the baking pan.

Sprinkle with paprika and bake for 1 hour.

The casserole can be refrigerated up to 48 hours.  Bring to room temperature and reheat for about an hour before serving.  Add chives to make it look really pretty!  While your turkey is resting, you can be reheating the mashed potatoes.

Hope this helps to get you one step ahead of Thanksgiving!

Celebrate the little things that make life sweet!

Christine