Trisha Yearwood’s Holiday Tips

Holidays can be overwhelming with family and friends visiting and the elaborate meals the expect to have waiting for them. Trisha Yearwood — wife, step-mom, songstress and cook extraordinaire — has one major tip for you this holiday season.

“Pick the thing that you can do a day or two ahead,” she tells CountryMusicIsLove. “If I’m going to make a cake or pie for Christmas or Thanksgiving — for Thanksgiving I do pecan pies — I make those a couple of days ahead. Christmas you can change things up, but Thanksgiving you have to have the traditional foods: turkey, dressing. For my Grandmother’s dressing that I make, it has cornbread, toasted breadcrumbs, those are things you can do a day ahead. I make a sweet potato soufflé that I make the day before and you just pop it in the oven the next morning. That way the morning of, you’re not freaking out.”

While Christmas may be the wildcard, Trisha’s family has one steadfast tradition. “For Christmas, in my family my dad came up with a breakfast casserole that you make the night before, then put it in the fridge, in the morning you stick it in the oven,” she explains. “We open Christmas presents while that’s baking then, when they’re done everybody is starving and you’ve got a breakfast that’s already made.”

And, of course, you can always keep folks calm by listening to Trisha’s latest album, PrizeFigher: Hit After Hit.