Dec 26 2009
Once-A-Month Cooking Holiday Menu Sampler
One of the best ways to de-stress the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is to keep the home routines running smoothly: laundry, mail and bills, and – especially – meal preparation. You’ll have extra baking and cooking over the holidays, but your family is still hungry for dinner every evening! Use this oneweek cycle to help keep holiday mealtimes afloat. This cycle includes a family breakfast, Apple-Sausage Brunch Cake, and Beef Flank Steak with Mushroom Stuffing, an elegant entrée for company.
After you’ve sampled this technique, if you want to expand its value for your family, you’ll find several month and two-week menus in the books Once-AMonth Cooking and Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites. These are the ultimate do-ahead dinner method, and include such helps as a kitchen equipment list, a freezing guide, a measurement conversion table, and even table conversation starters.
Note for families who eat gluten-free: As always, please read labels and select ingredients carefully, but if you do, the only recipe in this menu cycle that should not work for a gluten-free diet, according to Lori Baird, our gluten-free diet consultant, is the Chicken Almondine. You may want to make a substitution for that recipe. The book Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites includes a twoweek cycle that is gluten-free.
Here are some tips to get you started with your menu sampler:
• Set aside shopping time and cooking time; it’s best, for your own energy, to shop one day or evening, and cook the next day. This cycle will take you about 2-1/2 hours to prepare by yourself: less time if you cook with a friend.
• Read through the cycle to acquaint yourself with the flow and the recipes you’ll be preparing.
• Look at the pantry list provided and transfer any items you don’t have to the shopping list.
• After you shop, prepare for cooking: Leave out on the counter items that don’t need refrigeration. Get out the spices and dry ingredients on the pantry list. Clear the counter of décor and unnecessary items.
• Label the freezer containers that you’ll use for each entrée (see bottom of each recipe).
• Start cooking, using the Assembly Order to move your smoothly through the menu cycle.
• As you finish preparing a couple of entrees, squeeze the air out of the freezer bags, seal them, and put them into the freezer.
