The Christmas Kitchen

Can the Christmas Kitchen be the Christmas Kitchen with just one person in it?

Absolutely.

But I believe the Christmas Kitchen really comes to life in all its festive glory when many hands share the work . . . and the fun.

 There’s just something about pitching in together that brings the holidays alive. Even better, cooking together makes preparing for the holidays a lot less stressful.

This is actually the way people used to prepare for holiday meal-making and gifts and entertaining. But things are different now, with many of us ensconced in our single-family dwellings, dishing up meals for our single families . . . or maybe just for ourselves. We’re busy people and lonely cooks, and I believe that’s one reason the holidays can feel like a burden.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Why not rediscover the fun of gathering in the Christmas Kitchen by scheduling a time to share the cooking or what you’ve cooked with friends, enjoying your time together while stocking your freezers with delicious food for the holidays?

One way to do this is to plan a food exchange—a gathering where participants bring and share precooked goodies but spend most of the time enjoying one another and the season. A traditional cookie exchange is one example of this kind of gathering. Everybody goes home with multiple dozens of different cookies for holiday gift giving, entertaining, and sneaking from the freezer.

An even better idea, to my mind, is to set aside several hours—or a whole day—for a cooking party. I’ve done this for years, during the holidays and at other times. Sometimes it’s a group of old friends—we just dive in and have fun doing together what we would otherwise be doing all by ourselves. Sometimes it’s a teaching session for young women who lack experience in the kitchen. Sometimes it’s my own kids and their friends.

However they’re configured, these cooking get-togethers are always a highlight of my holidays. And they keep on paying benefits through the season as we all take advantage of the wonderful, home-cooked meals and goodies we’ve made together and stored away.

How to get started:

Christmas Rolls from The Christmas Kitchen

• Match the number of cooks to the size of the kitchen. A large kitchen may be able to handle four or even five friends, a small kitchen only two. The friend with the largest kitchen should be the host or hostess.

• Expand prepping possibilities by bringing in folding tables, using an outside grill (even in winter), and sharing crockery cookers, pressure cookers, food processors, and stockpots.

• If possible, hire a babysitter so you can concentrate on cooking and enjoy socializing without little ones underfoot. Consider it an investment in a peaceful holiday.

• Decide in advance what dishes be cooked and in what quantities. It’s important to circulate all the recipes among participants to check on family preferences, food allergies, and such. Make sure everybody has the recipes and agrees on what to bring.

• Depending on how well equipped the host kitchen is, guests may need to bring knives, cutting boards, pots, mixing bowls, and specialty equipment such as a food processor. This is another thing to agree on in advance.

• It helps to have some large bowls for mixing lots of ingredients. If none are available, a roasting pan or stockpot will do.

• Every participant should bring the necessary ingredients to cook for his or her family, extra pots or pans or appliances (if appropriate), and containers for cooking and/or freezing the resulting dishes. Put out permanent markers and labels to write the name of the dish, the date, and—very important!—reheating/cooking instructions. You can use the markers to write directly on freezer bags or tape the labels on reusable dishes. (Be sure to stick them down well so they don’t fall off.) 

• For maximum efficiency, go through all the recipes ahead of time and group similar tasks. For instance, if you’ll need a total of twelve cups of chopped onions for all the recipes, plan to chop them all at once.

• Set out snacks and drinks in a special area—and don’t forget to take breaks to enjoy one another and taste what you’re cooking. This is a party!

• Consider making an extra set of entrees or meals and giving them as a gift (from the whole group) to a single mom, new parents, your pastor’s family, or a senior-citizen friend.

• Plenty of recipes throughout this book adapt beautifully to make-ahead merrymaking. In addition to the ones in this chapter, try Mama Mia’s Marinara (chapter 4—freeze flat in zippered bags), French Apple Cake (chapter 7—freeze without sauce), Coconut Angel Cupcakes (chapter 8—freeze unfrosted), Feliz Navidad Tortilla Soup (chapter 10—freeze flat in bags or fill inexpensive lidded containers), and My Mama’s Chocolate Cake (chapter 11—freeze layers and thaw before decorating).

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