A Simple Season: Tidings of Comfort (Food) and Joy {Series}

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A Simple Season: Tips for Keeping the Heart of the Holidays

Part Three: Tidings of Comfort (Food) and Joy

Food is weaved into the fabric of the holidays. It’s the time of year for Grandma’s cinnamon rolls (though there are rarely any left by the time I get to them!), Grandpa’s molasses cookies, and Mom’s biscotti. It’s also the time of year for bringing dishes anywhere and everywhere: family gatherings, work parties, church events, even providing Christmas dinner for someone else. It seems like I am constantly cooking during this season!

SS3With all the food to prepare, I have had to simplify my approach. In this season of life, it seems that the moment I enter the kitchen small children appear from nowhere to climb my legs and find all manner of sharp and hot objects that are strewn about when cooking, so I really need to get in an get out – if you know what I mean.

Here are a few things I do to make sure things don’t boil over (see what I did there ?!?) when it comes to holiday food prep:

1. Limit your recipes. I choose four recipes to get me through Thanksgiving and Christmas: one appetizer, one side dish, one dessert, and another depending on the events we have. This saves on ingredients and keeps costs down.
2. Take a standard dish and make it seasonal. One of my favorite things to do is toss together a big green salad and then “season” it up. For winter, instead of carrots and celery I love to add dried cherries, pear, and roasted pumpkin seeds.
3. Save steps. I’ll be the first to admit that there’s no substitute for old-fashioned mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese, but they take longer than I typically have. So instead of taking the long way, I like to wash red potatoes, poke holes in them, drizzle with olive oil (+ salt and pepper) and bake them. Then while they’re hot I toss them in my stand mixer with milk, butter (and whatever other goodness I feel like – usually bacon, greek yogurt, and chives) and mix away. No, they’re not super smooth, but they get the job done – and take only 15 minutes of active time. (Full recipe with other time-saving tips: Simple_Smashed_Potatoes). Another of my favorite “short-cut” dishes is my Stove_Top_Mac_N_Cheese.

I just spent a couple hundred words giving you ideas for speeding up and saving time, but saved time is just saved time unless you do something with it. Here are a few ways to invest the time you saved in the kitchen:

Cook together. This looks like involving others in the process. As much as I would love to have the kitchen to myself when I’m cooking, I don’t. It turns out that it takes me an hour to do 30 minutes of work with two little kiddos around, so I can spend those 30 minutes teaching them something or chasing them away. There are tons of lessons to be taught in the kitchen, not the least of which is how to prepare a meal.

Pass down recipes. You know those cinnamon rolls I mentioned, and those molasses cookies? It just isn’t Christmas without those things for me. Figure out what those are for you and learn those recipes from the person who makes them sooner rather than later. Time is often shorter than we expect, and there are some things that a recipe card just can’t capture.

Make more. While your schedule may be packed with things to do, there are lots of folks for whom the holidays are the loneliest time of the year. Double your recipes, and pass them along to other people who might not get homemade goodies this holiday season. Or even, invite them to join you. (A stranger at Christmas is pretty much EXACTLY the point of Christmas).

Be intentional about how you spend your time this season. If you are the kind of person who will spend a lot of it in the kitchen, make the most of it by sharing the time and the food with those you love.

To read more in Casey’s series on creating a “simple season”, click here.

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