Food & Wine Discoveries: Time Saving Holiday Entertaining How To's and Ideas

Timing is everything. Prepare to feast. This is the season of the senses. Get cooking for the holidays. It's time to get active and get something cooking! Be sure to shop at your local favourites and enjoy our great Canadian restaurants and wine regions.

Time Saving Holiday Entertaining How To’s & Ideas

Let’s give a toast to tradition!

Share the joy of holiday baking. Send out a few email invitations and share in the fun of baking together for the holidays with friends and family.

Surprise everyone with bright fresh recipes using the same traditional ideas. Bon Appetit suggests updating your sides. Serve green beans and walnuts with lemon vinaigrette. Add cranberries to the rolls and new spices to the gravy and stuffing.

Delegate the big meal tasks. Ask someone to bring dessert, someone to set the table, someone to pour the wine, someone to clear the table, someone to load the dishwasher and someone to do the rest of the dishes in the morning.

Dress up your holiday table. Give a gift from your kitchen with jars of homemade jams, jellies and preserves. No time to do it yourself? Then why not find a local farm and/or stores who specialize in holiday gifts, decorations and gourmet baking.

Our local favourite is Springridge Farm and their bakers will be busy making gingerbread and shortbread cookies, fruit pies and tarts for the holiday season. Springridge Farm also has everything you need for Christmas entertaining: dips, sauces, spreads, jams and made to order gift baskets for everyone on your list! Take a look at Springridge Farm’s website to see why we keep going back year after year.

Entertaining dos and don’ts. To ensure everything is ready at the same time, use recipes of the stove top kind. Do as much of the prep work in advance and find recipes you can make completely or almost a few days before or a week before.

Foodie Friendly. Look for books with food and wine matches as well as Foodie Friendly recipes. Time is of the essence today so anything that showcases time saving tricks of the trade will be appreciated.

For your home and the hostess. Set the stage for the celebration, and order a holiday bouquet or centerpiece from your local florist.

For your home and the host. Always ask their age. Aged to perfection. Whisky by the numbers.

Holiday Hosting Responsibilities. Take a look at Legal to ensure you know what a host’s responsibilities are.

Host a New Year’s Eve Party and make it potluck. Invite your favourite radio station into your home to be the master of ceremonies.

Make collecting food donations for the foodbank part of your office and home entertaining routine. All sizes of donations are welcome.

Chatelaine’s December Issue features Shortcut Christmas Dinner. “We’ve found a way to recreate all your holiday favourites in half the time without sacrificing an ounce of taste.” And from their Cooking Class section, Perfect Prime Rib.

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