Christmas Meals The Easy Way
Everyone knows that Christmas is the one time of the year where everyone can let their hair down, forgot their worries and enjoy themselves. However, the people responsible for preparing the Christmas meal often do not get a chance to feel the festive joy and sometimes stress levels can go through the roof. Having to make sure portions are correct, everything finishes cooking at exactly the same time, and keeping it all warm are just some of the challenges. Here are three tips then that you can use to help your Christmas meal go smoothly.
Prepare Food Early. You’d be amazed at just how much of the food can be prepared well before the meal, without compromising on quality. Cooked vegetables wont go bad or dry out if you place them into cold water and reheat them before serving. Place into hot water again for a couple of minutes and there are as good as fresh. Most of the sauces will keep just fine if you make them in the morning and then just add some more water and heat up again quickly when you want to serve. Unfortunately its very difficult to pre-cook the turkey as it tends to dry out and tastes better fresh, but you should now have time to cook this.
Lay Table Early. This can be done at the very beginning of the day and saves a lot of hassle. You can lay all the place settings, cutlery and champagne flutes as long as you know how many people you are expecting. You can even place the crackers in position and add decorations such as poinsettias in glass vases.Making sure everything is in place and everyone has everything they need early on saves people complaining they haven’t been given a fork or napkin later on.
Self Serve. If you let people plate up themselves from dishes in the kitchen you save a lot of time and effort. This way you don’t have to lug heavy bowls and serving dishes back and forth, the dining table doesn’t get cluttered up, and people can have exactly what they want. It’s advisable to keep the wine glasses on the table however as trying to juggle food and drink never ends well.
