Here are a few things that help make kitchen time a little easier. If you have some things you would like to share, please add them in the comment section.
Keep water from boiling over
I am so tired of having my potatoes boil over. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time to watch them until they come to a boil. If you’ll put just a few drops of oil in the water, it keeps that from happening. This works for cooking pasta too.
Thicken soups and stews
Oatmeal, red lentils, instant refried beans or instant hummus, mashed potatoes, or pureeing some of a stew or soup, all work well to create thickness.
Avoid “weeping”
Keep ham salad, turkey salad, tuna salad, chicken salad, etc. from “weeping” by adding a little instant oatmeal to the mix. If you forget to do it when you mix the salad, and you notice liquid forming as it sits in the fridge, pour off the liquid and add the oatmeal.
Store open cream cheese
Keep open cream cheese from molding by just storing it in the original foil package. Make sure the foil is folded around the cream cheese, covering it completely. It just works. Discard the cardboard box. Do not put the cream cheese in plastic wrap or a plastic bag, because it molds really quickly that way.
If you start getting really stressed, keep things simple. There are lots of no cook nibbles that are great to keep around, like olives, cheese, and nuts. As for meals, most of us are concerned we won’t have enough (I think it’s genetic for Italians). Don’t cook for 50, unless of course you are feeding 50! Meat and 2 sides is dinner. The definition of a holiday is, “a day on which one is exempt from work.” That includes you.