Cookery - Christmas Tips & Timetable
Christmas
Christmas is a most wonderful time of year. Family and friends meet to celebrate, and everything seems abuzz with excitement as festivities fill the air.
The atmosphere should be one of happiness and giving. However, so often as Christmas approaches, panic surrounds us as we worry about how to entertain, what to serve, how much to cook, and so on.
The holiday spreads over several days and even into New Year's, so careful planning is essential.
Plan for each day of this hectic period.
Consider which foods will be left over such as poultry and produce), and select recipes using these ingredients.
Freeze food for unexpected arrivals.
Make a fish and meat pate, and freeze whole, or slice (to thaw more quickly):
Served with a salad and crusty bread, a pate makes a delicious, impromptu meal.
Freeze a few puddings or Gateaux for impressive desserts.
Frozen finger foods also make marvellous standbys and certainly take the pressure out of entertaining at short notice:
Prepare a tasty selection of these tempting, bite-size foods to serve with drinks.
Once you have planned menus and calculated how many visitors are expected, determine which recipes can be made in advance and frozen or stored until required, such as Christmas cakes, puddings, and mince pies.
Make a detailed list of food to be purchased in advance and at the last minute.
Stock up on drinks and ingredients for nibbles several weeks before, avoiding the rush in the days leading up to Christmas.
As for edible gifts, preserves, brandied mincemeat, fruits in liqueurs, pretty sweets, and cookies are most attractive in baskets, boxes, or dainty glass or china dishes.
Assorted cheeses make a nice last-minute present and look especially good in a basket with crackers, butter, and a pretty, festive napkin.
Cookies or gingerbread houses serve as perfect novelty gifts for children.
And a mini-Christmas cake with a few mince pies is a most welcome offering for someone living alone, or make a mini-basket of home-made goodies, such as pate, preserves, cake, Christmas pudding, and cookies.
So with good planning and thinking ahead we can take the stress out of Christmas. here are some great jobs that you can do whilst the children are at school.
First of all start to make the lists of all the things that you think that you will need.
Jobs to do e.g. tidy freezer, shelves etc.
General Food Shopping e.g. flour, sugar etc
General non food shopping e.g. Turkey size foil, cling film etc.
Week before food shopping e.g. eggs, bacon, frozen pastry
Last few Days Shopping e.g. potatoes, vegetables, fruit, bread etc.
Next clear out the freezer of all out of date food and empty boxes to make as much space as possible.
If you are going to buy a frozen turkey go and buy it at the beginning of December when the shops are quiet.
You need to allow 12 oz / 330 grams of meat per person.
Shopping with Children
When you can't avoid taking the children along shopping for food, try incorporating them in the task.
For youngsters who already know how to count it can be an experience in counting or a form of language development and learning, as they discover the names of their favourite foods.
Line containers with plastic bags and when frozen remove the plastic bag and store in the freezer.
If you line a casserole dish with foil, you can freeze the dish and then lift out the foiled package for long term storage in the freezer.
When you want to cook the dish, remove the foil and place in the original casserole dish to thaw and cook.
When freezing a cake or Gateaux, cut into portions and separate with greaseproof paper and then put back together to freeze.
You can then remove the number of portions that you need without having to defrost the whole cake.