The Christmas Buffet

When the family gets together over the holidays, everyone wants to eat. It’s a fact of life that most gatherings occur over food. This year, hold a Christmas buffet to avoid leftovers filling up the fridge.

The sit down dinner seems to be a tradition at Christmas time. Everyone gathers around a large table (or two) and shares good times. But, who says that every dish known to man has to be on that table? This year, enjoy your Christmas dinner buffet style.

There are benefits to buffet style dining at Christmas and other holidays:

• Few if any leftovers
• Easier cleanup
• Everyone can reach everything – no passing involved
• It’s fun

Even if you have a small space, you can set up a buffet. The main course tables can be positioned in the dining area. Desserts can stay in the kitchen displayed on the counters. Keeping drinks on the table avoids everyone clamoring for them at once and spilling them.

As the host or hostess, you and your family can serve the buffet meal or allow everyone to fill their plates as they please. If you are on a budget and have counted out servings per person, it might be better if you served portions to everyone. So that you get your food also, create your dinner plates in the kitchen and bring them out to eat with everyone after the meal has been served.

The items needed to host a Christmas buffet style dinner can be purchased inexpensively at your local party store. 

You will need:

• Liquid fuel (Sterno)
• Buffet racks
• Buffet serving pans
• Serving utensils
• Paper products (napkins, dinner and dessert plates)

To avoid burning the food, place a serving pan with about an inch of water underneath the pan that holds the food. Since the food is already room temperature, light the liquid fuel about 30 minutes before the meal is to begin.

Now, let’s get to the table. Lay out silverware (or plasticware) on the table along with your beverage glasses. Each table will have their own assortment of drinks (no wine on the kid’s table, please). You can use place cards so that everyone knows where they are sitting for big gatherings. 

With a buffet, after the initial plate of food is served, your job is done. Family members can return at will to the buffet. When the meal is over, provide “to go” boxes so that they can take what is left home with them. Afterwards, simply stack the racks for future use and get rid of everything else. You can stack the glasses in the dishwasher and settle down to watch It’s a Wonderful Life.

The Christmas buffet is a wonderful idea to take the work and cleanup out of a holiday meal. Your family won’t mind and everyone is happy.

Creating Christmas Sweets to Die For

What is the one thing everyone enjoys at Christmas time? Arguably it could be sweets. There is nothing like a cookie, slice of cake or gum drop around the holidays. Here are some tips to make sure that those delectable morsels are just as tasty as their sugarplum visions.

Working with Chocolate

When you create a recipe that calls for chocolate, it is so easy to go wrong here. Instead of using the store-bought chocolate syrup, make your own. Buy the chocolate bricks and melt them yourself. Keep the heat under the saucepan low so that the chocolate doesn’t burn while it melts.

Dark chocolate is the new healthy chocolate for the 21^st century. It is full of antioxidants and great taste. Use it for decorating cakes, cookies, breads and pies. Use some of that melted chocolate in a plastic bag to pipe out all sorts of cool designs onto wax paper. Once they cool, you can carefully place them on any dessert that you wish.

Butter

The rest of the year, this word gets sneer and jeers, but at Christmas, it is spot on. There is no substitute for using regular butter in your dessert recipes. Well, there is but it won’t give you the same taste or texture in your sweets. To compensate, eat a little less of each dessert, but by all means taste them all.

When working with margarine, part of it is water. It says that on the box. Water evaporates when baking and can partially dry out your recipes. Butter is also creamier when softened and whipped. It keeps your cakes, breads, cupcakes and cookies moist like they need to be. Unless the recipe calls for stiff butter, let it come to room temperature on the counter before using.

Fruit

Apple pies, peach cobblers and blueberry blintzes are all great during the holidays. Fruit can be expensive since most of your choices are out of season. If you can’t find fresh at a reasonable price, opt for frozen choices. It’s as close to fresh as you can get.

If you keep your fruit in the fridge to prolong freshness, make sure that you allow them to come to room temperature before using them in delicious dessert recipes. Fruit will juice better when warm. Scalding fruits with removable skins helps the skin to peel off easier so you don’t have to ruin the look of the fruit doing it the hard way.

Here are just a few tips for creating those desserts your family will love all holiday long. Christmas is the one time of year that they don’t want you to skimp on flavor or presentation.