Holiday Food Preparation Tips...

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Thanksgiving is this week, here in the US and Christmas is not too far after that. I thought I would share a food preparation tip that will save your sanity during the holidays.

If you are hosting the meal for family and friends, you know how crazy things can get. Here's what helped me for years when getting things ready the night before...



Before I begin, the first and most IMPORTANT thing to do...make lists.

• guest
• menu
• grocery
• time temperature list...when food goes in the oven and for how long

Now that you have all your lists done, pull out all your serving dishes and platters.

Write what will go in that serving dish on a post-it note.




This will save you from scrambling around your kitchen searching for dishes to serve the food in as they come off the stove.

Also helps to have the casserole dishes ready to go the night before when you are getting the food prepared for the oven.


Another important tip is find all your serving spoons or utensils. If you don't have enough, you can always buy the plastic kind.


I have most all of the holidays at our house and we usually have between 30-40 people.

To make my life easier, I have invested in buffet servers. I bought mine at Job Lot...a local discount store. They do sell them every where though...just watch your prices.

Advantage for this system...

• heat up all your vegetables and side dishes
• put the food in aluminum pans and cover with foil.
• food keeps hot while you are cooking other things on your stove or in your oven...frees up stove space
• keep putting all the hot food in the hot buffet servers and the last thing that needs to be done is carve the turkey.
• when the turkey is carved, the food is all set and ready to go...no craziness!!

The first wire rack, on the left in the picture below, is what holds the 2 sterno cups. You light the sterno cups and the flame last for hours and hours.

The middle picture is the larger deep aluminum pan that goes in first. That holds the hot water. I reuse these pan a few times. TIP...put HOT water in the base pan, so it doesn't take too long to heat up

The last picture on the right is the food step up. The 2 shallow pans rest, hovering over the hot water pans (that stays hot from the sterno cups). This keeps the food hot for a very long time.

You can either have 2 small pans or one large one.


I don't serve the food on my coffee table (picture below), but the light was better in here this morning for the picture!! LOL

The wire racks were $3.99 each

The deeper water pans $1.00-$2.00

Smaller food pans 50 cents each and perfect to wrap up and store in the refrigerator after dinner.

Sterno cups 79 cents

Well worth it for me!!


If you have the time and the space a few days before your holiday party, get as much ready as possible...dishes, silverware, napkins, tables, chairs etc. It will really help keep you organized and the day will go more smoothly.

Preparation ahead of time is the key to a stress free holiday dinner or party!!

Have a great day,
~Karen~