As you may or may not have noticed, I have no problem cutting corners when it seems appropriate. My time is valuable, and as much as I love food, I love my down time even more.
Therefore, on days where I'll be preparing massive amounts of food (i.e. Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve), I admit to taking a shortcut or two, especially if it saves me money. Hell, I'll even admit to liking Stove-Top more than homemade dressing.The one thing I refuse to do the easy way on days like that, regardless of time or cost, is nutmeg. I love freshly grated nutmeg. The pre-grated stuff from the store is fine, but for big meals, I grate my own. Always.
What is your one thing you refuse to do without on big-meal holidays?
Homemade Rolls. Definitely. I cannot tell you how utterly disappointing it is to go to someone's house for a holiday meal, only to have them open up a bag of bland, stale, white, grocery store rolls. If I know someone is going to "buy" rolls, I insist on bringing them as my contribution just so I can have the good homemade kind to dip in my turkey gravy.
ReplyDeleteoh- I agree with the homemade rolls- but my inlaws always made the fake pototo pearls from the church cannery. You have to have real potatoes- this year, I am incharge of peeling them all and darren has to cook them all. I also made all the roll yesterday. that was a lot of work.
ReplyDeleteA. I didn't even know you could buy fresh nutmeg and grate it. Now I'm curious...
ReplyDeleteB. I despise cake with frosting from a can. Frosting is so easy and makes a cake so much better from scratch!
Welcome back!
ReplyDeleteI'm Jewish, so latkes (potato pancakes) are usually on the table for holidays. I've made mine from a box the past few times, but won't ever do it again. Potato anything shouldn't come out of a box.
Grating fresh nutmeg is a great idea. I bought the ground stuff and it's losing it's oomph as I type this. Bleh.
Soop, I've only ever made latkes from a box. Perhaps you have a recipe to share?
ReplyDeletesorry I didn't respond earlier! I don't have a recipe I've tried yet, buuut, I'd start with this one: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/12/potato-pancakes-even-better/
ReplyDelete