Article and Photo Courtesy of Organized Christmas
Brace yourselves! Holiday cooking season is upon us.
From now until after the New Year, busy kitchens are the norm, like it
or not.
What better time for a quick refrigerator declutter? Clearing the decks
in the big cold box will make room for holiday dishes--and a clean and gleaming
refrigerator will energize the holiday cook in the days ahead.
Spray bottles ready? It's time to clean out the refrigerator.
Finally, we'll organize our favorite holiday recipes, noting page
numbers or location for any recipes we'll need next week. No more last-minute
games of "hunt the recipe"!
To Do Today
Print the following 2 forms:
Clean out the refrigerator
Right now, today, and absolutely before you shop for the Thanksgiving
holiday, tackle the refrigerator, top to bottom. Starting on the top shelf,
remove all leftovers, past-the-shelf-date foods, shriveled fruits and drooping
vegetables.
Take a hard look at what's left. A jar of pickle spears holding a
single leaning pickle? A bottle of barbecue sauce with one scanty inch in the
bottom? A down-to-the-last scrape mayonnaise jar? Lay down the law: eat them
today, or toss them NOW.
Goal: make room for holiday cooking.
Just like our waistbands, our refrigerators overflow during this time
of year. Get a step ahead and declutter that refrigerator before you shop!
Organize Thanksgiving recipes
Now that we've cleared our food storage spaces, it's time to make a
quick check of the recipes we'll need next week. When ovens blaze and the
dinner hour draws near, it's no time to be thumbing through recipe books with
floury hands, searching for that special side dish recipe.
Whether you cull them from cookbooks, the Internet or recipe software
programs, make sure you can find the recipes that make Thanksgiving dinner
special.
If needed, make a quick list of favorite recipes on a Favorite Holiday
Recipes tracker. Note page number, Web address or location of favorite recipes
to avoid last-minute searches.
If you'll try new recipes? Note them on the Recipes to Try planner
page, and make notes about how they turned out. Next year, you'll thank
yourself!
To Read Today
Written for the New Year, but just as relevant to the pre-holiday
period, get inspired to declutter the refrigerator with this guide from sister
site, Organized Home:
New Year in the Kitchen? Clean
Out the Refrigerator
Standing in line at the supermarket check stand, nobody can deny that
we're on the dreary downside of a new year.
Tabloid headlines scream the weight-loss secrets of the stars, while
traditional women's magazines sing siren songs of money-saving, belly-busting,
speed-cleaning tips and techniques.
We ourselves? All those resolutions that looked so basic, so easy, so
noble through the champagne haze of New Year's Eve have lost their rosy glow
viewed in the stark light of a morning cup of coffee.
With the children back to school and holiday decorations back in their
attic boxes, our resolve for a better, thinner, healthier and wealthier year
has once more washed up against the hard and niggling realities of daily life.
Be of good cheer! There's a tried-and-true boost for just about
anybody's New Year's resolutions. [I'm talking garden-variety resolutions here:
weight loss, financial prudence, better home or personal organization. If
you've vowed that this is the year you read the Russians, my hat's off to you
but you're on your own!]
I'm talking about cleaning the refrigerator. Spearing the Great White
Whale.
Think about it! The refrigerator holds it all: food and finance, weight
and well-being, organization and chaos, all rolled into one big cold box. Dive
into that baby with a detached eye, a hardened heart and one small hour of time
and you're on the road to weight loss, better household management, and a
healthier budget.
The timing couldn't be better, because I know what your refrigerator
looks like! Plastic food storage containers pile in unsteady ziggurats in every
corner--and why is it that the largest bowls and boxes hold the smallest
amounts of food?
Open cans of olive juice have lost plastic wrap coverings to a
succession of sneaking fingers. A yellow sticky puddle surrounds the triangular
hole in the top of the can of evaporated milk. Crumbs and butter dot the face
of the leftover cranberry sauce.
Greasy zipper storage bags hold what's left of the Christmas turkey:
one lone drumstick and several dried and curling slices of overdone breast
meat. Sliced remnants of margarine sticks hide in unlikely places, waiting to
hurl themselves to the oblivion of the kitchen floor when the refrigerator door
is opened.
Where to begin? There's a bit of an aesthetic to spearing the Great
White Whale.
There's something to be said about waiting until the weight-loss
advertising jingles displace the mental Muzak drone of holiday carols. This is
not a job in which holiday sentiment is an asset. A spat with one's spouse or
children will also fuel the harpoon, but same is not recommended in the
interest of family harmony.
