How do you plan full holiday meals?

[Cat]

Ok, so I am very new to cooking, but I was stressed enough getting all the ingredients for my soup I'm making tomorrow. I had to go to 3 stores to get the ingredients, all that for one appetizer!

I cannot fathom having to plan a full meal for several people...more power to anyone who does

[BookstoreEscapee]

This is why my family has people bring stuff. We do Thanksgiving at my aunt's, and the last couple years my mom has brought the mashed potatoes. Other people bring veggies, desserts, etc. My aunt and uncle do the turkey, and a few other things, so they still have the bulk of it, but not all of it. Christmas is at a different aunt's, and it's much the same arrangement.

[AnqeiicDemise]

I like to do things in stages. Like, desserts and stuff get done two days before the big event. The main event, like the turkey/ham/chicken whatever, I usually start a day or two before depending on what I am doing. For exmample, if I am marinating the protein, then I'll start the marinating process two days before the event, then start cooking the day before. I then always cook the protein half way, then cool it and put it in the fridge.

I get my mis en place ready for the next day, like, cut and prepare my vegetables/ make sauces, etc.

The day of the event, I then pop the protein into the oven and let it be while I prepare the side dishes/salad etc. By the time I'm done with everything else, the turkey/ham/chicken/whathave you is then finished.

I then sucker my husband to do the serving beause by that time, I am done.

-cough-

I lie, I take over the plating too. -.-

[Cat]

LOL

If I ever host a holiday party....it's def gonna be potluck

[AnqeiicDemise]

LOL

If I ever host a holiday party....it's def gonna be potluck

It certainly is the smart thing to do, but I love cooking. I clean as I go so I never have a huge mess to deal with. The thing I do hate having to deal with though? The dishes that pop up afterward... but thankfully, I have a friend or family member that decides to be nice and washes for me as a Thank You for cooking.

[MaggieTheCat]

I must have a knack for hosting, because I've done two relatively big parties since I moved in with my husband, one for his birthday this summer, and one for Thanksgiving. For both, I was feeding 7-8 people and had made a main dish plus several side dishes plus dessert.

When I hosted Thanksgiving, I had everything planned out about 2 weeks ahead, including a schedule of what time I would have to start each dish in order to have everything ready by 4:30 when I was planning on serving dinner. First thing though was to pick which dishes I was going to make, and then write out a complete list of all the ingredients that I would need for each dish. Then double-check my pantry to make sure I had the stuff I thought I had and make a shopping list for everything else that I didn't have. I didn't really have any trouble with not finding something that I needed...if I had, I would have just skipped that ingredient or substituted something else.

Then, like I said, I made a schedule of when to start each dish. I also made a list of things to do/make the day before the big dinner that I could do ahead of time to save time on turkey day. I had everything planned down pretty much to the hour, from getting up at 7:15am so I could get the turkey prepped, to peeling the potatoes at 3:00 to get them ready for boiling.

It was a lot of work but I enjoyed it. Like I said, maybe I just have a knack for it. I also make lunch most Sundays for our D&D group so I have some experience in feeding smaller crowds. And every dish that I made for Thanksgiving save the turkey, I've made before, so I knew how to prep for it, how to make it, how much time it would take, etc, which helps a lot.

[42_42_42]

I plan the menu out, then list under each item what I need to make that item. I then check off things I already have. What's left is the grocery list. Fortunately, the grocery store we shop at carries just about everything we would need for most dishes. For more exotic stuff, we do go to specialty stores, but we have to drive an hour to get to them, so we only go a couple times a year and we stock up. I'm curious what you are making, OP, that you had to go to 3 stores...was it because places were running out of popular ingredients?

[Sliceanddice]

my philosphy for big holiday meals is if you are hosting you are responible for an appeitizer a main course with a 1 side dish and one desert and you left everyone else bring one thing of their own. it makes for less stress, much food and lots of different tastes.

you could do the good eats christmas feast. that looks kind of easy and yummy.

[Kogarashi]

Hubby and I usually plan out what dishes are going into each (simple) meal when we do the bi-weekly menus, and write down ingredients we still need on the shopping list. That's just standard practice for us.

For Christmas, since we are having guests over, we did things a little more thoroughly. First we made a list of what we wanted for the two meals plus Christmas breakfast. Then, one by one, we went through naming the ingredients we needed and making note of what wasn't in our pantry to put on the shopping list. We deliberately planned something simple yet still elegant enough for Christmas Eve, since Christmas Day is getting the big ol' ham dinner.

Then, armed with the shopping list, I planned out which stores I would need to hit for the items so I could do the least amount of driving and running around. Thankfully, like 42_42_42, the grocery store we shop at has 99% of the ingredients we usually need for what we cook, and it's simple enough to find a local store that carries the last 1%.

For example, this year our Christmas Eve dinner is going to be a squash soup recipe my mom gave us that is really tasty yet quite simple. We're planning a nice salad to go with it, plus crescent rolls. The only ingredients we couldn't get at our regular store were the squash, which my mother provided but which we could also get at the pricier grocery that has a better produce selection, and the dried cranberries for the salad--technically we could get those at our regular store too, but we get a better deal on them at the whole foods place from the bulk bins.

Christmas Day dinner is ham, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, jello, and rolls. We got the ham from Sam's Club, and everything else came from our regular store. It's mostly simple fare, but we're dressing it up in our nicer serving dishes to make up for it.

I would treat fancy appetizers much the same way for a proper party. Plan out in detail what everything needs, then make a list of which stores I have to hit to get the ingredients. Space it out enough that I'm not rushing the morning of to obtain everything, and be ready to make substitutions where something just isn't feasible.

Best of luck with your cooking!

[lordlundar]

Wait, plan? You guys plan your dinners? We just prep for the entree and our extended family brings in the other stuff.

(hey, it's not like we can stop them, and we have tried)

[Red_Dazes]

...This is the first year I have planned out a holiday dinner... usually we just have some form of meat and some form of veggies.... that I can cook in under an hour.

...The trick, I have found, Is planning. -What am I cooking? When do I need it done by? How long does each thing take to cook? So when Do I need to start? Ingredients? prep time? etc.

...I tell ya. Pain in the kiester.