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So as we all know, we're about to hit up some pretty major eating holidays, and that means that there's going to be a lot of food happening at the same time. I was on this podcast about productivity where we discussed large meal preparation, and I made a google document that had a bunch of my notes on it. Here it is for those who are interested: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1movFZ8vblptfWY-XvI14ZrXlUU4V8yVUfvJfonoeV6A/edit?usp=sharing The take home message was this: Do as much stuff ahead of time as you can. Ask for help when you need it. Sometimes the best way that someone who sucks at cooking can help is to give him a $20 and ask him to pick up ice from the local store, or a bottle of wine or something. Yes, I'm talking about you, Mike. You know what you did. And most of all, to give yourself grace, because cooking huge quantities of food can be fun, but it's also stressful and tiring, especially when you only see some members of your family once in a great while. There's other stuff in there about keeping the space clean, making sure you have enough work space to do the thing without getting hurt, and making sure people know what is and isn't fair game to eat, but the major ones that'll keep you sane are pre-prep, getting good help, and keeping people who are terrible at cooking out of the food as much as possible. What are your survival tips for making holiday meals? I'll go first: - Have plenty of coffee going, because when you're running on empty, a bit of a pick me up never hurts anything. Also, when people come in to give you a hand in the morning, nothing beats having a nice hot cup of coffee to kick things off. - Remember the snacks for the people in the kitchen! Yes, you're tasting as you go, but that frequently doesn't happen for hours yet. Have some stuff lying around that you can all graze on, so you don't get bitchy and hungry while cooking. - Don't discount that friend who's good at keeping people in good spirits, even if that means that she's excellent at making cocktails, and keeping everyone's glass topped off. She may not be the most comfortable in the kitchen, but she's happy to keep the conversation interesting, and make sure that you're drinking water. - Have a bit of wine, but only after everything majorly dangerous or finicky is done cooking. For example, if it's a thing that involves split second timing, doing so while you're drunk isn't going to have great results. Better to get the mission critical stuff out the way, and then relax with a drink once the major stuff is done. - Try to time things so that you have a good half hour to an hour before eating when everything that needs cooking is done cooking. It's not always possible to do, because I know some folk aren't great at timing things, but every time I've managed to have the cooking done early, it gave me plenty of time to grab a hot shower, hit the floors with the vacuum, and generally perk up the place from looking like a tornado hit it before everyone comes. Frequently, I'll have anyone who offered to help do the major clean up, because I need to wash all this sweat off of me so I don't stink up the joint. - The freezer is your friend. I'll make stuff that can be reheated the day of well in advance, and chuck it in the freezer. Why add more crap to my to-do list for the day of if I don't have to?
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Oct 21, 2022 14:05
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I find that the key is to have a large kitchen. Making lots of food is so much easier when you have lots of space.
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Oct 21, 2022 15:18
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You might as well keep a food diary specifically for Thanksgiving and Xmas. If you cook the same thing every year like most people, you can have a foolproof master shopping list, further broken down into when you need to buy, prep and cook each item, if you want. Most veg can be cleaned and prepped a day or two in advance and kept in a big bucket of water, without the need for refrigeration. Another benefit of the diary is you can record your alterations to the menu, what works and what doesn’t, heck, even keep a guest list in it. Makes a nice find after you die!
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Oct 21, 2022 15:41
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Torque, my friend T—— does that. She has specific things that she makes every year for which she has the recipes written down for, and knows what she’ll need to do when. She doesn’t bother to make alterations because she’s been making that stuff for years now, and it works for her. Sure as poo poo, whenever I’ve helped her on those holidays, those parts of the meal are super straightforward. Also she has one of those chop wizard thingies. They’re super helpful to bang through piles of veg the night before, so you can dump your prepped food into delitainers from which you dump stuff into other stuff the next day. Chopped veggies seem to keep just fine for a couple of days.
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Oct 21, 2022 17:17
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If you have more than one person cooking, taking even 15 minutes to game plan can be really helpful. My friend M and I are the only skilled cooks in our friend group; he's a lifelong family business line cook and I'm just a decent home cook, we love each other's food but have different skillsets and cuisine specialties. Also rarely cook together because we usually take turns making meals for everybody, so holidays are generally the only time of year we're both in the kitchen outside of some basic chopping assistance or learning something new. Counter space is limited so sitting down with some micheladas (yes at 10 am because we roll like that) and talking over who is taking charge of what and what kitchen equipment is going to be needed when is a big sanity saver.
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Oct 23, 2022 21:33
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