Now that Halloween has come and gone, thoughts are turning to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Call your relatives and finalize your Thanksgiving dinner plans now if you haven't already. Our family will be spending Thanksgiving with my brother's family and my mom - Daddy will already be in Cuba by then.
Once you know where you're eating, you need to decide what you're eating. Are you hosting the family at your house? Do you need to bring something to dinner at someone else's house? Decide now what you will make and start watching the sales ads for the ingredients you need.
You can also begin to think ahead to Christmas gifts from the kitchen. I love to bake so I do a lot of baked goods gifts for neighbors, the kids' teachers in their different homeschool activities and some of Michael's coworkers. I also like to doing some holiday baking now to help prepare me for all the parties and dinner and just special time with family and friends. If I do some baking now, I have more time to relax and enjoy the season! I set aside Wednesdays for cooking/baking and cleaning my kitchen.
My first plan of action is to buy bags of ripe bananas marked down at the grocery store. Then I use them to make as many batches of banana bread as possible - 6 bananas will make 2 or 3 batches depending on your recipe. Last year I bought some individual mini foil baking pans with holiday lids at the end of the season. So far I have about a dozen mini loaves of banana bread in the freezer waiting to be gifted to a friend or neighbor or teacher. I bake the loaves then let them cool. After I put the lids on the pans, I wrap them first in plastic wrap and then in foil. Then I put the loaves in freezer bags and stack them in my freezer. Make sure you label them so you know what you have!
This past weekend I bought half a bushel of honey crisp apples at a produce stand near my mom's house. On Wednesday I'll be making apple butter, apple jelly and baked apples to can. These will also make great gifts!!
Not all my baking is for giving away! If I gave it all away, there would be mutiny in the house. I also plan to start preparing cookie dough to freeze and pull out in December for those days the kids want to decorate cookies. I also try to make a double meal when possible, serving one for dinner and freezing the other for another busy night during the holidays.
Leave a comment and tell me about your favorite gift from the kitchen to give or one you've received!
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