Tips For Stress Free Christmas Cooking
November 10, 2008 by admin
Filed under Xmas Dinner
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Product Description
Look no further for tips and recipes for whipping up a dazzling array of delicious holiday meals – without stress!Christmas is the biggest holiday of the year — and Americans traditionally love to celebrate the season with food, food, and more food. This easy guide shows cooks of every generation how to plan and prepare scrumptious seasonal treats. It includes:
- 100 delicious recipes for hassle-free holiday meals, including Warm White Bean Dip, Four-Cheese
- Spinach Lasagne, and Chocolate Truffle Tart.
- Tips, checklists, and charts, plus step-by-step guides and shopping lists for special holiday meals, including a Christmas Tree-Trimming Party
- A special section on Christmas decorating and food gifts from the kitchen
- 16 pages of color photos featuring holiday meal recipes and kitchen-made gifts and decorations
For most, the holidays can be an extremely hectic and chaotic time. We run from one place to another with more “to do” lists than we think we will ever manage to complete. Throughout all the running around and festivities it is quite likely that you will feel like you are going to lose your mind because you are obsessively over organized. And, no matter how organized you are, it is possible to forget one dinner, event, or gift during the season. Depressing as that thought may be, the following tips can help you avoid a potential break down as a result of the constant insanity of the holidays.
First of all, it is a must to adopt the KISS policy. Keep it simple silly. The meals you plan for your contributions to the holiday cooking whether in your own home, for various events, or for pot lucks that take place this time of year should be simple to prepare, take as little time as possible to cook, and cost as little money as possible.
Do not try to squeeze in a few minutes here and there for things that need to be done. Mark out large chunks of your calendar and dedicate those times to specific tasks such as cooking, cleaning, shopping, and gift wrapping. Make sure you stick to that one thing during its allotted time slot rather than trying to cook, wrap, clean, and shop all at the same time. This will save alot of confusion and will reduce the opportunity of something getting boiled, burned, splattered, ruined, or forgotten.
Make sure you 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 or for the perfect gifts, 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 inside your fridge. This is a good time to clean out left-overs and expired foods. You will need to have enough room for your ingredients and to store food that you prepare ahead of time. If you are not going to have enough space in your refrigerator, you need to start making other plans for food that needs to be kept cold.
Plan a quick and easy back up in case something goes wrong with one of the more complicated dishes or casseroles. A last minute quick and easy substitution 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, adding an extra hour is often the best way to go. You never know what kind of differences there will ultimately be in the cooking time for your main course.
This next little tip will save you so much time, trouble, and pulled hair that you will never really know how wonderfully valuable this little nugget of advice really is. Clean as you go. Dishes are much simpler to clean when they are still warm and before food has time to dry and set in.
These tips will not guarantee a perfect Christmas holiday cooking experience. However, they are an excellent way to help you have less stress. And if something does go wrong or if you happen to forget something just remember, its not worth getting stressed out over it. Christmas is about being with friends and family. Years from now the time you spent with your loved ones will be the only thing that matters.
How To Have A Stress Free Christmas Dinner
November 5, 2008 by admin
Filed under Xmas Dinner
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Product Description
The Heart of the HomeEven in today’s busy times, the kitchen is the heart of the home. Author Tammy Maltby believes the true meaning of Christmas is realized when families gather to share activities that make Christmas “the most wonderful time of the year.” More than any other holiday, Christmas is when family and friends gather for a cup of hot chocolate, fresh-baked cookies, and lots of laughter.
Look inside this holiday treasure for:
- Easy-to-do holiday recipes
- Hints for new traditions
- Personal gift ideas
- Kid-friendly activities
- Simple decorating tips
The Christmas Kitchen is more than a recipe book, it’s a book designed to help you enjoy the holiday season, not be burdened by it. Take a few minutes each day to browse these pages for the help you’ve been looking for.
Merry Christmas and may your kitchen be filled, first, with the sweet aroma of love, and then with the spices of the season.
The Christmas Season brings friends and family together who may not have the pleasure of one another’s company at any other time throughout the year. While the world we live in today makes it difficult to spend time with our loved ones, Christmas Traditions are what keeps us grounded and in touch with one another no matter how far apart we are geographically. The problem is that if one person is doing all of the cooking, that person tends to spend endless hours in the kitchen and must miss out on the joys of the company of others year after year. This can be avoided by rotating locations for the festivities from one year to the next. Another more simpler way, is to have each guest bring a food item so that the cooking and meal preparation duties are shared among everyone and are done in advance.
If you have guests who travel a long way either by car or plane to attend the Christmas festivities, having them bring food can become too much of a hassle. Or your family may be like mine and contain a few people who are just not good cooks. Rather than hurt their feelings by never asking them to bring food, another plan is to prepare parts of your Christmas dinner ahead of time. With careful planning there are items that can be prepared a few weeks ahead of the big day and stored either in air tight containers at room temperature or frozen for baking on the big day. Any of the prep work that can be taken care of before Christmas day is one less thing for you to do and will allow you to spend more time with your friends and family.
You can also save time by making lists. Lists are wonderful things. If you learn to live by your lists you will wonder how on earth you ever got anything done without them. When you are planning your Christmas dinner write down everything you plan to have, who is bringing what, what items you are making, and what ingredients you will need to complete each dish. Go through your pantry and see what items you already have and what items you will need to buy to prepare the meals. Head to the store at least a week ahead of time and purchase everything except the fresh ingredients you will need in order to prepare your Christmas feast.
You will also want to make sure you have a list of all the non-food items you will need to stock ahead of time. Make sure all the bathrooms are stocked, that you have plenty of garbage bags, waste baskets, paper plates, cups, napkins, cutlery, ice and other items that will be needed in order to make things go smoothly when your guests begin to arrive. These are the little things that matter and may get overlooked if you fail to plan ahead.
You should also make a list of decorations, invitations, and gifts or games you may need to purchase for the day too. You want your day to go as smoothly as possible and you want everyone to fill wanted, appreciated, and anticipated. It may be a great idea to pick up a couple of generic gifts for a male or female in case someone unexpected shows up. You should also have extra wrapping paper and supplies on hand in case someone has an emergency rewrap.
Making lists and planning ahead will allow you to have more fun, less stress and more time with your loved ones. It is important to remember that Christmas is not about the food or the gifts. It is about spending time with those you care about. A little extra preparation now will keep you out of the kitchen and with those you love.
