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Frigal Holiday Dinners; Pat Veretto
Topic Started: Nov 18 2004, 04:09 AM (85 Views)
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From Pat Veretto,
Food is the essence of the holidays. Keep it frugal.
I don't have to tell you that we're well into the holiday season again and I know that in the background of every frugal mind out there are thoughts of food, in one form or another, for one holiday dinner or another.
Traditional holiday food includes a turkey or ham dinner as well as ethnic dishes and special dishes for various other holidays that come at this time of the year, but the method of doing it all up frugally is the same.

The number one, biggest, most important piece of advice I can give is this: Plan ahead.

You should already have planned ahead for your holiday dinner to a certain extent when you took advantage of cheap and frugal produce this summer and fall to stock your pantry and freezer. In case you didn't, start now.

Inexpensive produce right now includes squash, pumpkin, yams and apples, so plan to use them to the fullest extent and avoid overpriced, out of season vegetables. Before you even do that, though, look to see what you already have on hand for a festive dinner in the way of vegetables. Put it aside (and label it if you must) for that special dinner.

It's much more frugal to bake your own bread, especially if you find ingredients on sale, which they are now or will be shortly. Frozen bread loaves are generally more frugal than bread already baked, but if you decide against that, go looking now in your local bakery or bread outlet for day old bread. Freeze it until you need it, but whatever you do, don't wait until two days before the dinner to go looking.

There are usually good sales on meat during the winter holiday season - turkey, beef roasts, hams and sometimes seafood - just before the holidays, so unless you already have it in your freezer, wait to buy meat until then. Keep a close watch on the sales papers! Some sales only last 24 hours, some depend on you spending X amount of dollars in the store and some are for "members" only (those who have a "card" for the store) or have other stipulations.

Holiday desserts can be very frugal and still be impressive. Again, planning ahead makes all the difference. If you have frozen berries or other fruit from earlier in the year, now is the time to use it, or plan on making use of inexpensive apples or oranges.

Hint: To make a common fruit more special, don't have it at all for at least a couple of weeks before the big dinner. It'll be more welcome if no one is tired of it.

Decorating the table and surrounding area with the colors of the holiday will make any food seem more special. Decorations don't have to be dramatic or expensive. Using food for decorating is a win/win, frugal scheme.

For instance:

A hollowed out baked pumpkin makes a serving bowl for soup.
Use clusters of purple grapes heaped on a simple platter and surrounded with leaves and pomegranates, then sprinkled with confetti or cake decorations.
Simply arrange whole uncooked pumpkins or squash that you can eat later.
Nestle red apples among real fallen leaves in a glass bowl.
Use unshelled nuts in the bottom of a container to hold bundles of silverware or cinnamon sticks upright.
Set candles (make them stable by setting them in dripped wax) into a shallow dish or container, then surround with unshelled nuts.
Put your imagination to work instead of your money and enjoy the holidays in style
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