Thursday, April 2, 2015

Cooking for a Holiday - Easter, Part V - Roll Up Your Sleeves...

Today, Holy Thursday, I'm getting busy.

Not real busy, just a little busy.  And this is the whole secret to cooking for a holiday.  Trust me.
By now, if you've been listening, you have:
  1. Checked in with your guests;
  2. Composed your menu;
  3. Compiled your shopping list;
  4. Shopped for the non-perishables;
  5. Had at least two glasses of wine.  In addition to your usual intake.
It may seem a little weird to start cooking on Thursday for a dinner on Sunday.  It's not.   I start my Thanksgiving cooking a month in advance, which you will find out soon enough.   Doing stuff ahead of time is what keeps your stress levels down, come the holiday.   So you can actually enjoy yourself.  The less cooking you do on the holiday, the more time you have for cocktails.  (Friends don't let friends drink and fry.)

So today I'm going to boil some eggs.  And then put them in the fridge to be colored tomorrow.  And I will go to sleep tonight a happy woman, because I know my Easter dinner is right on track.
For those of you who don't know how to boil eggs:

Hard-Boiled Eggs
Put some eggs, in a single layer and gently, into a big pot.  Cover them with cold water.  Put them on the stove, uncovered, over MEDIUM heat.  Keep an eye on the eggs.  When they start to boil rapidly (and this takes some time over medium heat), turn off the heat.  Then set your timer - or watch your clock - for 13 minutes.  (Personally, I use a timer or I'll forget.  Hey, I'm busy.)  When the time is up, put the eggs in ice water.  They'll peel easier this way. When the eggs are cool, they're done.  Some of them might crack.  So what.

Now, here's my schedule for the next few days:

Holy Thursday:  Boil eggs for dyeing.
Good Friday:  Color eggs, make my daughter's (Nikki, Age: almost 30) Easter basket, clean.
Holy Saturday:  Make the Egg & Cheese Strata (cover in foil, put in fridge overnight), do my nails.
Easter Sunday:  Everything else.

You might feel like a schedule isn't necessary, like you got this, and it can all wait for Sunday while you use the precious few moments God has allotted to you on this planet to play Spider Solitaire.  It's a temptation, I know.  But a little discipline now will save you an exponential amount of grief come Easter morning.  You gotta have a little discipline, it keeps you out of trouble.  If you're still alive, you know that by now.

Well, Happy Easter and good luck!  Wear something nice.  Just because you don't go to church doesn't mean you shouldn't dress up.  And let me know how it goes.

Regards,

Connie Staccato
Mistress of Discipline



3 comments:

  1. I will admit that I once googled how to boil eggs and you would not BELIEVE the variety of instructions that came up!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice post!
    Have a great Easter weekend!
    Photographe Gil Zetbase
    http://www.gilzetbase.com/

    ReplyDelete

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