subject: Cooking Planning: Start At Your Desk, Not Your Stove [print this page] Are you anticipating holiday cooking stress already? Is Thanksgiving cooking planning getting you down? I fully understand, because even as a professional chef who has prepared food for thousands, I still feel the anxiety of cooking for family in my own home.
Planning, shopping, preparing, cooking, serving, wrapping leftovers, not to mention straightening your house are worthy of your worry when you dont have a good plan. While I cant help you with house cleaning, I can help turn holidays cooking stress into Thanksgiving cooking success this year with a few simple tips.
First, have a written plan for your menu, grocery shopping, and preparation. Dont just eye-ball it at the grocery store, checking to see if that looks like enough potatoes. Youll wind up at the end of the meal forcing people to eat more for fear of it going to waste. If its not consumed, then youve got more time in wrapping leftovers, only to discard them a few days later anyway.
Thanksgiving cooking should start with a calculator and multiply a standard portion of 5 ounces of protein, 4 ounces of starch, 3 ounces of vegetables, by the number of people youre serving, your shopping and cooking will be more cost effective, efficient, and less wasteful. Use any number for your portion estimates, but adhere to your plan when you start shopping.
Next, have a plan for your oven space, refrigerator space, and serving vessels and utensils. Youll have more food stored, prepared, cooked, and served than you do the rest of the year, so proper prior planning will again save last minute indecision, wasting time and increasing your stress.
Potatoes in Grandmas china flower dish, green beans in glass casserole with serving tongs are notes you can make next to your menu plan. Estimate what can be purchased, prepared or cooked before other items. Not all Thanksgiving cooking needs to take place on Thanksgiving. You can buy things like onions or potatoes well in advance of salad greens. Buy them and cook them ahead of time for simple re-heating.
You may also want to keep an iced-down large drink cooler in your garage for the overflow that your refrigerator may not handle. Certainly, bottles and cans can go in the cooler. Ziplock or vacuum bags of mashed potatoes or butternut squash soup can be kept on ice to save fridge space for the turkey.
Lastly, consider doing plate-up this year. Instead of a large buffet where peoples eyes are much larger than their plates, present everyones first plate to them, like a restaurant. This way, you can control the initial portion, eliminating much waste, and keeping to your original portion plan. You can still have a buffet set for those that want second portions, but preparing the first plate will save time, food, and money. Perhaps youll do less Thanksgiving cooking this way.
There are many more methods Ive developed to turn holidays cooking stress into holidays cooking success, but proper prior planning is the most valuable of them all for a stress-free holiday dinner.
