Dinner is a daily thing. I either go out to eat it or make it myself at home. I came to enjoy cooking a lot when I started making dinner for myself back in college. I got ambitious about it I wanted to cook for my friends and family. Since that first day cooking for a group of people I grew a lot of respect for chefs and was humbled by the experience. I also picked up a few tips along the way on how to time things the right way.
Dinner Possible!
Food Waiting for Food
The first time I made dinner I noticed a lot of chaos. I was reading recipes, pouring, asking for help and worst of all realized I only had one oven to roast a prime rib and bake a fish to be eaten at the same time. My goodness, that was a feat. Food was sitting on the table getting cold while waiting for other food to finish cooking. So since then I learned that I needed to prepare.
Tip #1: Prepare and Think it Through
-Keep it simple when hosting dinner.
-Pick a snack, appetizer, veggie, main course, and 1 dessert and expand the servings without having to make more than one of each course.
-Read through the recipes a day (or even a week) before.
-Figure out what equipment you need (i.e., like avoid double need for the oven at the same time :-p)
-Go back and adjust and make sure you have all the ingredients before the day of the dinner
Ready, set, go!
Wait a minute, not so fast. The next few times I did the preparing. But it didn’t work out yet. I had all the ingredients laid out, all the pots and pans I needed but when I cooked all at once it was a disaster. I put the roast in the oven, started to make the soup, cooked the rice, sauteed the veggies and nothing was finished at the right time. The roast was done sitting there (and continuing to cook even if I didn’t serve it). The soup was not ready, and the only thing that was done was the pastry I made the night before which was for dessert.
Tip #2: Time Your Courses
-When reading the recipe lay out the courses based on the time it needs to be prepared
-Decide which course you want to serve first and work your way backwards by subracting the time you need to prepare the course
For example, if you want to serve appetizers first at 6pm, and it takes a total of 5 hours to make then you better be making it at 1pm.
-Don’t cook everything at once.
-Prepare and cook whatever you can that can be left sitting there waiting.
-Time it so that you cook what can be eaten first and then as dinner continues the main course becomes ready.
Like the other night I made a Papaya Skirt Steak Salad and macadamia nut crusted rack of lamb. The Skirt steak was cooked first and mixed with the greens. I asked everyone to sit down for dinner when I popped the rack of lamb into the oven 10 minutes before. Everyone sat down and ate salad and ten minutes into the dinner the rack of lamb was ready. Pefect timing as I pulled the rack out and people were munching on their salads they were ready for the lamb.
-You can always use some of the time the people are eating the appetizer and salad to cook the main course (You can even do this for dessert when it can bake while you eat dinner)
Humbled Yet?
With all this preparation and timing this is getting to be as complicated as rocket science. Notice there are a quite a lot of people working in a restaurant kitchen so obviously I’m not doing all of this by myself.
Tip #3: Assemble a Team
-Well, don’t make the people you involve feel pressured.
-Just pick the simple stuff like maybe buying the dessert (ice cream and cake are always best) and cutting the veggies for the helpers
-If you have a hefty appetizer and main course maybe get a friend or mom/dad to help you keep an eye on it while it cooks
-And ask the cooking group to give you suggestions because there is always something you didn’t think of
-The team will make all this a fun and interactive experience
So as the oven roasts and the air is filled with pleasing aroma, enjoy the company as you prepare dinner. Cooking is a fun and rewarding experience that I love. Bon Apetit!
(Some final things on some favorite recipes and sites I frequent:)
Cream Puffs at All Recipes (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cream-Puffs-I/Detail.aspx)
Rib Eye Steak at Food Network (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bbq-with-bobby-flay/rib-eye-steak-recipe/index.html)
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