Blog

Sugar Cookies remind me of my Christmas.  My family used to bake Christmas trees every year with green frosting and red hots!  Yumm!

For many of us baking is a tradition for the holidays.  Whether you are just baking one batch of cookies or several, a little planning and organization can go a long way!

Here are a few tips and suggestions to help simplify your baking:

Decide Recipes – Go through cookbooks and old recipes and decide what you want to bake this year.  Many of us have staple recipes but you may want to experiment and try something new. One of my favorite websites to visit for new ideas is allrecipes.com.  When deciding on recipes, read through the instructions and think about how complicated the recipes are and how much time you have to put towards your baking. Some recipes are much more complicated than others, keep things simple.

Make a List – Once you have the recipes, it’s time to decide how many batches of cookies and candy you need to make.  Make a list of the people you will be sharing with and think about party’s and other get togethers.  Determine how much is enough.

Check your current inventory – With recipes in hand, check out what ingredients you already have.  It’s helpful to lay everything out on a table.  Look at expiration dates and quantities of items.  After you look at your current inventory, make your grocery list.  Use the TCO Meal Planning worksheets to help you!

Use Coupons – Save money this season and use your coupons.  Dig out the Sunday’s paper , go online and do a little comparison shopping, .50 doesn’t seem like much of a savings until you start adding all the coupons up and realize what a difference it really can make.

Plan Your Day – If you are cooking several recipes, do a little planning before and figure out what order you will baking what recipes.  This is a good thing to keep in mind, especially if you are fighting over one oven or if certain ingredients need refrigerated and so forth.

Lay it out -  On a table, lay out all of your ingredients and measuring / cooking tools.  Get everything out at once.  This will save time and frustration shuffling through drawers when the oven timer is going off.  Have everything ready to go.  There will be a lot of the same ingredients used in different recipes, however, on the table I recommend separating the recipes with its own special ingredients.  Just to keep the organization and flow going.

Clean up as you go – On of the best cooking tips I received was from Rachel Ray, she has a garbage bowl she places on the counter when she is cooking.  Egg shells, wrappers, paper etc, go into this bowl, when it’s full, empty.  This really does save time from having to make several trips to the garbage can.

Music / Entertainment – I always do my baking with either Christmas music in the background or I will put on one of my favorite holiday movies.  It makes the process fun and festive!

Enjoy the Holidays!

Happy Organizing!