2022 - HHP - Week 10 - Cooking Space

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Holiday_Mom

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Week 1 - Planning and Paperwork
Week 2 - Calendar and Creativity
Week 3 - Me & Mine
Week 4 - Close to Home
Week 5 - House Room
Week 6 - Wardrobe
Week 7 - Bed & Bath
Week 8 - Family Space
Week 9 - Public Space
Week 10 - Cooking Space
Week 11 - Food Storage
Week 12 - Dining Space
Week 13 - Entryway
Week 14 - Storage
Week 15 - Final Clean
Week 16 - Nearly There
Week 17 - Celebration
Week 18 - New Year’s

This Week's Focus: Kitchen
Even for families who don't do much in the way of cooking, the holiday season brings new emphasis on the kitchen. Will you be preparing holiday meals, baking treats, or making kitchen gifts?

Time to clean up in the kitchen! Tackling holiday cooking is easier when the kitchen is clean, organized and clutter-free, so this week, we'll focus there.

Next weekend's extra hour of sleep gives us time for a quick home safety check. To round out this week, we'll begin preparing for Thanksgiving dinner by organizing recipes, planning menus and making a tabletop check.

This Week's Household Checklist
  • Make a home preparedness check. An extra hour on Time Change next weekend gives a time bonus to check household safety and preparedness, as we prepare to move into colder weather. Make a preparedness check as you change the clocks, test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, assess the household's stock of cold and flu supplies, and review the household emergency plan.
  • Get down and dirty with a kitchen clean-up! American Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners lie in our future and will put new emphasis on the household's kitchen. This week, we tackle kitchen clutter, cleaning and organization. Moving shelf by shelf, cupboard by cupboard, take on kitchen clutter this week. Using the STOP clutter method, bring food preparation workspaces to a lean, mean, efficient state. Once clutter is conquered, a kitchen clean-out is in order. Rout out the grime and corral the crumbs for a sparkling holiday kitchen. Don't worry about pantry, freezer or refrigerator just yet ... we'll turn to food storage areas next week.

This Week's Holiday Prep Checklist
  • Status Check! Review the progress of the House and Holidays Plan on the first day of the month. If you're falling behind, adjust goals to a more realistic level.
  • Recycle trick-or-treat candy for holiday baking or décor items.
  • Decorate for Thanksgiving. Remove Halloween decorations and replace them with Thanksgiving-themed items.
  • Organize holiday recipes. It's November ... do you know where your seasonal recipes are? Dig out the recipes you use during the holiday season, and add them to the holiday recipes planner. Thanksgiving Day is too busy to waste time hunting for the Green Bean Casserole recipe.
  • Plan Thanksgiving menus. If you're hosting the Thanksgiving feast, it's time to make a menu plan. Use a menu planner, and delegate, delegate, delegate!
  • Order the Thanksgiving turkey. Your meat market will thank you for not waiting until the last minute!
  • Plan holiday baking. With recipes out, make a list of baked goodies you'll make for the holidays. The holiday baking planner form is a good place to start.
  • Buy containers for freezer meals, baked goods or kitchen gifts. If you haven't already stocked up at the back-to-school sales, take stock of food storage bag and containers. Holiday-themed disposable containers and freezer bags are available now.
  • Make a tabletop check. Inventory serving pieces, stemware, china and flatware. Check store flyers for sales. Will you be ready to set a pretty holiday table?
  • Bake any fruitcakes or Christmas cakes which require mellowing. Now's the time to bake the Christmas cakes! You'll have eight weeks to mellow them before the season.
What are you planning to do this week?
 

Holiday_Mom

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Here's what I'd like to get done this week:

Household Checklist
  • Make a winter preparedness check.
  • Declutter kitchen.

Holiday Prep Checklist
  • Do a status check.
  • Take down Halloween decorations.
  • Put up Thanksgiving decorations.
  • Organize recipe book.
  • Review/plan Thanksgiving menu.
  • Plan holiday baking.
  • Inventory serving pieces, table cloths, etc.
  • Bake Christmas cake if time permits.

