Your results may vary.
I made a
beef stew, with mashed potatoes for Christmas dinner. This was done on the 26th , since other family events happened on the 24th and 25th. So, my guests had already had their fill of turkey. And they had lots of leftover pies and other treats. When I extended the invitation, everyone asked what they
should bring, and I told them to bring all of the things that they had too much of.
This certainly helped reduce my cooking time. We had pies, and cake and cookies, but I didn't have to make any of them. I just made the main
course.
.......
The first thing I do, is fill the kettle and boil
enough water, to get things going. Some water is put in the pot, and it's turned on high.
Everything goes into the pot, in order of how long it needs to cook. I had bought a pot roast that was marked down to half price. It was chopped up and thrown into the already boiling water. Then came the onions and garlic, and a number of different spices. I have an Italian spice mix and one that is called poultry seasoning. A bunch of pepper and some dill were added. Then I chopped up half of a red cabbage. The onions, were called red onions. Both were actually purple.
This stuff was boiling or almost boiling, most of the time, while things were being added. One of my number 1 seasonings is Bragg soy sauce. I put in enough of that to reach the desired amount of salt. Assembly of all of these ingredients took maybe 25 minutes.
After the pot came to a boil again, after adding the cabbage, it was allowed to simmer for 10 minutes or so. Then, I added 1 kg of mixed vegetables from the freezer. A few minutes later, it was boiling again and was turned down to just a simmer.
My organic potatoes come in a 5 lb bag, and that is an amount that fits nicely into one of my larger pots. So, there were two pots on the stove, one for the stew and one for potatoes.
About 45 minutes had elapsed since the meal was started. By this time, the potatoes were done and were drained. The potatoes were mashed. Done, in less than an hour.
......
There were no fancy serving dishes. I passed around the big Dutch
oven full of potatoes, and told everyone to take the amount that they wanted. It was followed by the big pot of stew, which I set in front of myself. I got each person to hand me their plate, and I gave them whatever quantity they requested.
........
Clean up.
Several relatives wanted to help with cleanup, so I assigned them jobs. 1 gathered things that needed to go into the fridge, while another scraped things into the
compost bin.
..........
I cleaned the floor with my leaf blower.
It was fun demonstrating how I use my cordless leaf blower, for cleanup purposes. My niece enjoys clumsily irritating everyone for up to an hour, cleaning up after an event, using a broom around their feet. I opened the front and back door, checked wind direction, and then with the machine set on low, spent about 2 minutes coming down the hallway toward the kitchen, and then blowing everything from beneath the chairs and table, and everywhere else, to a 10 square foot section of floor by the patio door. This debris was swept up with a broom and dustpan.
Done. After everyone left, I spent about 20 minutes rinsing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, washing down the stove and counter tops, and washing the table.
Total labor to
feed everybody and clean up again, under 2 hours for me, and I probably engaged others for half of one man hour in total. Everyone was fed and I was left with enough leftovers to do me for 3 days.
I'm sure that many of you made a much more elaborate Christmas dinner. Unless you made TV dinners, few will have done it with less labour. :-)
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