Thanksgiving dinner is approaching. Perhaps you’ve done this many times before or it’s your very first time serving a Thankgsiving dinner menu. Either way, it never hurts to explore new tips and ideas to help make things easy so here is a quick list of great tips on preparing Thanksgiving dinner.

• If your turkey is frozen, defrost it at least 2 days in advance. But for the best results, purchase a fresh turkey.
• Do some of the work such as baking dessert in advance. You’ll want to spend the holiday with your company and not in the kitchen.
• Prepare the stuffing and cranberry sauce a few days in advance, if you’re using a homemade recipe. You can reheat these the day of the dinner and no one will know the difference.
• Cook mashed potatoes the day of. This dish is best served fresh and with the right combination of butter and heavy cream as well as salt and pepper.
• Baste the turkey every 15 minutes while it is cooking. Cook it at 350 degrees F.
• Purchase a thermometer for the turkey so you know when it’s done.
• Don’t reheat the turkey. If it has cooled down at all, just serve with hot gravy.