#JohnSwan Merry Christmas everyone! I hope all of you are tucked away somewhere enjoying your traditions, and if you don’t celebrate, I still hope you are having a great day. My family is pretty traditional, and we are all currently packed into my sister’s house in snowy Colorado, cooking and playing games etc. Each of us has our own little things we do to make the holiday presents and meal appear, and mine happens to be cooking. My experience in the restaurant business has taught me a lot, and while my sister and her husband take care of most of the main dishes with a little assistance from myself and my dad, I am in charge of desserts. That’s right, all of them. And for a family meal that serves 12, it takes some prep, patience, and lots of wine. ☺ So I’m going to let you in on some tricks that save Christmas Eve and Christmas Day from being spent slaving away in the kitchen. First thing is first, you’ve got to make a list. But this isn’t just any list, this list that has to be organized. You can’t be running from frozen to produce ten times for weirdly misplaced list items, or you will never get out alive. An organized list helps you fend off the hordes of crazy, disorganized suburbanites that are running rampant around the store; taking out the elderly and end caps of boxed stuffing in one fell swoop. You must be a sea of calm in the storm, dancing your way through the isles with a determined smile. Then you make your way to the line, your full list of items safely in your cart, and wait on your smart phone or read a magazine for 30 minutes while you check out. (And when you’re in the lot, why not try and do something nice. Ask an elderly woman if she needs help loading or just put your cart back properly; tis’ the season after all.) So now you’re home and the real work begins. For me, the biggest cheat to making your Christmas days less stressful is to make (most) of your desserts the day before the big meal. I get a little overzealous because I enjoy cooking, so I make sweets homemade, and quite a few of them. But if you aren’t so into cooking, or it’s your first year in charge, start off with something easy and fun. Christmas isn’t supposed to be a terrible stressor. So find your space in the kitchen, and because you are making them the day before it won’t be full of people and casserole dishes piled on top of one another. Gather all of your ingredients, and READ MORE HERE----->bit.ly/13x2Yl7
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 09:30:02 +0000