Preparing for Christmas

November 17, 2017 By Sandy

A few practical tips on preparing your larder,

fridge and freezer for Christmas.

It’s fair to say that the person responsible for feeding their household and visitors over the Festive period experiences a degree of stress.

If you are this person, I hope the few pointers below will help alleviate some of the worry.

Time spent on planning is invaluable – so what to plan?

How many days are to be covered?
How many will you be feeding each day and which meals will they be expecting
How many (if any) of the “eaters” have diets you need to take into consideration.

Lists are a good way to do this (whether on good old fashioned paper or an excel spreadsheet).

Once you have itemised the “meal” requirements, decide what you are going to provide at each meal

(add this to your list/spreadsheet)

It is a good idea to ensure that as much as possible can be prepared in advance and frozen (or purchased frozen). This will not only save precious time but also wastage should your plans change (as often happens).

Next job: Prepare your shopping and cooking lists. I say lists as these need to be scheduled into your weekly planner. This will ensure that you actually have time to shop/cook everything you wish to.

Make sure you add snacks to your shopping/cooking list to keep “eaters” going between meals an extra freezer meal for any unexpected “eaters”

If you plan well and ensure that many of your meals are frozen or can be frozen and that your snacks have long use by dates, not only will much of the stress be removed, but wastage will be kept to a minimum!

Careful and methodical advance planning and preparation will ensure that you are fairly relaxed during the festivities. This will make your “eaters” enjoy their time with you and you will be able to enjoy time with them.

Remember, visitors have come to enjoy your company, not to judge your catering skills!

Check out how Cornucopia Cooks can help, list 2017 shows what I am cooking for Christmas.

Thank you to Kit (one of the ex deli ladies) for these snippets:
How to cook a turkey for those who need whiskey!

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