Your best yom tov prep advise

Frum

Mon, Oct 03 2011, 3:09 am

If there are three things you could advise your fellow balabusta for her yom tov preps, what would it be? These are my three winning tips:

1. Silicon baking dishes - no need to grease, flexible, easy to clean, can go in freezer and on blech

2. Cook double - whatever you make, double recipe and freeze half. This way, you cook once and are done for all yom tov days.

3. No new recipes - if you are running short of time, don't try new recipes. Especially erev yom tov :-) This year I stuck to old time favorites which I could prepare without thinking too much and which I knew my family would like. No emergencies two hours before tzinding!

So, what are your golden hints?

cookielady

Tue, Oct 04 2011, 4:30 pm

Keep detailed list. What's in freezer, list of what's finished cooking, ingredients you need to buy.list of menus, desserts etc. Keep a list of what was a hit and what wasn't. It's easy to forget over time.

OOTBubby

Tue, Oct 04 2011, 4:42 pm

This was DD's idea when she was around 15 years old.

When labeling all the disposable foil pans, also label both edges (short & long) so that when you have a bunch of pans piled up (and the disposable covers are great too) you can read what is in it without moving them around.

allrgymama

Tue, Oct 04 2011, 5:05 pm

1) If you eat a lot of chicken and you leave the skin on your chicken, buy and clean your chickens in bulk 2-3 weeks before Yom Tov. I HATE cleaning chickens and I did that this year; put all the stress of cleaning enough chicken far enough away from Yom Tov andI was able to leave the time closer to Yom Tov for more important things.

2) When you freeze your doubled recipes and label them, put a sheet of parchment paper or silver foil directly on top of what you baked (like kugels or crisps) before the actual cover and then freeze in a ziploc bag. Eliminate as much direct contact to air as you can.

3) This year (3 day Yom Tov with my two sisters with me for the entire Yom Tov and additional company for 1 meal) I sat down Wednesday morning and actually wrote out my menus for all the meals and taped those inside a cabinet so that I wouldn't forget to take anything out of the freezer. I also made a schedule of what I had to do in the morning and afternoon of every day (I prepared all my proteins fresh) so that I wouldn't forget to defrost or marinade anything. I taped those lists in the same cabinet as my menus. As it is, I still forgot things, but it was far fewer things than I would have otherwise.

lamplighter

Tue, Oct 04 2011, 5:40 pm

1) use disposable pans

2) do you peeling and chopping at once (over a surface covered with a fruit bag or old shopping bag and then throw out the whole bag with the peels when you're finished).

3) double your menu. You don't need 6 different meals.

4) be adventurous one one dish per meal

5) have extra ready to go foods available in case of emergency (box of rice pilaf etc).

tzatza

Tue, Oct 04 2011, 7:55 pm

1.Lists, lists, lists!

I have my menus written down together with all the ingredients, plus a list of daily schedule, like: "Monday night make XYZ, defrost ABC, etc".

2. I will try to have everything done by Wed morning so that I can relax a bit before YT starts.

3. Remember: it is YT, so cooking is allowed. I try to have everything baked ready b4 YT, the rest (like salads and sides) are planned (and shopped for), but I will make them as needed based on how the meals go.

PS. Btw, having full sukkah for all meals Smile

Amital

Tue, Oct 04 2011, 9:48 pm

1. Make a detailed menu plan, and then break it down by the servings for grocery shopping (and prep). For example, if I'm having chicken two nights, one for 6 people and one for 10, I would need 16 servings of chicken. See my Sukkot version (from my Shalom Bayit Book) here.

2. Plan a few favorites that you can use at two meals. You can use the side dishes at different meals to minimize the prep work for sides--no need for different foods at each meal. (For us this RH, it was noodle kugel and spinach kugel/quiche used at 2-3 meals).

3. Write it all down. What worked, what didn't, what you have, what you need for next year (especially for Pesach and Sukkot!), any shailas you asked that will be relevant in the future, your recipes...write it down. (And I should probably add put it somewhere where you'll find it in time, too! LOL

)

exhausted

Wed, Oct 05 2011, 8:44 am

1. Make lots of fried onions and freeze them in small portions in small containers. Then you have them any time a recipe calls for them.

2. To freeze knaidlach so you can separate them easily, do them while you still have plenty of room in the freezer. After they cool, lay them out on a lined cookie sheet and freeze flat. When frozen put them in a ziploc bag and write with a permanent marker how many are in the bag.

3. In addition to what others have posted about labeling ends and sides of disposable pans, I also make a map of my freezer. I make a list of everything I have on each shelf and what side of the shelf its on, and stick it on the door. After YT I cross off everything I used and if I rearrange the shelves, I rewrite my map! It's great for when I cook weeks in advance and I send my teenagers to the freezer to find something!!

4. For those that don't like to make chicken soup in advance because they don't like mushy vegetables, you can cook the soup, strain the veggies and freeze the broth. When reheating the soup, add fresh vegetables and allow a little extra time for them to cook, which is usually not a problem because you don't eat soup right away.

TranquilityAndPeace

Wed, Oct 05 2011, 8:54 am

I just discovered that it's ok to heat up foil pans with my labels scotch taped on the sides - I used to take off the labels before putting them into the oven, and then would get mixed up about what was in each pan.

OOTBubby

Wed, Oct 05 2011, 9:31 am

TranquilityAndPeace wrote:

Why tape on labels? Just write on the pans with a permanent marker.