You can have a great Holiday dinner without stress or tiring yourself out! The holidays are about being with family and friends. Living in your kitchen cooking for the holidays can be a downer when you cannot enjoy your company. You can enjoy the holidays!
Things You’ll Need:
Oven cooking bags
Aluminum foil
Turkey and/or ham
Vegetables
Desserts
Step 1
The key is preparation!
Step 2
Prepare your shopping list.
Complete your shopping a week in advance.
Step 3
One to two days in advance:
Make the desserts at least a day or two in advance.
Make certain your turkey or ham are thawed.
Prepare your tea or other drinks and refrigerate.
Step 4
One day or one night in advance:
Prepare the turkey or ham. Take note of the number of pounds the meat weighs. Prepare oven cooking bags according to directions the cooking bag box. Insert the meat into the cooking bag and any seasonings, seal, slight top of bag, and place onto a baking pan according to the cooking bag directions. Place the pan with the bagged turkey into the refrigerator.
Step 5
The night before your holiday dinner, set you dining table with your china, crystal, napkins, and silverware. Yes, the night before!! This eliminates a lot of stress on the holiday.
Step 6
The night before is a good time to cook any vegetables and store in refrigerator in oven-going bake ware. You can insert the bake ware with the vegetables into the oven while cooking the meats on the day of the dinner.
Step 7
The Holiday! Insert the prepared meat into the oven as per the cooking instructions on the cooking bag box. EXAMPLE: If your dinner is at 5:00pm and it takes 3 hours to cook the meat, place the meat into the oven at 1:30 pm. I always find it a good idea to allow more time before the dinner actually begins just in case the meat is not completely cooked or you need to carve the meat before the dinner.
Step 8
While the meat is cooking, place the baking dish holding the vegetables into the oven. If your vegetable dish needs an hour to cook, place the dish into the oven 1 hour and 15 minutes prior to your dinner. Use this method for all your food as this allows time to remove and arrange the dish on the table before everyone is seated. You may want to cover vegetable dishes with foil or a lid to insure the food will not dry out.
Preparation is the key to a stress less holiday or other celebration dinner. Whatever you can prepare ahead of time will make your day so much easier.
ENJOY!
