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Cooking Thanksgiving and holiday dinners is a daunting prospect. Expectations are high, stress levels are high, and unfortunately the bill for preparing the dinner can be pretty high as well. Here are some ideas for how to rein in the costs of the big event, and still deliver a delicious and healthy meal that will make everyone happy.
1. Be Organized
Sit down and plan the whole meal in advance. For me, this is the crucial thing to do before an important dinner party, no matter what the occasion. Decide how many courses you are going to serve. Do you need appetizers? Do you want to serve soup? Do you want a salad course? Do you need a vegetarian main dish? Once you have decided on your menu, write it out in order of serving, and beside the name of each dish write down the source. Trust me, after you have looked at 20 websites and ten cookbooks and found the perfect starter, you'll never remember where you found it.
Choosing a menu early is a valuable task because you can see the number of items on your list and decide if you are preparing too little or too much without the pressure of the holiday deadline. If you decide at the last minute that you need another course or vegetable dish, you are going to end up spending much more just to get it done.
2. Make a Shopping List
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| Photos Courtesy of Kelly Rossiter |
Once you have determined the menu, make a complete shopping list of the items you need and include the amounts. I have stood in the grocery store many a time with my party shopping list and ended up buying more of an ingredient than I needed because I neglected to indicate the amount required and I didn't want to be caught short. Remember to check your pantry for staple items before your shop. There's nothing more frustrating than discovering that you are half way through a recipe and you don't have enough flour or whatever.
This strategy may seem like more work, but in the long run it pays off. First of all, you can relax a bit, knowing that you have a menu and shopping list in hand, but more importantly being organized is the first step to saving you money and time. No last minute shopping, no expensive substitutions, and no panic buying which always costs you more.
3. Keep it Simple
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Don't let yourself get bogged down with complicated recipes that have all kinds of expensive ingredients. This is not the time to crack open The French Laundry Cookbook and have a whirl. Make things you know, make things you and your family love. When I have a dinner party I might make one or two things that are new to me, but otherwise I make things that I know work.
4. Keep it Seasonal
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I have a running argument with my mother-in-law about asparagus. I buy asparagus in the spring, when it is in season and when the season is over, that's it until next year. She buys it all year long no matter where it comes from. It seems to me that the fruits and vegetables themselves give you the clue as to when you should eat them. Asparagus, ramps, fiddleheads, and sprouts are all light green in colour and light in texture and the perfect earthy flavour for the opening up of spring. Summer gives us soft and bright fruits and vegetables many with intense sunny flavours such as summer squash, strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes and lettuce. Autumn gives us dense and heavy fruits and vegetables to match the brilliant foliage such as pumpkins, apples, squash, kale and beets. So forget the expensive out of season fruits and vegetables that are flown in from far flung places and focus on what is fresh and available right now.
5. Keep it Local
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You don't need ingredients from around the world to make a fabulous dinner. Hey, it's Thanksgiving. Did your forefathers have pineapples or truffles in New England? I buy all of my vegetables seasonally and locally because they taste better. I prefer to eat vegetables that haven't been trucked half way across the continent before they were ready. I think there is something to that idea of terroir, so I feel like I get the flavour of Ontario with every Brussels sprout, beet or parsnip I eat.
6. Cook Like Your Grandmother
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My grandmother was always happy to see family come to the door, even late in the afternoon. She was a young housewife during the Depression and her husband was lucky to have a full-time job, even though it didn't pay very much. She knew that less fortunate family members sometimes dropped by at that time of the day in the hope of being invited to dinner and my grandmother always obliged. She said as long as they came before she put the potatoes on, everything was fine. Despite her relative security they were certainly not well off and she knew how to stretch a dollar, which meant less meat, more vegetables. So, sure, the turkey is the big event for most families at Thanksgiving, but buy a smaller bird and serve more vegetables on the side. It costs less and it's healthier for you.
7. Make Things from Scratch
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Prepared foods cost a lot of money. Period. I understand that making things from scratch may cause more stress for some readers than it relieves, but to save money, this is the way to go and really, it's not hard. Not only do foods prepared from scratch cost less in strictly monetary value, but you also know that you don't have to deal with extra salt, sugar, fat and preservatives in your food.
8. Ask for Help or Accept it if Offered
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Don't be proud. If you have a friend or relative who makes a fantastic salad ask them to bring it along. We had a huge party for my husband's family a number of years ago and I was doing all the cooking. When his aunts offered to make desserts, my initial reaction was to decline because I wanted to be in complete control, but then I realized that not only would it relieve me of more work, it would make them feel an important part of the celebration. It turned out to be the best decision because I had less to do, they felt involved and all the cousins were happy to have desserts from their childhood. And it didn't cost me anything.
9. Relax
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Remember that the holiday dinner is about giving thanks, enjoying family. Thanks for who we love, what we have, who we are. Dinner doesn't have to be perfect. I can remember when I was about ten, my family arriving at my aunt's door with thoughts of a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner before us, to discover her sitting on the edge of the bathtub with her hair dryer on full force against the turkey because she had forgotten to defrost it. If she had made my Deconstructed Turkey, she wouldn't have had to worry!I don't recall whether or not we actually ate turkey that night, but I do recall we had the fantastic, fun and laugh filled dinner I had expected.
More Holiday Recipes and Tips
Less is More Thanksgiving
9 New Traditions for a Greener, Saner Holiday Season
7 Local-Ingredient Remakes of Classic Thanksgiving Dishes for Feasting Like a Pioneer
Holiday Recipes, Classic and Modern
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