We’ve all read the articles about effortless entertaining, and how you should always have wine and artisan cheeses and nuts on hand. AS IF. As if I normally add $60 to my weekly grocery bill just in case. As if I have room in my fridge for “just in case” food. As if my sons wouldn’t decide on a whim that the $8 hunk of cheese would make a few good sandwiches.

There are reasonable but still special things you can keep on hand to entertain friends and family who just drop by. The key phrase there was “friends and family”. They know you, and don’t need to be impressed. Save that for when you invite them for an occasion. Now is a great time to stock your pantry and freezer with things that can be easily turned into great meals or snacks.

Snacks:

• Pretzels and Creamy Honey Mustard Dip: The nice thing about this mustard is that you can adjust it to be as sweet or as hot as you like. Fabulous served with that big winter sausage that someone always seems to give you.
• Mini Open-Faced Toasted Cheese Sandwiches: The grocery store has loaves of frozen bread that take 10 minutes to bake. Mini is festive! If you serve a lot of mini things it will look planned and more festive than, say 4 sandwiches.
• Raspberry Chipotle Sauce: Served over cream cheese with crackers is great. You can make or buy the sauce.
• Pickles, olives, crackers, nuts.
• Frozen shimp when they are on sale. You can make your own sauce with ketchup and horseradish sauce, adjusting the heat up or down to your tastes.
• Party Punch: Festive and fun, and the ingredients are easy to keep.

Entrees:

• Chili: Serve with a variety of toppings, or over rice or spaghetti.
• Pasta is always a hit. Keep some jars of good sauce, and, if you like, add some sliced turkey Italian sausage (which also freezes well).
• Fish fillets are elegant served with a simple butter/lemon sauce.
• Lasagna: The next time you make one, make two and freeze the 2nd without even baking it.  It will take longer to cook, but no mess!
• Individual Pizzas: Premade pizza crusts freeze well, and so does shredded cheese. Anything in your ‘fridge is fair game for toppings!

Now that Thanksgiving is done and gone, I can turn my attention to the next major holiday task: Cookies. Sometimes I bake solo, and sometimes with friends and family. My favorite recipes are all safely stored on-line for easy access and sharing. Plus, when it comes time the “big bake” I can put all the cookies on one plan and use it as a check list and to make sure that no one has to run out to the store for some exotic but essential ingredient, because you really can’t make macadamia nut cookies without the macadamia nuts.

I love cookie exchanges. There are some that stand out with exceptional clarity: Like the year a co-worker’s oven broke, and she baked her cookies on her gas grill; I won’t say they were tough, but we gave them out as gag-gifts. One time we included guys, and they brought packages of Oreos and Chips Ahoy as their contribution. There was also the year that when someone went to put the latest batch of cookies on the cooling table there was a suspiciously empty patch and giggles coming from under the table. How can you be mad at chocolate covered kiddies? This year my son’s school has asked us to provide cookies for the Teacher’s Cookie Exchange, simple enough to fold into the planning!

Here are some tips for mass cookie baking:

Some of my favorites:

Pan Sugar Cookies:  Nice as fillers for the cookie platter.

Chocolate Chip Snowballs:  My husband's favorites.  These don't last very long!

 Maple Pecan Cookies:  I was surprised to love these.  Not overly sweet.

Now that Thanksgiving is done and gone, I can turn my attention to the next major holiday task: Cookies. Sometimes I bake solo, and sometimes with friends and family. My favorite recipes are all safely stored on-line for easy access and sharing. Plus, when it comes time the “big bake” I can put all the cookies on one plan and use it as a check list and to make sure that no one has to run out to the store for some exotic but essential ingredient, because you really can’t make macadamia nut cookies without the macadamia nuts.

I love cookie exchanges. There are some that stand out with exceptional clarity: Like the year a co-worker’s oven broke, and she baked her cookies on her gas grill; I won’t say they were tough, but we gave them out as gag-gifts. One time we included guys, and they brought packages of Oreos and Chips Ahoy as their contribution. There was also the year that when someone went to put the latest batch of cookies on the cooling table there was a suspiciously empty patch and giggles coming from under the table. How can you be mad at chocolate covered kiddies? This year my son’s school has asked us to provide cookies for the Teacher’s Cookie Exchange, simple enough to fold into the planning!

Here are some tips for mass cookie baking:

Some of my favorites:

Pan Sugar Cookies:  Nice as fillers for the cookie platter.

Chocolate Chip Snowballs:  My husband's favorites.  These don't last very long!

 Maple Pecan Cookies:  I was surprised to love these.  Not overly sweet.