This is going to be a busy week for most of us. I thought it might be helpful to some if I shared some of the daily tasks I have on my lists over the next few days.
Today’s list sounds much more difficult than it really is. I truly spend a large part of the day reading, watching movies and napping. Hubby usually has most if not all of the day off, so the boys are in and out doing their thing. I spend well less than 2 hours in the morning and another hour broken apart throughout the rest of the day.
Wednesday – To Do
Normal daily chores – Sort the dirty cloths and start one load of laundry, check the daily mail, wash the dishes, and clear the counters and table as needed.
Take apart the extra turkey breast. (I hate this job. To me there are very few things more gross than messing around with a whole cooked turkey/chicken. But it is a very frugal addition to anyone’s culinary skills. If done correctly they give lots of meat and broths that can be used for several meals.) I put the meat into an airtight container in the refrigerator. I go ahead and can the broth and add it to the pantry. If you want to save the broth but do not want to can it, make sure you have some pitchers or containers that will fit in your refrigerator.
Move the laundry to the dryer.
The last of the early food prep. I can go ahead and make the desserts. There are some bread doughs I can make up today and bake tomorrow. There are a couple other recipe ingredients I can early prep on a list I have already made specifically for today. Where possible I go ahead and make mini mixes of dry and wet ingredients for the few remaining recipes and keep them well labeled in baggies or containers.
Fold and put away the laundry.
Stage cooking. I get out pans, spoons, measuring cups, etc. and make out sticky notes labeling what dish each set is for. I don’t know if it is just our family, a southern thing or a mountain thing, but cooking is as much of the festivities as the eating. I let them know when we will be eating, and every year everyone comes extremely early. When other women start coming into the kitchen things can get confusing really quickly.
Stage the buffet. I set out all of the serving pieces and spoons again using sticky notes to label them.
Prep ‘Monkey Bread’ for breakfast. This is an easy thing I do every year for Thanksgiving and for Christmas. I do not think I have ever measured any of the ingredients, because it is that easy of a recipe.
- I get out the Bundt pans and toss in enough pecans to cover the bottom.
- I add lots of small squares of butter -
- and brown sugar mixed with a bit of cinnamon to cover all of the pecans.
- I get another bowl and mix up more cinnamon and brown sugar.
- I crack open four to six cans of the cheapest flaky biscuits I can find one at a time.
- I tear up the dough and roll into small balls which get rolled into the cinnamon sugar mix until covered.
- The covered balls get tossed into the pans until each pan is half full.
- Any remaining mix gets divided between the two pans.
- More butter squares and pecans are tossed on top.
I cover the pans with wrap and stack them in the refrigerator. When baked, the pecans toast, the dough puffs up, and the rest of the ingredients make a simple syrup with a touch of cinnamon.
Clean any dirty dishes. Wash, dry and put away/out as needed.
Set the tables.
Nightly pickup or reset as needed.
Start green beans in the medium crock pot to cook overnight. I prefer steamed green beans or a green bean casserole. But I have been vetoed. One layer of cut green beans, two pieces of bacon. Repeat until the crock is shy of full. Add water or broth to almost cover. Stir once in the morning.
Start the cider. Put the dry ingredients into the cider pot. Layout the knife and the cutting board next to the cider pot.
Review the schedule for tomorrow.
photo credit: David Zellaby
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