While Christmas Day is meant to be full of joy and laughter, many of us can find happy memories overshadowed by the stress of putting together Christmas dinner.
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Make a plan – and stick to it
The easiest way to reduce Christmas cooking stress is to be organised.
In the run up to Christmas Day, make sure you’ve done all your food and drink shopping in order to avoid the Christmas Eve mad dash to the supermarket, only to find empty shelves.
Once you know what’s on the menu, calculate how long it will take for each component of the meal to cook, and figure out your timings. Write everything down so you don’t have to remember it off the top of your head. Stick to this schedule on the day, and you won’t be stuck in the kitchen trying to figure it out on the fly.
Clear out the fridge
Before you embark on the big Christmas food shop, direct your focus to your fridge.
Get rid of any nearly empty condiments, leftovers that have been in there for too long and anything else taking up unnecessary space.
You’re going to need plenty of space in your fridge to accommodate all your Christmas goodies, and you don’t want to find yourself trying to play tetris with pigs in blankets and parsnips.
Get as much done in advance as possible
Save yourself time on the big day by having as much as possible already prepared and ready to go.
You can have things like vegetables already pre-peeled and chopped. Store your prepped veg in water in the fridge to keep it fresh longer. Other Christmas day favourites will freeze and reheat excellently, such as mashed potatoes and Christmas biscuits.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help
The task of cooking Christmas dinner for the whole family shouldn’t land on the shoulders of just one person.
If you don’t feel like you can give up the reins to some of the bigger components of the meal, like the meat, you can always assign smaller tasks to others, like peeling and chopping…
Source : times
