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Home arrow Blog arrow Stress-Free Holiday Dinners
Stress-Free Holiday Dinners PDF Print E-mail
It's the most wonderful time of the year; time for fun with family and friends, sharing gifts, good food, travel and...stress.  We all want the Holidays to be perfect, magical and wonderful; we try to do it all and in the end, find ourselves too stress-out to relax and enjoy the festivities.  In a recent poll conducted by Dateline NBC and Prevention Magazine, they found that 41 percent of those polled admitted that Christmas and Hanukkah was only slightly less stressful (by 2 percent) than asking the boss for a raise! (http://www.msnbc.com/)

Presents to purchase and wrap, shopping for just the right tree and decorating it, planning and preparing the family dinner...all make for a busy time of year.  Creating a timeline can help to eliminate some of the stress, particularly when planning the feast.  Here are ten helpful hints to make your dinner plans easier:

  • Invite your guests in late November; give them plenty of time to let you know how many to prepare for.
  • Plan your menu and groceries to buy about a month before the dinner; divide the list between items that can be bought now and perishable goods.
  • Watch the weekly grocery ads and buy your non-perishable items on sale.
  • Let someone else do all or a portion of the work!   Hire a personal chef or caterer to help with the meal preparation.
  • Consider serving a buffet, rather than a sit-down dinner.  Pot-luck dinners are also a wonderful alternative.
  • Take an inventory of your cooking utensils, serving platters and bowls and table linens to ensure that you have everything you'll need to make your dinner spectacular.
  • Start cooking early.  Most side dishes like mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, vegetables, stuffing or desserts can be prepared several weeks in advance and stored in the freezer.  Just remember to label them clearly and thaw the dishes in the refrigerator two nights before your dinner party.
  • Plan to use your crock pot, slow cooker and roaster.  They are great tools that will help you cook multiple dishes at once without having to constantly watch over them.
  • Clean out your refrigerator to make sure you will have room for all the dishes you are preparing.
  • Empty the dishwasher the night before the party.  It will make clean up easier and give you more time with family and friends.