Making A List
It's the weekend before Christmas which in my house means two things:
1. Cooking the items that can be cooked in advance for Christmas Day.
2. Making prep lists for the big day itself.
Yesterday we kicked off the weekend by making potage garbure which is a French vegetable soup where first you render some pork fat, then sweat your aromatics and then toss in stock, chopped tomatoes (since it's winter I used canned) potatoes and cabbage. Simmer for a while and then puree. Pretty happy with the way that turned out, especially since the pork fat was rendered off my home made pancetta (which also turned out very well, I'm happy to report) and the stock was the last of the batch I made using of the Thanksgiving turkey carcass. Now we have about 3 quarts of lunches and dinners hanging out in the fridge, though we may serve some on Christmas if we're running short of food (unlikely that that will happen, but you never know).
Today we've already completed 4 pounds of Swedish meatballs and the accompanying gravy. Next up I'm making pernil using a small (2 pound with the bone in) pork shoulder for tonight's dinner (and counting on leftovers for lunch tomorrow). Once the pork is in the oven we start the new "mystery" chicken dish that I've added to the Christmas menu, and it's a dish that will really benefit from being cooked ahead and resting in the fridge for a few days.
In between we'll be writing lists of everything we'll be serving and posting them on the pantry door so everything gets served in order. A bit of control-freakism? Maybe, but better than being annoyed by opening the fridge at the end of the night and finding that you forgot to serve a giant bowl of salad or that the meatballs never made it into the crock pot for reheating. Or worse, having guests arrive and you realize you never prepped the appetizer platters or made the dressing for the salad.
The clock is running. Back to work.
1. Cooking the items that can be cooked in advance for Christmas Day.
2. Making prep lists for the big day itself.
Yesterday we kicked off the weekend by making potage garbure which is a French vegetable soup where first you render some pork fat, then sweat your aromatics and then toss in stock, chopped tomatoes (since it's winter I used canned) potatoes and cabbage. Simmer for a while and then puree. Pretty happy with the way that turned out, especially since the pork fat was rendered off my home made pancetta (which also turned out very well, I'm happy to report) and the stock was the last of the batch I made using of the Thanksgiving turkey carcass. Now we have about 3 quarts of lunches and dinners hanging out in the fridge, though we may serve some on Christmas if we're running short of food (unlikely that that will happen, but you never know).
Today we've already completed 4 pounds of Swedish meatballs and the accompanying gravy. Next up I'm making pernil using a small (2 pound with the bone in) pork shoulder for tonight's dinner (and counting on leftovers for lunch tomorrow). Once the pork is in the oven we start the new "mystery" chicken dish that I've added to the Christmas menu, and it's a dish that will really benefit from being cooked ahead and resting in the fridge for a few days.
In between we'll be writing lists of everything we'll be serving and posting them on the pantry door so everything gets served in order. A bit of control-freakism? Maybe, but better than being annoyed by opening the fridge at the end of the night and finding that you forgot to serve a giant bowl of salad or that the meatballs never made it into the crock pot for reheating. Or worse, having guests arrive and you realize you never prepped the appetizer platters or made the dressing for the salad.
The clock is running. Back to work.
Comments
peeper....aka prez