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Old Mar 27, 2018, 2:23 pm
  #3  
travelmad478
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: MSY
Programs: BA GfL
Posts: 5,926
1. Prep everything the day/a few days before--by that I mean do all the chopping and measuring, not the actual cooking. Get everything to the stage where it's ready to get fired. My M.O. is to chop/measure out all the ingredients for each dish, then put each dish's ingredients in ziplocs, plastic containers etc. and throw all of them into separate, labeled supermarket plastic bags in the fridge. Then you can pull out each one on meal day and cook it. Not only does this make you far less exhausted on the day when you have guests, but it's also a good way to avoid mistakes caused by rushing/stress.

2. Go over all your recipes, and working backward from your desired meal time, make a schedule of when each thing needs to get cooked, go into the oven, etc. in order to come out at 6 PM or whatever it is. If you have multiple things going into the same oven, you may need to adjust the cooking temperatures or times, but generally this can be done without problems except for baked goods (like your rolls). Do those first, then set the oven temperature for the ham, roast, etc.

This is what I have done at Thanksgiving for the last 18 years and it works. I cook everything myself--about 8 separate dishes--with four burners and one oven, and it all comes out at the same time.
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