As October draws to a close it’s time to start thinking about the rest of the holidays. What holidays do you celebrate and how do you celebrate them? At our house Thanksgiving means lots of food and lots of company. December means baking, lots and lots of baking. The beginning of November I start making lists. I figure out what I’m making for each holiday and start cleaning out the pantry to make room for all the stuff I’m going to have to purchase.
I make a list of each recipe and then a shopping list, what do I need, what do I have. Cleaning out the pantry gives me a better idea of what staples I have enough of and what I’m going to need to buy more of, it also makes from for all the stuff I need. If I don’t do this the pantry will be a total mess because I will wind up just shoving everything in and thinking I’ll organize it later. It’s much easier if I start with an organized pantry.
Once the pantry it done it’s time to pull out the baking dishes that I only use for the holidays and wash them. Everything seems to get dusty after a year of non use. Next I need to look at my storage containers. I usually make the cookie dough ahead of time and freeze it. Do I have enough storage bags? Do I have enough containers for all the goodies after they are made? I also like to have containers to give away so that I can share all the homemade goodies with my friends and family.
Doing just these few things makes holiday cooking and baking easier. No last minute trips to the store because I forgot something. With everything neatly organized and ready I can breeze through preparation, cooking or baking and storage. It makes the holidays just a little less hectic.