- Vidalia & Swiss Quiche
- Crab Cakes
- Cheddar and Monterey Jack with crackers
- Roasted Asparagus
- Roast Sweet Potatoes
- Baby Carrots
- Shrimp and Spinach Risotto
- Tilapia with butter, parsley and crackers
An explanation to anyone who might stumble upon this post ...
I live in a small apartment with a small kitchen, but I love to cook for a crowd and I love to cook big. Sounds impossible, but it's not even hard if you plan for it. I have been teased that storming the beaches of Normandy involved less detailed planning, but the mocking ends when an overwhelming amount of food arrives on the table at the same time, perfectly cooked and hot. I admit, I am thorough ... I kiss the line between thorough and ridiculous, but it's worth it. This blog post is actually an innovation to my system - in years past I have written the recipes on post-it notes and slapped them on my cabinets, but this year I am linking to all of the recipes in one post instead. (Who am I kidding? I am so Type A when it comes to my kitchen ... and, strangely, only when it comes to my kitchen ... that I will probably have the recipes slapped on the cabinets anyway.) But cooking is the least of the process of pulling off a holiday dinner - like an iceberg, 90% is behind the scenes and if you don't pay it proper heed, it will sink you.
Step One: Menu planning.
Decide on appetizers, main course and desert NOW. Make changes only when necessary and/or well considered. Do not try a recipe for the first time - this means have a test run or save it for another night. The less changes you make, the less improvising and rushing and stressing you do, the more you can actually enjoy cooking and actually visit with your guests. Make a list of EVERYTHING you need to cook the meal. Poke through your pantry to see what you already have. Create a shopping list divided between things that must be purchased at the last minute (fish, touchy vegetables, things you will eat if you have hanging around, etc.) and things you can buy well in advance. Especially around the holidays, you will want to do the bulk of your shopping well in advance - yesterday, on Xmas Eve EVE the store was a madhouse and it took me nearly 40 minutes to escape with 6 tilapia fillets, 1 lemon, 2 limes, 1 bunch of asparagus and 1 bunch of parsley. And I almost had to stab someone. Imagine if I had to navigate a cart through that, if i had to be buying soda and juice and sweet potatoes and all of the other heavy and bulky things that make up a holiday meal. I would generate an impressive body count and never get to use my hard won ingredients because I would be in jail awaiting trial. I know myself well enough to know that I have no business in a grocery store today. Think of the liquor store, too - buy that ahead of time and save yourself the agony of yet another long line full of rushing, cranky people and overworked retail staff.
Step Two: Timeline & Dress Rehearsal
Okay, sounds really Type A, but hear me out ... if you do all the thinking NOW, you don't have to do any later - you can enjoy your guests AND create a great meal.
Consider cooking methods and temperatures. This is a huge pitfall that you can easily avoid - if you are cooking 2 things that require vastly different temperatures, you need to either rethink your plan or find a way of working around it - this is not the kind of surprise you want to face when your guests are imminent or already on the scene! Here's another one ... will everything fit where it needs to go when it needs to go there? If you have 6 things that have to be in the oven at the same time ... will they all FIT at the same time? Did you plan to use the large sautee pan and the large stock pot at the same time forgetting you have only 1 large burner and that since they are huge and your apartment stove is tiny, like the Highlander, there can only be one?
Sometimes you can make small changes to temperatures and cook times so that things can cook together - try not to move up or down more than 25 degrees if you can help it, keep in mind that moist things get dry the longer they are left in the oven (so lowering the temp and lengthening the cook time might not work) and vice versa - just really think about it before you make the change - sometimes it is not worth it.
Consider serving dishes and table settings - cut out as much of the fuss and last minute scramble as you can. It's easier and it makes you look like a Zen Kitchen God/dess ... you are just waltzing around, relaxing, perhaps tossing something into the oven or giving a pot a stir, sipping on some wine and then BAM! Dinner is served, it looks like a spread from a magazine, it's served on a freshly pressed table cloth with creatively folded napkins, using the good china!
Prep ahead. If it can be done early without sacrificing something in the dish, DO IT. And do it as soon as you can - I caramelized my onions yesterday and now I don't have to worry about messing with them today!
Seriously, write down a timeline. WRITE IT. Then you can set a timer, when it goes off you look at your list, it tells you what to do, you do it, reset the timer and then you get to go back to the party. Maximum relaxing without sacrificing a thing in the kitchen. Just sit down with the recipes and take a realistic look at the timing and prep requirements for each. Once you have that figured out, work backwards to figure our when each one needs to start in order for them tio finish at the same time. Here is my timeline. I am serving food in two waves - Scott can't make it until a bit later, so I want to delay dinner to give him time to get here in a leisurely manner. My mom has said that she, my dad and sibs will arrive "around 6ish" which could mean anywhere from 5:45 to 6:45. I will split the difference and count them for a 6:30 arrival and that is when I want the first wave to come out of the oven. So, my timeline begins at 5:30
- 5:30pm - Preheat oven to 375 and prep quiche
- 5:45pm - put quiche in oven, butter and flour the Madeleine molds and put the crab cake mixture into them
- 6:10pm - put crab cakes into the oven, arrange the cheese and cracker platter
- 6:30pm - everything out of the oven - serve.
- 7:00pm - cut and season sweet potatoes, snap and season the asparagus
- 7:15pm - preheat oven to 450, arrange the sweet potatoes on parchment and baking sheet, start risotto
- 7:30pm - sweet potatoes go into the oven, arrange asparagus on parchment and sheet, put carrots in pot with 1/2" water covering, start prepping fish
- 7:45pm - asparagus goes into the oven, put carrots on to boil, flip sweet potatoes, finish fish prep
- 7:50pm - fish goes into the oven, tend to carrots
- 8:00pm - everything out of the oven and off the stove - serve.
Step Three: Doing It
Wear something comfortable, if you have long hair, keep a clip nearby, make sure you have plenty of kitchen linens ready to go. Set the table, do your prep work. Do any cleaning or straightening that you need to. Do everything that is NOT on your timeline. Then check the time - the difference between the time it is now and the time your timeline starts is yours to do with as you please. Nap. Watch TV. Get drunk. It's up to you! You actually feel refreshed and ready to visit instead of harried and hoping your guests are running late, looking forward to when they all leave so you can collapse, exhausted.
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