Time Saving Tips for Holiday Entertaining Return Home
- Serving Soup at a dinner party? Use a crock pot to keep the soup warm. Pour cold soup into a cold crock pot and turn temperature to low or high depending on how much time until it will be served. Soup can be placed in crock pot up to 4 hours before serving. This allows you to wash the pot in advance and the soup is ready whenever you are.
- Serving soup at a buffet? Pour the cold soup into a cold crock pot and turn temperature to low or high depending on how much time until it will be served. Place mugs or Styrofoam cups and a ladle around the crock pot for guests to serve themselves from the buffet and frees you up.
- Serving tea or coffee after a dinner party? Prepare coffee and tea in advance and keep piping hot for up to 8 hours in a simple thermos carafe. Here's how: Purchase two 1.8 liter thermos carafes from a store like Marshalls, TJMaxx or Kohls, The carafes keep water or coffee hot for at least 8 hours. Before the dinner party boil water or use your coffee maker to make hot water and pour it into the carafe. Make coffee and pour it into your other carafe. After dinner there is no need to start making coffee or tea, both are piping hot and ready to serve and you don't even have to leave the table.
- Serving tea or coffee at a buffet? Set up your carafes in advance and allow guest to serve themselves. ( If someone in your family has a cold or flu, make a carafe of tea or soup to keep by their bed; it will stay hot for 8 hours and they can help themselves to tea or soup as needed.)
- Need a really quick soup recipe? This one is almost ridiculous, but it tastes great! Take a jar of Vegetable juice ( like V-8 juice) and heat it up. It tastes like tomato soup!! Really!! ( and it is very low calorie too) If you want to be more impressive, add cooked brown rice, chopped hard boiled egg, or chopped cilantro before heating.
- Need to boil eggs? They will be easier to peel if you add a pinch of salt to the water , bring to a boil and then shut off the heat, cover the pot and allow eggs to steam for 10 minutes. Rinse with cold water and peel.
- Like to cook with wine? When you have leftover wine, freeze it in ice cube trays. This makes it easy to use for future cooking.
- Want to keep your trash can smelling fresh? Place a laundry sheet ( like bounce) at the bottom of the wastebasket
- Want to save time at your next party? Place an extra unopened garbage bag under the open garbage bag in your wastebaskets. When you empty your wastebasket, there is another one already there for you to open right up. Great time saver at parties!
- Want to peel garlic quickly. Method one- place in microwave for 15 seconds, skin peels right off or crush the garlic with wide knife, skin peels right off.
- Need to clean the blender quickly? Fill the blender with 3/4 water and 1 drop liquid detergent and blend. It cleans itself. Rinse well
Other Time Saving Tips
- Want an easy to clean spoon from the honey jar? Coat the spoon with cooking spray first!
- Burn food in a pot or pan? Cover burned area with baking soda and water. Soak overnight.
- Need to clean a narrow vase or thermos quickly? Fill with water, drop in 2 Alka seltzer tablets; allow to sit for 10 minutes, swoosh and rinse
- Need to clean the toilets before company? drop un 2 Alka seltzer tablets and allow to sit 25 minutes and flush
- Need to open a clogged drain? drop 3 alka seltzer tablets down the drain and then a cup of vinegar. Wait a few minutes and run the hot water.
- Does tomato sauce stain your plastic storage containers? Spray the containers with cooking spray first to prevent the containers from discoloring.
- Want to know if your raw eggs are still fresh? Make a bowl of cold salty water. Place the egg in the water. It should sink. If it floats to the top, its not fresh!
- Does your jelly jar get messy? Put the jelly into a squeeze bottle.
- Want to lower the fat content when baking? Substitute applesauce for the oil. Works great!
- Want to keep your potatoes from growing buds? Place an apple in the bag with them.
