How To Plan the Perfect Holiday Menu

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive from home cooks is, “How do you get the entire meal on the table at the same time?” This indeed is a bit of a challenge and one of the most important aspects of holiday entertaining. With a few helpful hints and a little practice, you will be able to serve the perfect holiday meal with less time and stress in the kitchen and more time to enjoy your guests.

The first thing you want to think about when planning your holiday menu is how many courses you’d like to have and what beverages you will be providing. A good rule of thumb for any holiday menu is to serve two appetizers, a salad or soup, a main course with two sides and a few different desserts. Mix and match rich dishes with light and fresh dishes. Combine interesting, contrasting colors and textures. Feel free to also offer an assortment of breads. Try to pick flatbreads, breadsticks, and rolls that do not require heating. This will save you room in the oven for your other dishes.

Consider staying in your comfort zone. You should enjoy yourself while preparing your favorite dishes. Prepare items that you know you can make and save the more difficult recipes for when you have more relaxed time. Round out your menu, when possible with items that can be store bought.

Keep in mind all of your resources for your dinner. Check your refrigerator and freezer space. If you know you will be hosting a large gathering, start to clear out the fridge a week before, that way you have plenty of room for your make-ahead dishes and anything that has to be kept refrigerated before serving. Also, make sure that your oven can hold everything that needs to be reheated. Be sure that you have enough serving dishes and the right number of dishes and flatware.

Make a schedule so you know what order you will prepare the dishes in on the day they are being served. If you will need to defrost anything, that should be highlighted and the time for defrosting properly should be noted. If dishes need to be baked ahead, plan for those times as well. Some dishes can be par-baked. That means to bake them partially, then finish baking them before they are served. This will save valuable oven space and time on your dinner day.

Choosing The Menu - The two appetizers (one hot and one cold) are a good way to get the meal started as this will provide your guests with something to hold them over until the main course is on the table. Having a cold appetizer, such as a vegetable platter with dips, cheese board with fruit, olives and crackers or even a room temperature option such as an onion tart or bruschetta, will save valuable oven space and can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator. There are so many make-ahead hot appetizer choices like spinach pies, crostini, fondues, and baked brie. Prepping them ahead of time and heating them at the last minute should provide a simple, but elegant addition to your meal. Appetizers give you time to finish warming the soup or plating the salad as well as getting the main dishes into the oven for reheating.

The first course, a soup or salad, should be made well in advance so all you have to do is bring it to room temperature, serve it chilled, or in the case of a soup, heat it on the stove at the last minute. Keep in mind that if you have only one oven, serving a soup like French Onion, where you would have to broil the cheese on top before serving, might not be a great choice. Choose a soup that can be made well ahead of time and reheated on the stovetop. As your serving your first course, your main course and side dishes should be warming. Double ovens and warming ovens, some of the newest kitchen essentials make this easy since you can set different warming temperatures.

The main course should be something that is made ahead and kept warm, especially if you are serving a crowd. A roast, turkey, ham, stew or even a casserole-like dish such as lasagna would all be good choices. If you have an oven-based main course, the remainder of the meal comes together very fast. Keep in mind that when you make a roast or a turkey, the meat needs to stand for at least 20 minutes to allow the juices to redistribute back into the meat before cutting. This buys you a bunch of time to heat the side dishes.

I prefer to serve two sides to give my guests a choice, especially if some like vegetables and some don’t. One side would be something starchy such as mashed or baked potatoes, a rice or grain dish or an interesting stuffing or baked pasta. These can be made a day ahead and reheated right before serving. Fresh pasta while it is impressive to serve, requires a good bit of juggling pots and sauces, and a lot of plates. Too much stress when you have other dishes that need to get done. Save this option for a smaller group or another less formal occasion.

