How to prepare Sunday Dinner

Since lately we’ve had my usual fair of some roast (pork or chicken), potatoes and assorted veggies, I thought this week I’d go over how I get it all done without being too frazzled.

(Oh stop laughing Mom. I can hear you scoffing from here. Besides, we are helping people. Gah.) Besides, Mom is cooking today.

Anyway. This is assuming you are having some sort of roast beast, potatoes, veggies and other trimmings.

3pm – Turn the oven on to 350. Take the roast or whole chicken out of the fridge, unwrap and place in a pan you can cover. I use a 9×13 pan and cover it in foil.

3:15 – Have a cup of tea and a snack.

3:30 – 4:00 – enlist help of older children or houseguests and peel all your potatoes first. Chop ‘em up and place either in a pot covered in water for boiling and mashing, or in a pan tossed in oil for roasting.
Peel the rest of your veggies, if needed, and place in pots covered in water.

4:30 – turn on the burners to boil the vegetables. Potatoes first. Get the kids to set the table, and get all the serving platters and bowls out. For frozen or canned veggies, you can wait another 15 mintues to turn them on.

4:45 – In the food processor, whiz up some celery, an onion and a few (4?) heels or stale slices of bread you saved. Dump in a micro-safe bowl with a pat of butter or margarine, a teaspoon of sage and just enough water to hold together.

5:00 – remove roast from oven (You checked on it off and on, didn’t you?). Keep covered for a few minutes. Put the stuffing mixture in the microwave for 3 minutes, drain the drippings from the pan into a measuring cup for gravy, and turn off the vegetables. Pour a can of cream of condensed soup (I use celery) into a micro-safe glass measuring cup (the 2 cup size is perfect) and add enough of the pan drippings to thin out to a gravy-like consistency. Microwave this for a couple minutes.

If you have no real drippings in the pan, but lots of golden stuff, take the meat out of the pan and place on a plate. Put the empty pan in the oven for a few minutes to get hot. Pour a cup of water in the pan, using a fork to scrape up all that golden meat dripping goodness. Use this water to thin out the soup for gravy.

Drain potatoes and mash, keep in pot. Drain the rest of the veggies, also keep in the pots. Slice the roast and place onto serving platter. Place the potaoes and the veggies in each serving bowl. Send it all to the table with the gravy & stuffing.

5:30 – call everyone to the table, if they weren’t lugging the food, then sit down and EAT!

Note: if your roast is frozen solid, just put it in the oven right after lunch. It’ll take at least an extra hour to cook, and it won’t hurt for it to be all ready an hour (or however long) before dinner. Slice it, put it in the pan covered and keep in a low oven until everything else is done.