Still to do
  • Work on Christmas cards.
 
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happy2bme

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My Happy Place
HOUSEHOLD CHECKLIST:
clean ceiling fan & cupboards, wash walls, vacuum & mop floor, wash shelf, light fixture & windows
reorganize cupboards -
done

HOLIDAY PREP CHECKLIST:

take down Halloween decorations - done
plan holiday baking - done
work on Christmas cards - done
 
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jampss

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I cleaned the oven last Thursday as while I was gone on mini vacay to see my niece, DH and DS made bacon in the oven. :rolleyes:

So, I will continue the appliance cleaning while I am on a roll.
 

Holiday_Mom

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Status Check: I'm happy with the overall place that I am. Things are getting done but not necessarily on the first week I planned it to get done.
 

Cindylouwho

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Status Check:
Well, I'm trying to figure out the Empty Nester Thanksgiving over here. The calendar page turned over to November and BOOM! A LOT needs to happen on this page! Big question is DH's elderly father. He's normally with us for holidays but this year I'm not sure if he will be strong enough. I'll be doing some sort of scaled down version of Thanksgiving and won't really be able to decide on the plan for it til we are closer. I guess I'll just need to be ready for anything? :(. And if It is just DH and I then what do we do to make it special? I'd rather just go out for dinner but that won't work with grandpa. What to do? I'm going to search the threads to see what others have done.

HOUSE:
Declutter, organize and clean the kitchen or food preparation areas. /
Mostly done. Spices all updated.

HOLIDAY:
Change Décor from Halloween to Thanksgiving.Organize holiday recipes. /
Done.
Plan Thanksgiving menus. / DH and I still do NOT know what WE are doing here. Helping kids with their plans.
Plan holiday baking. / Contemplating how to cut down recipes this year. We tend to over-bake.
Buy holiday themed containers for freezer meals, baked goods & kitchen gifts. / On grocery list.
Order Thanksgiving turkey. / What to do..... ? (DH's Dad is 99 and not mobile. It's tough right now.)
Do a tabletop check. Inventory serving pieces, stemware, china and flatware. / Done.
 
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Ahorsesoul

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Dh actually had some input into the Thanksgiving menu today. Usually he just says whatever you want to fix. About knocked me over. I spent the day putting away, labeling Halloween boxes, taking care of DD and reading. May have done more reading than the others today. A nice slow day. Guess it was an extra long day.
 

Holiday_Mom

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I'll be doing some sort of scaled down version of Thanksgiving and won't really be able to decide on the plan for it til we are closer. I guess I'll just need to be ready for anything? :(. And if It is just DH and I then what do we do to make it special? I'd rather just go out for dinner but that won't work with grandpa. What to do? I'm going to search the threads to see what others have done.
We've had a few holiday dinners where we've resorted to the grocery store's boxed holiday dinner that just had to be heated up or bought Boston Chicken with their sides the day before the holiday.

When my grandparents were in the nursing homes and not able to leave, my parents would eat a holiday meal there. Usually it was Thanksgiving lunch and then a holiday meal the day before Christmas or the day before Easter. My parents usually hosted Christmas and Easter.
 

Myron's Mom

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Cindylouwho, empty nester here. We order dinner from our favorite restaurant, picked up the day before. I make a pie, only because we prefer my pumpkin pie over theirs. My cousins have ordered the premade store variety dinners and thought they were very good. You can always make whatever your family favorite special dish is to go along with. We have gone out on occasion but actually prefer to stay home these days.
When my FIL was in the nursing home we frequently brought him here for dinner. He actually enjoyed having dinner with his buddies in the nursinghome though. They had become his other family and were very close. I know other families either brought home made dinner into the nursinghome for a family dinner or had dinner in the dining room with their family member.