Today’s topic is getting dinner on the table with everything hot at the same time, a mouthful.
One thing in the process of cooking dinner is cooking multiple things at one time and managing to have them ready simultaneously. Maybe we should just call it timing dinner.
What I am talking about is what the cooking shows don’t teach you about recipes. So, you can learn about a recipe and maybe a couple of tips and you learn how to make one thing. Maybe they tell you how to make a whole dinner. But they really don’t tell you how to organize cooking times so you can serve it on the table all hot at the same time. You may have watched a TV chef cook all these fun things for a party, but she’s cooking them completely separately. She’s getting you through cooking one item and then sets it aside before going on to the next item.
What if there’s only one of you, you have no help, and you’re going to make and serve four or five things for dinner? Hopefully you’ve already started getting a feel for meal prep. You need to know how long an item is going need to cook, and you can organize your cooking time, and how long it’s going to take you to complete the entire meal.
Now, this is going to take some practice, but once you get the hang of it, it’s very helpful and you’ll feel organized and not as stressed about cooking. I have friends, that will cook one thing entirely, set it aside, then cook one thing entirely, and set it aside. Basically, nothing’s going to be really hot that way. I have some friends that want it served boiling hot. (I don’t know how they don’t burn their mouth.) I had to get good at it. My husband wants a hot meal and he wants it on time. But that is a story for another time.
You can organize your cooking experience by answering these questions;
First, what time do you want to eat?
What dishes are you serving?
How much time will each dish take to cook?
Do you have to stir, sauté or watch the dish. In other words, will this dish require your full attention?
How much prep will be needed beforehand for each dish?
After you have considered these questions, back up the time, (what does this mean? – see below.)
Put your dishes in order to tackle each one.
Have I lost you yet?
Here are some exercises to think about how to do this.
Number one, let’s have shish kebobs for dinner. We’re going to have rice with it. We’re going to have a beautiful little slaw, and then maybe we’re going to make some garlic bread. We want to eat at 6:00 pm.
So, the first thing we have to look at is how long everything’s going to take to cook. The shish kebabs take a long time to prepare. Remember to include prep time too. For the shish kebabs you will need time to cut up the vegetable and cut up and marinate the meat. Of course, all of this prep can be done earlier in the day. For our purpose let’s assume there’s a lot of people that just buy the shish kebobs already made. So, then they would cook on the barbecue for 25 rest for 5 minutes. In this case I know they need to be on the BBQ at 5:30 if I intend to eat at 6:00.
The rice cooks will probably need about 20, 25 minutes. So, when I get the Kabobs on the BBQ, I will start the rice. I don’t have to really tend to the rice once its boiling. That frees me to work on the garlic bread and slaw. Since I will need to check on the Kabobs while they cook it would be better to prep the bread and the slaw before I put the Kabobs on the BBQ. So, let’s back up the time a little further. I will give myself 30 minutes to make the bread and slaw. Now I need to start dinner at 5:00 to eat at 6:00. Remember this is with ready made Kabobs. If I were preparing those too, I would have to allow more prep time or I would have had to have prepared them earlier in the day or the evening before.
I might make the slaw first because that could sit. I like to make it very colorful with different colored cabbage, and carrots, and maybe some thinly sliced peppers and then a good Chinese Asian salad dressing. Stick it in the fridge until dinner. That’s a fun slaw.
Then I would make the bread and set that aside. Let’s say we’re going to make garlic bread and then we’re going to put it in some tinfoil and throw it on the barbecue. The bread will take 10 minutes so I will stick it in the barbecue or into the oven at 5:50.
Let’s imagine I was making homemade shish kebabs, that would be the first thing that I would do. I’d chop up the meat and vegetables, put them all together, put some marinade on them, and then put them aside. Add another 30 minutes up front.
That’s how you would plan out your meal, time it, and get it on the table hot at the same time. Boom!
Let’s look at another example. I have a roast in the Crock-pot. I’m going to make mashed potatoes and I’m going to make vegetables and a salad. What I like to do when I’m planning on how I’m going to cook all this is to think about what needs to be tended. Do I have to stand there and stir it? Remember in an earlier video, blog, and podcast post, I talked about zucchini. I’m not going to walk away from that zucchini sautéing in a pan. If it’s the roast in the Crock-pot, we don’t have to do anything but open up, take the meat out, and then maybe get some gravy or make some last-minute gravy. The potatoes take a little time to cook and we have to prep them. Then we have whatever vegetable we’re going to serve and we have the salad. The roast would be in the Crock-Pot. I don’t have to fuss with that. The potatoes are going to take a while to cook, so I would prepare and cook the them next.
I can make the salad while the potatoes are cooking and the roast is in the Crock-pot. Finally, I need to prepare and cook the vegetable.
Sometimes if we’re going to make something like a risotto that you have to stir the whole time and I’m going to have a salad, I have to make the salad first. I wouldn’t have time to make the salad while the risotto is cooking because I’m standing there tending the risotto.
If you’re standing there tending any food, cooking it, sautéing it, or watching it, then you make things that can stay cold and set aside, or prep things ahead of time. So, you get your prep work done while you’re stirring, or you do the big food and you cut it up and get it in the oven.
So just remember to plan for that time and try and find a way to make it enjoyable and hope to heck somebody helps you. Maybe someone will come in and go, “I’ll make the salad”, or “I’ll cut up the vegetables for you.” That would be an ideal world.
You don’t always have to make 4 or 5 items. Maybe your family doesn’t eat that way. Maybe I should mention that I’ve always used the food group idea for meal planning. I always have a meat or protein, a vegetable, a starch, and perhaps a salad and bread. I tend to stay away from soups as a meal starter since my family likes to eat soups as a main meal.
Now, I’m completely addicted to bread. I take every single meal I’ve ever had and turn it into a sandwich. I’ve had to quit bread. So, I’m going to assume that you guys are lucky and you still get to eat it.
I’ll leave things to warm sometimes if we’re having a more formal salad first. I understand a lot of families, especially from Europe, have their salad after dinner. They always put the salad aside and then eat it after they have eaten the rest of their meal. It just depends on what your family does. Think about being organizing your meal in thought first. Being familiar with your food’s cooking time, prep time, etc. will aid you in managing your meal plan. That’s all you really need to successfully get your full meal to the table in a timely manner.
Please watch the Timing Dinner video Here
Please listen to the Timing Dinner podcast Here