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Posts Tagged ‘meal’

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.

As everyone is well aware, Christmas should be a time of celebration, happiness and family bonding. That said, preparing a Christmas meal for the whole family is often none of these things, and is instead very stressful as the chef of the family will testify to. 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. Lets take a look at some effective ways to reduce Xmas meal time stress.

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. All the vegetables can be cooked hours in advance and then simply kept in cold water until you serve the food up. Add to hot water for 3 minutes and its ready to serve. If you have a microwave you can make your sauces up early doors and then just heat them up again with a bit of added water when you need them. Don’t try this with the potatoes or turkey however, as these don’t taste so good reheated.

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.Getting all this sorted as early as possible just gives you less to think about later.

Self Serve. If you let people plate up themselves from dishes in the kitchen you save a lot of time and effort. This allows for much more room at the dinner table as its not taken up with serving dishes, and people can choose exactly what they want to eat, without grandma loading your plate up with sprouts. It’s advisable to keep the wine glasses on the table however as trying to juggle food and drink never ends well.

Preparing seafood is very easy and fun to do. The main thing to remember when preparing and cooking seafood is the seasoning.

The seasoning is the most vital element in the preparation of seafood. The main seasoning that I use when I prepare dishes like grilled shrimp is called Tony’s. Tony’s can be found at any local store such as Wal-Mart or Albertson’s. I like to season the meat before cooking, during and after.

For instance, when fixing a special meal of grilled shrimp, I put a dash of seasoning on them after thawing the shrimp. While I grill shrimp I dash spices on it as well as squeeze lemon juice on them for more zesty taste. To get a ‘tangy’ taste out of them, try using limes instead of lemons. After the shrimp are finished, I lay them out on a platter and season them lightly one more time to get a bold taste out of them.

Some people only season them once or twice, but if you season them three times the flavor stays with the food the whole time you are preparing it and it never leaves the food before you serve it. Clam chowder is the one recipe where this rule doesn’t apply since it should just be seasoned with a dash of salt and Tony’s. Clam chowder also keeps flavor more because it is a type of soup. As long as you put the seasoning in the water or liquid of the soup or gumbo you are preparing then the flavor will stay more than if you have to remove a food from the water like you do with grilled shrimp.

Crab soup is thinner in consistency than clam chowder and should be made with smaller pieces of crab, not big chunks. Once again, seasoning is important. Put in a dash of Tony’s, salt and pepper, plus a squeeze of lemon, and your guests will ask for seconds when you serve seafood dishes.