Food for Christmas

19 Dec, 2011Food, Holidays

It’s that time of year again!. The one where you have to go through all the recipe books and buy all the magazines because this year your Christmas cookies are going to be the best!

You also have that whole feast to prepare, bread to bake, eggnog to mix, really all kinds of things to cook. And that is even before you worry about shopping, decorating, or wrapping presents.
It’s enough to make you scream.

Stop, calm down, take a deep breath. It’s going to be fine.

First lets tackle the cookies. This will go two ways, either everyone will eat all the cookies, or everyone is so health focused this year all the cookies will remain untouched. Don’t worry about baking the best cookies. Bake the ones that make you happy. Because why cook if you can’t enjoy it yourself. Lick the spoon while you are at it, cookie dough is good.

Now onto the Christmas feast. Get the main dish now! They are on sale, and stick it in your freezer, about a week before you cook this start defrosting it. And have you thought of having Turkey for Christmas instead of goose or ham? Sure, it’s non-traditional, but it will go a long way to saving you money. As the price of Ham goes up, the price of turkeys go down. If you have a big enough freezer, go ahead and get the main dish for New Years. Or go with finger food for that holiday.

Onto the rest of the feast. If you plan you meal out and schedule when things are to start cooking, prep time included, you will be able to schedule your day of cooking while still enjoying it, because you have a plan! This means you don’t have to worry with what is starting when and how much time do I have left. That is what schedules are for.

When you make a list, write down every ingredient you will need to cook everything on the list. Start buying the nonperishable things now, it will save money in the long run to buy it bit by bit. Check to make sure you have the things you think you have. Physically touch them to see how much is left. This will limit a last minute grocery run to only happening once. And yes no matter how hard you try, you will have to run to the grocery store. Usually it is because the kids ate the apples needed for the pie.

Now on to that holiday bread baking. Why should you do this activity all by yourself? This is a fun way to include the family in the holiday cooking. Really you could have let them in on the cookie baking, but then you’d have to share that cookie dough. Bread baking can be fun, and it allows your kids to get their hands dirty with something you don’t mind cleaning off. So have a Happy Holidays and have fun cooking this year!

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