Think tough. Firm. Resolved. Then gather your tools: a large, lined
garbage can, a sink-ful of soapy water, spray bottles of degreaser and window
cleaner, lots of cleaning cloths and a pen and notepad. Clear the kitchen
counters so you can sort and spread out with impunity, and an empty dishwasher
should await your container collection.
Most important, before you begin, turn your refrigerator off--and
unplug it, too, for good measure. We want the only shocks you receive to be
from the code dates on some of your food!
Start at the top. Remove everything from the top refrigerator shelf.
Holiday leftovers go directly into the garbage can. Show no pity or mercy! If
it hasn't been eaten by now, it's because the family will scream if presented
with ham in one more disguise. Open everything, and when it doubt, toss it out!
Plastic food storage containers are consigned to the dishwasher after a
brief rinse. The shelf goes directly to the sink's soapy water. While it soaks
off the grime of Christmas past, use your degreaser spray to clean the
refrigerator's ceiling and walls down to the next shelf. Wash the shelf, dry
and replace it--but don't put any food back, not yet!
Work your way from top to bottom, and you'll build up enough steam to
tackle the vegetable crisper. Amazing, isn't it, how innocent little tomatoes
and shy stalks of celery undergo such a malign transformation in the crisper!
Don't forget the gooey residue puddled up under the meat drawer!
When every shelf, wall and crisper is sparkling, pay attention to the
dreaded door shelves. Toss all the dribs and drabs of jelly, the salad
dressings with code dates from the last decade, the stale carton of eggnog, and
the teeny-weeny jars of "gourmet" this-and-that from the gift packs
of Christmas Past. Be ruthless!
When the door is empty, look lively! Many newer door shelves are
designed to come apart--a great help in cleaning year-old orange juice from
those little nooks and crannies. One way or another, clean it out. Use window
cleaner to kill the greasy fingerprints on the chrome and see-through plastic.
"But Cynthia!", I hear you cry, "what does cleaning the
refrigerator have to do with New Year's resolutions?" Bear with me. We've
now reached the part where we transcend our Hazel the Housemaid routine and
think.
You are standing in your kitchen, face-to-face with a clean and empty
refrigerator, a garbage can brimming with discarded food, a dishwasher full of
plastic food containers and the few hardy survivors of your harpooning session.
What can be learned from all this?
Lean back against the kitchen counter. Take a hard look at what that
whale has been hiding in its dark little innards. The implications will hit you
in the face!
For example, when I tossed out four, count 'em, four jars of dried-out
jelly and a jar of peanut butter manufactured years ago, it was clear that my
children had turned a culinary corner, and the days of peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches were no more.
And I thought my family liked ranch dressing--but I couldn't maintain
that belief in the face of a nearly-full bottle of same dating from the Bush
administration.
You'll wring a few unpleasant admissions from yourself, too. Look
carefully at what foods are wasted, especially from the vegetable crisper.
Are you doing what I've been doing? I'm Miss Nutritional Virtue herself
at the grocery store, but those baby carrots and low-fat margarines languish
uneaten in Moby's dark corners. Did you toss out as much bruised fruit as I
did? Are you buying too much--or not eating what you buy?
Use pen and notepad to jot down your discoveries and track your new
resolves. Match them to your New Year's resolutions. Is lower-fat eating on
your resolution list? Then you'll want to toss the remnants of the Christmas
dinner butter and margarine and replace them with low-fat spreads, apple butter
and all-fruit jellies.
Do you want to tighten the budget? Focus on the waste you've
discovered. Do you buy grapefruit (because your mother did and it's such a
Donna Reed/Beaver's Mom breakfast item) only to toss the shriveled husks,
months later? Are you overbuying milk, or cheese, or meat? If you've tossed it
out today, make a note to yourself to buy less--if any--on your next shopping
trip.
Have family members come to expect weekly cases of soda as a staple,
not a treat? Cut back, and substitute fruit juices and iced tea for those
high-priced soft drinks.
Is more efficient meal planning and home organization on your list of
resolutions? Well, you've taken a giant step forward today.
Follow up on your success by printing a free menu planner, saving money
at the supermarket using the pantry principle, or learning more about menu and
meal planning.
When the dust has settled and you've taken a good, hard, productive
look at the evidence unearthed from your refrigerator, it's time to replace the
few food items that survived your scrutiny.
Done correctly, the New Year's Spearing of the Great White Whale should
all but empty the refrigerator. Don't be afraid of that stark look! A
refrigerator (unlike a freezer) is most energy-efficient when it has adequate
air flow.
Gather or purchase a few little presents for your new, gleaming food
storage space.
Consider small-to-medium plastic baskets (with flat bottoms) to corral
loose margarine sticks, and support and organize floppy packs of lunch meat and
sliced cheese.
