Family Foodies

I’m Susanne Myers – better known as the Hillbilly Housewife. Kelly and the girls here at FamilyFoodies.com have invited me to share some thoughts on holiday cooking with you this week.

I’m excited that gladly became a part of my October Blog Tour – The Hillbilly Housewife On The Road. Each October I try to do a little something special to benefit Breast Cancer Research (my grandmother is  breast cancer survivor). This year I decided to blog on some wonderful blogs of my friends as well as donate 20% of all profits I make from Hillbilly Housewife Ebooks and the Hillbilly Housewife Club to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

How let’s talk about planning ahead for the big holiday meals. It seems hard to believe but we only have a few weeks until Thanksgiving (in the US) and from there it’s just a few more short weeks until Christmas with plenty of holiday entertaining in between.

I used to not do much planning ahead with holiday meals. We have some pretty standard traditional menus and I’d just buy what I needed a few days head of time and would then proceed to run around like a chicken with its head cut off the day before and the day off the holiday (or holiday party), stessing out and trying to do way to much in too little time. By the time guests arrived, I was exhausted and would preferred a nap over entertaining.

I was already pretty good at meal planning at this point for our regular dinners, but for some reason didn’t do much planning for holiday meals. The past few years I have and boy has it made a difference. Here’s a quick overview of what I do to plan ahead.

2 Weeks Before

Start by deciding what you will serve. If you are going to have friends or family members contribute, contact them and figure out what everyone will bring. This will give them plenty of time to plan their dishes.

Check and see if there’s anything else you will need as far as dishes, containers, serving plates or even chairs and table cloths go.

Make a list of everything you will need and then divide it into 3 different lists:

Non Perishables – this includes any non-food item as well as things that will not go bad in 2 weeks, like spices, or potatoes and dry rice for example.

In Between – this is stuff that will go bad eventually, but usually lasts for a few days. Most fruits and vegetables will fall into this category.

Very Perishables – This is stuff that you want to pick up the day before like ground beef for example.

Go ahead and start shopping for everything on your non-perishable list and don’t forget to look for sales on typical holiday fare. Certain spices and canned goods should go on sale around this time and this is the perfect time to buy them.

1 Week Before

Get the rest of your food done and start some prep work. Many dishes can be made ahead and frozen. We’ll talk about this in more detail later this week. Make and freeze as many dishes as possible. You’ll appreciate the extra free time on the holiday to enjoy your family and guests.

This is also  a good time to get your home in order. Divide up the various cleaning chores between all family members.

2 Days Before

Get serious about prep work and preparing anything that will still taste good (or better 2 days later). If you are going to use homemade cornbread for example in your dressing you can bake it that night and store it in an air tight container until you’re ready to make your stuffing or dressing.

The Day Before

Get all your chopping and dicing done today and prepare any dish that will make it in the fridge overnight. Most casseroles can be put together the day before. Cakes and desserts can also usually be made a day ahead. Don’t forget about things like potato and pasta salad as well. It usually tastes better the next day anyway.

Now is also a great time to go ahead and rearrange furniture as needed and set the table. This is particularly true if your guest are arriving for an early lunch.

At the end of the day, make yourself a checklist with everything you need to do the next day and in what order. I usually also come up with a time-line of what needs to be cooked when and for how long.

The Big Day

On the day of the celebration, just work through your list and don’t forget to plan for some time to freshen up and get dressed. After that sit back, relax and enjoy your holiday party and more importantly your loved ones.

Susanne Myers – The Hillbilly Housewife

Visit me at at HillbillyHousewife.com for plenty of frugal recipes and frugal tips.

P.S. If you’re interested in meal planning and would like to learn more, get a copy of Meal Planning Made Easy.