The holidays are a wonderful time for giving and the kitchen is a favorite place to show your love for others with elaborate meals or baking delicious treats. Cooking for someone is a powerful way to show how much we care.
But it’s easy to get harried or stressed when things don’t go exactly as planned, especially when there are guests in the house. Expectations get built up and mistakes inevitably happen. When they do, it’s important to bring as much lightness and fun to the situation as possible. Coach Karpo loved the story and photos that I shared with him during our recent morning of baking for our local firemen.
“I was cooking for 25 at Thanksgiving several years ago and I had my favorite pumpkin pie recipe. I’d been talking up the pies for a week and the kitchen was full of the mouth-watering smell of ginger and cinnamon. As the pie finished baking and I went to remove it from the oven, the wooden hanger on the pot holder became lodged in the oven rack. The pie and my hands came out of the oven, but the potholder was left behind leaving me no choice but to let go. The pie tumbled to the floor!
“While the disappointment was real, I immediately started laughing at the ridiculous situation. And that infectious laughter had the whole party in tears of mirth as we cleaned up the mess and each settled for a small piece of the one remaining pie. We turned what could have been a frustrating event into one of the highlights of our day. It has become one of the best stories, captured in our holiday photo albums for the next generation. ”
Another quick tip about cooking for a big party. See if you can engage some of your guests to help with some part of the process. Cooking together is a great way to connect with others. And who knows what memories will be born of your efforts. Relax, enjoy and embrace whatever happens.