On the 12 Things For Christmas

Get Your Christmas List Read

When it comes to the holidays, cooking food is just a regular activity. Every host tries their best to cook all the greatest dishes for the family. In order to prepare yourself for the whole holiday feast you’re about to prepare, we advise you to make a list of all the food and ingredients you’ll have to prepare to avoid the last-minute rush shopping and impulse buying. If it’s not on the list, don’t put it in the fridge!

Zip-Lock Hack for Quicker Defrosting

A great trick for anything you need to quickly defrost for cooking time is to put whatever it may be in a zip-lock and store it in the fridge as flat as possible. Not only does this give you so much more space to store your sauces and/or meats but it also makes it easier to defrost the food once you need to start cooking. This is by far, the best prep hack for any big feast.

Pre-Christmas Prepped Potatoes

Roast potatoes are a staple side dish. They go perfectly with pretty much anything at all! But they do take time, so instead of rushing it all on Christmas day, you can pre-cook the mashed potatoes as you would normally cook them before they get tossed in the oven. Boil, drain, cool, and refrigerate. When the time comes, all you have to do is place them on the tray and wait for them to cook while everything else’s is being done.

Quick and Easy Pantry Recipes

If anything goes wrong, be sure to have some stocked pantry ingredients on the go. If in any case, your dessert doesn’t come along, just whip up something with the things you have, and voila, easy as pie. When it comes to such a stressful and anxiety-filled celebration, it pays to have backup plans on backup plans.

The Drinks

What are the holidays without drinks? And what are drinks if they aren’t spiced up and homemade? Fancy up your drinks trolley with cocktails that leave your guests enjoying the night even more. There is just a plethora of recipes to choose from, most of which aren’t even that expensive! Just pick up your cute cocktail glasses, and look for the best cocktail for you and your family/friends.

Extras Extras

Okay, so we do roast chicken before Christmas, occasionally at the very least. What we want here is for you to make extra gravy for your chicken if you plan to roast it on Christmas day. That’ll just get one more thing off your mind and keep you at ease.             

Prep the Sausages

Christmas without sausages in an American household seems close to unholy. They’re not that hard to do but since we’ve already prepped everything on this list, might as well do the sausages as well. For your pigs in a blanket, cut the sausages, wrap them in pastry, freeze and cook when you’re ready.

Red Cabbage Pack

Some of us know the horrors of blanching red cabbages and how long it takes. Like most things on this list, do it before Christmas! Get your red cabbage, wash it through, chop and blanch before cooling down and storing it in a zip-lock bag in the fridge.

Beware of Turkey

You know what? This might as well be an unspoken rule already but always check your Turkey’s expiry date. You don’t want to expire turkey on your dining table with the in-laws judging every meal. Aside from that, make sure to check its defrosting time as well, in order to avoid any mishaps when it comes to its thawing before roasting.

Lay your To-Do List Down

You don’t need to jumble your thoughts on Christmas day! Write down, thoroughly, the things you need to do from washing the vegetables to buying the booze. It’ll all come together better with a list to follow.

Spicing Up the Icecreams

If you’ve got some leftover ingredients and some ice cream, you can think about blending them together! Get creative and fun, even mincemeat can be used to make delicious cold ice cream for dessert.

Fresh Mince Pies

Mince Pies are best when fresh out of the oven but Christmas calls for preparations and stress. What do we do? We make mince pies before the hassle even starts! Take your pastry and mincemeat, assemble said pie, and store well in the fridge. As per the order you want it to be cooked, take it out of the fridge and bake it frozen.