Holiday Cooking Tips
The holiday season is a fun, hectic and chaotic time for the many of us. We want our family and friends over for a great holiday dinner. We run from one place to another with more "to do" lists than we think we will ever manage to complete trying to put together our great dinner plans. The following tips can help you avoid some of stress of cooking holiday dinners.
Adopt the KISS (Keep it Simple Silly) policy.
The meals you plan for your contributions to holiday cooking in your own home and for various events and pot lucks should be simple to prepare, take little time, and cost as little as possible.
Budget your time.
Rather than trying to squeeze in a few minutes here and there, mark out large chunks of your time and dedicate those times to tasks such as cooking, cleaning, shopping, and wrapping. Stick to that one thing during its allotted time slot rather than trying to many things at the same time. This saves confusion and lessens the opportunity of something getting boiled, burned, splattered, ruined, or forgotten.
Plan ahead and shop ahead.
This saves valuable time and money because you aren't impulse buying at the last minute. Whether you are shopping for food items for meal preparation and cooking or the perfect gifts for friends or family putting things off often tends to result in spending more money than intended and getting less value for that money.
Make sure you have enough room in your refrigerator or freezer for the foods you need.
You need to think of foods that need refrigerating for preparation and those that need to be chilled once they've been prepared. Space is a must and if you do not have enough space in your refrigerator you need to be making other plans for food that needs to be kept cold in the interim.
Plan a quick and easy back up in case something goes wrong with one of the more complicated dishes or casseroles.
A last minute substitution that is quick and easy is a much better option than not having enough to go around. You never know what's going to go wrong when dealing with the holidays and it is best to be prepared when something does.
Make sure the turkey or ham is properly thawed and that you've allotted the necessary time for cooking.
In fact an extra hour is often the best way to go as you never know what kind of differences there will ultimately be in cooking time for your main course.
Clean as you go.
This little tip will save so much time, trouble, and pulled hair that you will never really know how valuable this nugget of advice really is. Dishes are simpler to clean when they are still warm and before food has time to dry and set in.
These tips do not guarantee a perfect holiday cooking experience but they are an excellent way to guarantee less stress in the mix.
|
Buy it now