Larger baskets subdivide your vegetable crisper and frustrate
self-destructive, neurotic vegetables whose only motive in life is to burrow
deep beneath the plastic bags and rot in peace.
Finally, arrange your storage space to promote good eating habits. Pile
apples and oranges in an open basket on an open shelf--if they're seen, they're
more likely to be eaten! Stick the big, bad, greasy cooking margarine in the
far reaches of the meat drawer, so you won't be tempted to bypass your low-fat
spread. Use zipper bags bags to hold washed vegetable snacks, and put them in a
special basket in the crisper, easy to see and to reach.
When the I speared my own, my very own Moby Dick The Great White
Refrigerator, I was so energized by the sight of the gleaming, empty, healthy
and frugal contents that I moved on to her pantry!
Such a step is only for the valiant, but when the iron strikes, toss!
Dare to dump the sack of stale gumdrops, the sticky candy canes, the six boxes
of opened cereal with year-old code dates, and the dusty boxes of bulgur and
lentils and barley (remnants of an impractical but impassioned health kick).
You'll feel good. You'll make room. You'll promote health.
And if you're like me, you'll spend the next two days sneaking admiring
looks at your gleaming, well-organized refrigerator. It may not be glamour, but
it's life!
Today's Recipe
zebra cookie recipe
What's black and white striped, right down to the white chocolate kiss?
Try Zebra Cookies!
A fun variation on Peanut Blossoms, Zebra Cookies showcase a striped
Hershey's-brand Hugs chocolate kiss in a chocolate cookie dough. A fun spin on
a seasonal favorite!
Zebra Cookies
A black-and-white twist on the familiar Peanut Blossoms, Zebra Cookies
are a chocolate holiday treat!
Fudgy chocolate cookie dough replaces the familiar peanut butter
flavor, while a zebra chocolate kiss carries out the theme.
Finally, dough is rolled in powdered sugar for a fresh take on an old
favorite.
Ingredients
2 1⁄8 cupsflour, all-purpose
2 teaspoonsbaking powder
1⁄2 teaspoonsalt
1⁄2 cupbutter, unsalted
1 3⁄4 cupsugar, granulated
3 eggs, large
1 teaspoonvanilla extract
4 1-ounce squares unsweetened baking chocolate
1⁄2 cuppowdered sugar
1 12-ounce package striped chocolate kiss candies
Instructions
In small saucepan, heat chocolate squares over low heat until melted,
stirring constantly. Or, place chocolate squares in a microwave-safe bowl and
microwave 20 seconds at a time until melted, stirring often.
Mix together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl beat butter and granulated sugar with electric mixer
until fluffy. Beat in eggs until mixture is pale yellow, then add vanilla and
chocolate until blended. Gradually add flour mixture, mixing just to blend.
Refrigerate dough about 1 hour.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Shape heaping teaspoonfuls dough into 1
1/4-inch balls. Roll in confectioner's sugar.
Place 1 1/2 inches apart on greased cookie sheets. Bake 8 minutes.
Remove from oven. Firmly press chocolate kiss into center of cookie.
Return to oven and bake 3 to 4 minutes. Do not overbake. Cookies are soft when
hot but firm and chewy when cool.
Remove to rack to cool.
Notes
To freeze, cool cookies completely, several hours to overnight. Package
in zipper food storage bags in a single layer. Freeze for up to 4 weeks.
Peanut Blossoms
Tender peanut-butter cookies made memorable with a chocolate candy
kiss, Peanut Blossoms are a holiday treat for children of all ages!
In the Ewer household, these are Christmas cookie-tray favorites. It
wouldn't be Christmas without them!
While they're usually seen crowned by a chocolate kiss, try a simple
recipe variation by filling a depression in the center with fruit jelly for
Peanut Butter and Jelly cookies!
Ingredients
1 cupsugar, granulated
1 cupbrown sugar, packed
1 cupshortening
1 cuppeanut butter
2 eggs
1⁄4 cupmilk
2 teaspoonsvanilla extract
3 1⁄3 cupsflour, all-purpose
2 teaspoonsbaking powder
1 teaspoonsalt
2 9-ounce packages chocolate kiss candies
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream sugars, shortening and peanut butter. Add eggs, milk and vanilla,
and beat well. Stir in dry ingredients.
Form into 1" balls and roll in granulated sugar.
Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven, and press kiss into each cookie.
Return to oven and bake 3 minutes more.
Makes 6-7 dozen.
Notes
VARIATION:
With end of spoon, create "well" in cookies, and fill with
jelly or jam for "peanut butter and jelly" cookies.
