Hosting an Easy Holiday Meal (Even When You Are Sick)

Hosting an Easy Holiday Meal

So last Christmas I was the one blessed with the honor of hosting our Christmas feast. What I wasn’t anticipating was being sick. Of course, no one can predict if they are going to catch something. It hurt so badly to swallow I just knew I had strep. But no white. No strep. Just a cold.

It was one of those colds that keeps you up “In The Wee Small Hours of the morning, while the whole world was fast asleep.” Anyone know that song? All that to say the coughing was ceaseless. I finally broke down and actually bought some elderberry syrup. If you know me I don’t really take much more than a cough drop, so my husband knew this was bad. Anyway, I ended up sleeping downstairs away from all of the bedrooms so I didn’t wake anyone, my coughing was so loud and frequent.

That was the few days leading up to Christmas including the Eve. I felt like I didn’t have a lot to give in my sleep-deficient state as I was waking myself up every five minutes with another outburst.

I know there is a point where you just have to cancel the whole thing or postpone festivities until you can muster up the energy to get yourself up and running again. But I was no longer contagious since I was about 5 days into the cold. And no one else in the family got it, praise the Lord, because that nasty cough hung on for awhile.

Anyway, then what happens when you aren’t sick enough to cancel? The show must go on.

So what did I first do? I asked for help. It never should be a one man (or one woman) show anyway. So I thought, “we are hosting an easy holiday meal”. Nice and easy. Nothing overboard, but a nice celebration. And we even put on this big birthday bash without turning on the oven. We had an oven-less Chirstmas feast.

So here is what I did.

Close to a week before the big day I made this cranberry orange sauce, and it can be done in the crock-pot, too. By the way the aroma filling the house beckons Christmas to come…citrus and cinnamon. Yes!

Then the night before the celebration, we scrubbed and cleaned the potatoes so they were all ready to be cut and thrown into the crock-pot the next morning for easy mashed potatoes.

We had bought a ham for the Christmas festivities, so I had my husband throw it in the crock-pot early in the morning on low so I could stay in bed longer.

And then in another crock-pot we put cranberry juice, apple juice along with spices for a wonderful Crock-pot Cranberry Spiced Cider, filling the home with a festive aroma.

Right before the meal, I caramelized the Brussels sprouts and onions on the cast iron skillet because it’s simply the best way to prepare the sprouts, and it doesn’t take up precious oven space.

And we had this Cranberry Kale Pecan Salad that comes together in less than five minutes. It’s beautiful, festive, and packed with flavor.

I asked guest to bring pies, and rolls for a very nice dinner topped off with sparkling cider and wine.

And for easy viewing here’s a quick Easy Holiday Meal List:

Crock-pot Ham
Easy Crock-pot Mashed Potatoes
store bought rolls
Cranberries and Caramelized Brussels Sprouts
Cranberry Kale Pecan Salad
Cranberry Orange Sauce
store bought pies
wine
sparkling cider
Crock-pot Cranberry Spiced Cider

Can you believe this whole meal was put on without even turning the oven on? This is great if you find yourself without a kitchen, the oven breaks, or you are remodeling. And yes, we use a lot of crock-pots, but if you need more, consider borrowing some. They really make it easy to sail through hosting a meal.

So whether you are sick, find yourself without an oven or just want an easy meal, use the crock-pot and ask for some help!

Do you have any tips you do to make a holiday meal easy?