The game plan for next week starts out easy, as we’ll be travelling for the first two days. Then, after holidays and snow days and what amounts to several weeks in a row of being out of our normal routine, we’ll be back in that routine in a flash!
I continue to see a a lot of debate over the importance of family dinners and the challenge of making it happen (see, for example, this Huffington Post piece about the benefits of reserving time for family dinners). On the subject of whether to have a family dinner at home, I’m a staunch advocate. On the subject of how to make it happen, I have mixed feelings. When I’m enjoying cooking and the kitchen is well-stocked, getting a home-cooked dinner on the table at a reasonable time seems easy to me, and I wonder what all the fuss is about. Then, when I stop and really pay attention to all the little steps I take to make it happen, I realize that it does take a lot of planning and organization, and I don’t know how we can get people to do it if they don’t also enjoy cooking.
Tips and strategies for making this happen abound. Some advocate for doing the bulk of the cooking on Sundays and just reheating during the week. Some advocate for quick-to-prepare menus. I find that my approach is a blend of make-ahead dishes and quick menus. Since I intend for this blog to be a journal of sorts for my cooking, both the mundane and the exotic, I’ve decided to include more of my mental planning process in the game plans, beginning with next week’s plan. So, whereas in the past, I’ve scanned my game plans and made mental notes about steps I need to take to give myself the occasional “head start” on a weeknight dinner, I’m now including those steps in the game plan itself.
When I am planning my menus, there is one thing that is probably not obvious to anyone but me. Without fail, I look ahead to my work schedule for the following week. I determine what day is likely to be the most demanding, and I plan the easiest to prepare meal for that night. And the rest of the menu is filled in around that day, based on how much time, energy and inclination to cook I expect to have. I have also found that it doesn’t really take much more energy to cook two meals than to cook one. So, if I’ve got something planned for Wednesday that requires some slow simmering, I’ll often start that dish while I’m making Tuesday’s dinner. Then, it can be quietly simmering away while we’re eating Tuesday’s dinner, and no one is impatiently waiting for that dish to be finished.
