Cooking for a lot of people or 3 day YT with a small fridge!

pinkbubbles

Tue, Sep 15 2009, 11:11 am

How am I supposed to cook and freeze stuff for a lot of people or when I have to cook in advance?? I actually canceled hosting a meal because I'm getting anxiety thinking of where in the world I'm going to put everything, I don't want to cook everything on that day!!

I could just throw everything else in my fridge out to make room right? Meaning no milk, juice, fruit/veg, frozen food, etc!!! Just chicken andchallah that we cannot have until RH.

It really puts me off having guests and its very upsetting. I don't get the popularity of tiny refrigarators in this country Rolling Eyes

I'd rather have less counter space!!

Shall I post a picture of my tiny fridge interior?

louche

Tue, Sep 15 2009, 11:38 am

You can only do what you can do. It is not realistic to expect to be able to do with a tiny fridge what someone else can do with a fridge twice or three times the size, any more than you can expect to host in your little four-room apartment as many people as your friend with a 7-bedroom house.

Do what your great-grandmother did and cook for YT on YT. Bummer, I know, and it doesn't make for a really enjoyable YT for you, but what is the alternative?

Some small suggestions that help a little:

--make soup concentrate. IOW, use half as much water as usual and freeze or refrigerate, then reconstitute to taste and boil before serving. Or prep and freeze the soup ingredients with hardly any water or broth, then add broth and finish cooking the soup on YT.

--store in rectangular or square containers instead of round ones.

--freeze food in ziplok bags placed inside containers. when frozen, lift out the bags and stack.Use the containers for refrigerator storage only.

--prep and freeze part of a dish rather than the whole dish, and complete the dish on YT. For example, prep the fruit filling for a pie, then on YT make the crust, or better yet, use a nonperishable prepared graham-cracker crust--and bake.

--be more realistic about how much food you actually need and how much variety you actually need. Granted it's YT and you want to show off your balebosta skills, but really, one kugel and one main course is enough. You don't need to offer three of each. Show off your skills by beauty of presentation and excellence of cuisine rather than in variety.

--Use more nonrefrigearted and canned goods and fewer frozen where possible.

--freeze challah before the last rising, then thaw, let rise and bake on YT or erev YT.

--draft the help of dh and any family members who are old enough. It's YT for you just as much as it's YT for them, why shouyld you be stuck doing all the work? If you don't want them cooking, then let them set, serve, and clear the table and wash the dishes afterwards.

pinkbubbles

Tue, Sep 15 2009, 12:28 pm

thanks for the tips! some I can use and some I can't.. I wish I could rent a fridge but not sure where I'd put it.

the problem is that somehow people in my community here make meals for minimum 10 guests and 3 different main dishes. not sure how it works on 3 day YT but I have a feeling its the same. if I didn't make the same type of food nobody eats and I end up feeling bad. DH wonders why I don't like having guests. Also nobody here eats soup, chulent, kugel, anything 'ashkenazi' type food that's easier to make/freeze in advance.. I don't know how everyone seems to do it, I try to get tips discreetly without being obvious about how clueless I feel..

on a different note when do I cook on RH? do I not go to shul? I've never done this before.

Mrs Bissli

Tue, Sep 15 2009, 12:29 pm

pinkbubbles, I fully understand your frustration. My American friends were all so surprised when they saw my freezer/fridge combo under the kitchen counter in my first flat.

Well, you ARE allowed to prepare on the second day R-H. (I'm not really making things in advance for 2nd day lunch). Are there things you don't need to refrigerate (fruits, veggies, eggs, cakes) esp now that it has gotten quite chilly? Also challot and juice do not need refrigeration.

Some desperate idea for something out of jars and tins: tuna and sweetcorn salad, pickles, tehini (the one from the jar you dilute with).

pinkbubbles

Tue, Sep 15 2009, 12:38 pm

thanks Mrs Bissli Very Happy

basically one day I'm going to go to John Lewis and buy the biggest American fridge they've got. I was drooling in that section last week.. Surprised

thats when I have an extra £3000 or so.. LOL

I prefer to make my challah in advance since it takes time to make + cleanup etc. DS is one & needs a lot of attention so thats my 'making things in advance' obsession explained a little.

louche forgot to mention I have no family here and nobody can really help prepare (not available/would just make a mess/too busy!). DH is great with helping clean up after though.

Mrs Bissli

Tue, Sep 15 2009, 12:49 pm

pinkbubbles wrote:

We're not big on ashkenazi type food either, but I found it easier to cook before and freeze sephardic food. Rice, anything with lamb (refrigerate and skim off fat), leek patties etc. Hey, there are more potatoes (that do not freeze well) in ashkenazi recipe.