The other side dish should be a vegetable dish that everyone would like. Again, the recipe should be one that can be made ahead and reheated. Good suggestions for a vegetable dish are to make any vegetables that do not wilt easily or to prepare a vegetable gratin dish. This is typically a layered dish with cheeses and cream. It can be prepped up to the point of cooking, set aside and baked right before serving (while those appetizers and soups are being served).
Once the main meal is served and you’ve taken time to clear the table, you can get the coffee pot going and set out any of your desserts. Sometimes, I find that dessert isn’t served until hours later when everyone starts to get hungry again. If you like to bake, certainly make your pies and cakes the day before and reheat before serving. If on the other hand, you’ve made all your other dishes, treat yourself to something special at your local bakery, or have your guests bring desserts. You should remind them, though, that you don’t want anything that needs to be refrigerated unless you know you will have room. Have you ever seen an empty refrigerator during a holiday meal preparation?

The holidays are a wonderful time of year to celebrate and share your favorite family dishes. The instant feedback and gratification you receive from your guests makes all the preparation worthwhile. Incorporating many of these tips into your menu this year will assure you have a relaxing and enjoyable feast!

The Trimmings - Never Enough Leftovers

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is upon us once again. The deluge of turkey information that I received through various media this year is quite amazing. With the increased interest in home cooking, every publisher out there is riding the tails of this holiday season's first festive meal preparation.

Rather than go into a littany of tips and hints on how to buy and cook the perfect turkey which you can easily obtain just by typing in "turkey" in google, I would rather share with you some really fast, but delicious recipes for side dishes. Let's be honest, who really wants all that turkey? It's the trimmings that there's never enough leftovers for. Did you ever see a recipe for leftover maple streusel sweet potatoes? Or, leftover stuffing? No, of course not!

So, here they are. I hope you enjoy them as much as my family does. You might want to make extra because really, there is never enough of the sides leftover for lunch the next day!

Creamy Maple Crusted Sweet Potatoes

6 Cups Sweet Potatoes, hot mashed (about 4 pounds)
3/4 Cup Half and Half
3 Tablespoons Butter, softened
2 Tablespoons honey
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/8 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cumin
Cooking Spray
1/2 Cup Packed Brown Sugar

Preheat oven to 400°F. Bake sweet potatoes for about 30 to 40 minutes or until soft. Let cool slightly and then cut in half and scoop out potato. Mash the potatoes first, to make it easier to blend with the other ingredients.

Combine the mashed potatoes with the next ingredients through cumin in a bowl. Spoon potato mixture into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle 1/2 cup brown sugar evenly over top. Broil 2 minutes or until sugar melts. Let stand until melted sugar hardens (about 5 minutes).

Apple, Sausage and Fennel Stuffing

6 sweet Italian sausage links, casings removed
1 package, corn bread stuffing mix
2 Tbs. Unsalted Butter
10 Shallots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
1 Fennel Bulb, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 stalk Celery, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 1/2 Cups Toasted Walnuts, coarsely chopped
2 tart Apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch dice
Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper, to taste
1/2 Tsp. Finely Ground Coriander
2 Tsp. Fresh Thyme, chopped
2 Tsp. Fresh Sage, chopped
1 Cup Golden Raisins
3 Cups Milk (3 to 4)


Crumble the sausage links into a large sauté pan and cook until sausage is brown; breaking up the bits as you stir the pieces. With a slotted spoon, remove the sausage and drain all but 2 tablespoons of the rendered sausage fat.

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking dish.

In the same sauté pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the shallots and sauté, stirring occasionally, until tender and golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Add the fennel, celery, walnuts and apples and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the fennel is tender, 3 to 4 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and add the sausage. Mix well.

In a large bowl, combine the cornbread stuffing mix and the sausage mixture. Add the coriander, thyme, sage, raisins and the 3 cups milk and stir gently to mix. Let stand, stirring occasionally, until the milk is absorbed, about 30 minutes. If the stuffing seems dry, add more milk as needed. Adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper.

Transfer the stuffing to the prepared baking dish and bake until browned and crispy, about 1 hour.