Kitchen Tips: The Holidays

With the holidays upon us, we thought it might be a good idea to share some tips for the kitchen you can use when working on those big meals. Here's a few from us and our readers.

Create the menu – NOW

Gary from Greenwood suggests you create your menu early. That's your road map to what you'll need and when to make it. You could do this as early as a month out from the meal. And while you may do the same menu each holiday meal, go ahead and mix things up by tossing in a new side dish or two. Then get to work on your shopping list.

Stock up

As soon as you have your menu done, head to the store and stock up on your dry goods before the shelves go bare. Stocks, pix mixes, crusts (if you don't make them yourself), spices, libations and otherwise seem to vanish from the shelves if you're a late shopper.

Deep clean your kitchen in advance

Kevin from Madrona says a clean and well organized kitchen is a happy kitchen and will serve you so much better. Be sure to clear and clean all the counter areas, empty out the pantry, clean and reload and sort your spices, discarding old ones with fresh ones. You'll save lots of money here buying small quantities in the bulk food section of your store, rather than entire full bottles.

Stock up, part 2

Brandi in Roosevelt notes that pre-made canned or boxed stocks are loaded with sodium and other ingredients you can't even pronounce, not to mention possibly a healthy dose of BPA. But you can have a fine time at home chopping celery, carrots and onions and tossing them in the crock pot with your protein choice (chicken backs, beef bones, turkey backs etc…) and making your own stock without any nasty additives. After six hours, your house is going to smell awesome and thus you experience the first odor-prelude to the big meal(s) coming down the road. Skim, cool and freeze the stock so it's ready to go when you are later.

Steelhead Diner stock ingredients

Click here for our stock recipe if you want the essentials. Then modify with your own protein selection, herbs and spices as you see fit.

Prep, prep, prep

Susan from Broadview points out, as the big meal gets closer there are some things you can do a few days in advance. Most pies actually taste better when made a few days in advance, which allows the flavors to meld and the pie to set up. Ditto for some veggie dishes and dips. The more you get ready in advance, the less you'll have to cook the day of. And that means you'll have more time to enjoy with friends and family.

Clean as you go

Kasper in Magnolia has an excellent tip. Some of us are used to piling dishes into the sink until it's full and then set about cleaning them. Not during the holidays. Keep the cleaning in motion through the big day and you'll find yourself staying a lot more organized. Items like measuring devices can be hand washed so they're ready to go at any moment, rather than waiting for the next cycle of the dishwasher.

Put your old cell phone to work

An old cell phone can be a handy item in the kitchen. You can load timer apps into it and not tie up your current daily driver while you want to be talking to someone or use it for other reasons. In addition, nowadays many of us have taken to putting our grocery lists on the cloud using an app like OneNote. You can link your old cell phone to that account across your home wi-fi and update the list as you go, again, without having to access your present phone. Not sure how to do this? Contact your local tech guru and make him or her work for that slice of pie.

These are the meals we remember all year long. Have a great holiday meal!

Tom Mehren/Holidays 2015