Cooking Nice

To prep, make, and execute a fabulous meal at the exact moment you get your whole family to the table can be draining. Then there’s the cleaning up afterwards! Dinner can be a disorderly, tiresome occasion…. but it doesn’t have to be. As with anything, planning ahead and preparation can lead to greater success.

By using the suggestions laid out below you’ll be better organized. You’ll likely be surprised at just how effortlessly a meal can be had and cleaned away. A cleaner and more organized kitchen will be an added bonus.

1. Plan ahead. Any measure of planning will help the dinner making process, be it following a full-blown recipe, or simply taking some meat from the freezer the day before.

2. Organize your kitchen. Always having kept certain items in certain places doesn’t mean that you should continue to do so. Box up or give to others utensils or appliances you no longer use, and better organize the things you do. For example, if the items that most frequently are put in the dishwasher aren’t in the cabinets nearest to it – move things around.

3. Keep a plastic grocery bag on the counter where you cook. Do so, and you can drop all the garbage straight in there, rather than having it build up and get scattered around. Once you’re done, then you just need to make a single trip to the garbage can.

4. Put your ingredients back in the cupboard after you use them. Spend… Continue reading →