I pledge guilty--I splurged and made 3 mains (brisket, stuffed courgettes/peppers done, doing chicken Friday) but I don't alternate menus. The same mains are served for all meals we're hosting. Otherwise I'll go insane.

pinkbubbles, let me know if you and DH feel like gatecrashing our place.

louche

Tue, Sep 15 2009, 1:40 pm

What about your guests? Whoever asks you "what can I bring?", jump in and say "a veggie salad" "a kugel" "a dessert". From the number of posts here all asking "I'm going to someone for YT lunch, what should I bring?" we can safely conclude that guests WANT to be told what to bring.

BTW why are you worrying about a 3-day YT when we don't have any this year? By the time we do, you'll be more experienced and better able to find ways to manage. As my bubby used to say, "Cross that bridge when you get to it." Actually, she never said that but she would have if she'd ever heard of the expression.

Be your own woman! Just because everyone has at least 10 guests, doesn't mean you have to. (I suspect if you do a little research you'll find that a few people have huge crowds but many if not most do not. You just know about the ones who do because the ones who don't aren't advertising the fact.) Do what you can do and don't worry about the rest.

What kind of foods do they serve in your neck of the woods? Surely they serve some sort of hot meat or poultry dish? If it's the kind of labor-intensive, long-cooking dishes they make in places like Morocco, how about using a crockpot? Instead of being in the fridge, the dish is in the crockpot cooking. It may not come out exactly the way your neighbors make it, but then no one's food ever comes out exactly the way their neighbors make it. My Moroccan friend makes zillions of cooked veggie dishes that she calls "salads". They cook for ages. The advantage of a menu heavy on veggies is that whole raw veggies don't need the kind of fulltime refrigeration that animal products do. You can keep them out of the fridge till they're cut up and/or cooked, esp. if you buy them a little underripe. Yes, they will require cooking on YT, but they won't clutter up the fridge.

Ppl LOVE being asked for advice. It's a huge compliment to ask someone to show you how she cooks something or tell you how she arranges or organizes things. Come right out and ask! You might get the occasional snoot who refuses to give you her trade secret recipe for babaganouch, but most people will be only too happy to share. Smile appealingly, play up your cluelessness, and you'll arouse everyone's motherly instincts, too.

I can't answer for the customs of your community, but where I live women usually don't go to shul at night except for Megillah, Eichah and Kol Nidre nights. Women with small children anyway don't spend all day in shul. They come for shofar blowing for the most part.

YT should be a joyous time. If having guests is going to stress you out to the point that it kills the pleasure of YT for you, maybe this is not the stage in your life for you to be having guests. Far be it from me to discourage hachnossas orchim, but I wonder if you're looking at your situation realistically.

To sum up: your choices are as follows:
--cook smaller quantities of fewer types of food
--make more vegetable dishes
--cook on YT
--have fewer guests
--have guests contribute to the meal

Then there is the one I didn't mention yet, which is: get yourself invited out!

Raisin

Tue, Sep 15 2009, 2:01 pm

You don't need an american fridge freezer, just get an extra fridge, if you have space. Or an extra freezer may be more useful.

(My fridge-freezer in america was no no bigger then my parents fridge. Of course, if you are renting you don't have choice of sizes...you are probably comparing to whattever your parents have.)

So what do people eat? my parents live in London and eat cholent, kugel and other ashkenazi foods. Maybe you hang out with different people.

On yt, by the time the second (or third) day comes, I am tired of reheated food and put a chicken and some potatoes in the oven before I go to shul.

And, definately, try and arrange to eat out at least one of the meals.

ruth

Mon, Nov 16 2009, 3:05 am

warning, I didn't read the entire so I apologize in advance if I repeat advice already given or say something eschew.

I understand your situation about not being able to rely on typical Ashkenazi fare.... My dh is temani.
I make cooked types of salads:
matbucha, olive, morrocan carrot/beets, baba ganoush, ... all of them can be stored in zip lock bags to save space.
you can store boiled, unpeeled potatoes in bags and make potatoe salad before each meal. don't store prepared meals in the foil tin trays if possible

I remind myself that refridgeration is a modern convenience and homemakers haven't always had this convenience. This helps me think more creatively. I have learned some tips from camping:
some veggies can survive quite well outside the fridge (carrots, eggplant, celery, zucchini, even tomatoes) if kept in a cry, cool place. Think "root cellar" from the old days. I picnic cooler left open and lined with paper bags is good for this. Put it in a well ventilated place. I have taken condiments out for yom tovim (mustard, jelly, jars of ...) I have bought dry ice (sorry I don't know if this is what you call it in UK) it last about 24 hours and is good for keeping more perishable veggies cool for a extra day.

think about asking a neighbor to borrow some parking space.

I have to go, because my dh needs the computer. I know my post is long after yom tovim, but I hope you survived.