Holiday Cooking - Not to Worry

Next week is our November cooking class covering, Sides and Salads. I realized that we won't be talking much about holiday cooking and thought I'd share a few ideas with you.

First - open your November file and read through the "2008 Cooking Club - Holidays" document. In this class we talked about different ways of cooking turkey, different sides and salads, what to do with leftovers and the list goes on..... I think that you'll find it helpful and informative and there are recipes for you as well.

Second – read the documents in the “Thanksgiving Dinner” folder. You’ll find more recipes and menu ideas.

In order to get the best results from your holiday meals, you need to plan ahead and prepare accordingly.

1. How many people am I serving?

2. How many meals do I need to prepare for visitors?

3. What is my menu?

4. Is anyone helping with side dishes?

5. How much of my meals can I prepare ahead of time?

6. What time do I plan on serving dinner?

7. Will it be sit down or buffet?

8. What type of dishes will I be using?

1. It's important to know how many people you're having for your holiday dinner. It is NOT too early to get a head count. I usually try to determine who will be coming home in October for November and December. It's difficult to answer any of the following questions until you have a head count.

2. Do you have family or friends coming in from out of town to share the holiday with you? If they're staying with you, how many meals do you need to prepare for them while they're visiting? This is really important to know in order to keep you sane while preparing a holiday dinner, which usually takes, from several days, to all day, the day of. The closer you get to the holiday, simplify your meals. Try to pre-prepare much of those meals so you won't be cooking and baking double.

Think about preparing some soups that you can freeze for later use. Bake some rolls, biscuits, corn bread, muffins… that can be frozen, thawed and reheated. Keep breakfast simple, especially the morning of your big dinner. Juice, fruit, milk, muffins and your group is good to go, or better yet, send them out for breakfast. SIMPLIFY is the operative word.

3. Once you know how many people are coming and how many meals you’re preparing prior to the big dinner, you can plan your holiday meal. Make it user friendly. You can have an amazing meal that doesn’t need to send you over the edge.

If you’re a small family, don’t feel obligated to prepare the “traditional” turkey dinner. You might prepare a turkey breast or whole roasting chicken instead. You can use the same techniques on either of these as you would a whole turkey and if no one is particularly fond of turkey, think about a pork loin or beef roast.

Once you determine what your meat dish will be, you can start thinking about your sides; cranberry sauce, homemade of course, goes well with poultry or pork, as well as applesauce. If you’re not crazy about cranberry sauce, think of serving a fruit salsa as an accompaniment to the meat. There’s something great about a combination of sweet and savory. Of course, these can all be prepared several days ahead.

Make sure that your entire meal does not need to be prepared in the oven. This may create some problems for you. Don't forget that you have a cooktop, microwave and crockpot. Utilize these options to keep everything simple and less stressful. Don't forget to allow for the different cooking times with this equipment on your time chart.

4. One thing I’ll say about helping hands with holiday meals is that you want to be careful what you delegate to others. Think of the main components of your meal; these are the things that you want to keep control of. Consider assigning things that won’t matter if they don’t show up. Look at your meal and decide what are add ons, the things that are fun to have, but won’t ruin your meal if you don’t serve them; these are the things to delegate.

5. Consider how much of your meal you can prepare ahead of time. If you’re making a potato casserole, you can prepare it up to the point of baking and freeze it. Don’t forget to allow for thawing time on the big day then bake it fresh.

Breads can be baked ahead of time. Wrap them well with plastic wrap and with a good layer of heavy duty foil. Wrap it tightly, mark what it is and freeze. Remove it in the morning from the freezer, thaw it on the counter and freshen it in the oven, if you like and if you have oven space.

Many vegetables can be “blanched”, which is a short cooking in salted, boiling water for 2-3 minutes, cooled and frozen. This is a great way to reduce the cooking time of vegetables. You can thaw and then finish the cooking process, again, don’t forget to allow for thawing time.

Salads can be partially pre-prepped in the morning and assembled just before serving. Don’t forget to think about your salad dressing. If you’re making homemade, you can make it a couple weeks ahead of time and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator till ready to serve.

Many desserts can and should be prepared ahead. This will save you enormous time and worry on the day of. If you're making fruit pies, they can be pre-made to the point of baking, wrapped and frozen (allow for thawing & baking) or you can bake them ahead and freeze. Pre-baking is great! Thaw and then pop in the oven while your eating dinner. You'll have hot fresh pie when dinner is over. Cream pies can be prepared the day before and refrigerated. Cookie type desserts can be prepared a couple weeks ahead and stored in an airtight container. Make your dessert work for you, instead of you slaving over your desserts the day of.

6. Decide what time you’re planning on serving dinner. Make up a time chart that will include thawing, cooking and baking times. If you do this, you’ll have everything ready for the table at the same time. Don’t forget to allow “standing time” for your meat course. Also, decide if you’re serving your meat whole at the table or pre sliced in the kitchen. You’ll need to allow time for the slicing.

Many frozen things can be thawed a day ahead. Take your turkey out of the freezer 3-4 days ahead and allow it to thaw in the refrigerator. If you’re brining your turkey or chicken, remember to allow 24 hours for the brining process.

7. After you’ve gotten a head count and determined your menu, you can decide if you have the room to serve a sit down dinner or if you’re serving your meal buffet. I like setting my table the day or night before, that way I’m not feeling rushed the day of the dinner, when I’m in the kitchen cooking and baking. This is when a simple breakfast comes in handy.

If you’re serving buffet, you need to determine how your buffet will be set up. You can find table arrangements for buffet service online. Be sure to allow space for each item, choose your serving pieces and utensils ahead of time. Have everything clean and ready for use. You can draw a diagram of your serving table, or space, so when family wants to help, they can see how you’ve decided to serve. There is logic to setting up a buffet, so take a minute to educate yourself about it and you'll be happy with the results.

8. Decide what you’re going to use for your meal. Will you use your beautiful china, crystal and silver, your everyday dishes or paper/plastic goods. Much of this decision is based on what you have available and how many you’re serving. Just remember that whatever you choose, you need to think about it ahead of time and make arrangements to have it ready to set up your table or buffet.

Having a successful holiday meal is about planning and organization. You CAN do this! If you’re concerned about trying new recipes, stick to the traditional ones that you and your family are familiar with. Try one thing new this year and see what you think. You can always make it ahead and try it out on your family before the “big day”.

Take a deep breath, relax and enjoy your family and friends. Remember – this is NOT brain surgery.

Happy Holidays! - Christie