Holiday stress is real and the only answer to it may be to hire a personal chef. Of all the holidays the country celebrates, none focus so much on cooking as Thanksgiving.
Every year there are reports of how stressful the holiday can be for families of all sizes. Last year, CNN Correspondent Kelly Wallace wrote a column detailing the stressful holiday and how some have managed to overcome it.
In the column, Wallace spoke to Jennifer Bosse, founder of the blog Tales of a Southern Sweetheart, who admitted that she used to cook everything on Thanksgiving, which she admitted was not a good idea.
“And by the time everything was prepared and set out, I was too exhausted from making it to partake,” Bosse said in the column.
Don’t turn family time into turkey time
That tradition of cooking the day of the holiday will most likely continue this year in a number of households. In 2015, it was estimated that Americans consumed 46 million turkeys on the holiday, according to The National Turkey Federation. Considering that it takes on average five to eight hours to cook a turkey in the oven (depending on size and weight) and that is a lot of time in the kitchen.
There’s a better way if families hire a personal chef for Thanksgiving. And not only can families alleviate stress from the holiday, but it presents a great opportunity to make the holiday special and unique in terms of the dishes you can ask the chef to prepare.
So instead of the Thanksgiving staples such as roasted turkey with mashed potatoes, stuffing and cranberry sauce on the side, why not change things up? The prep time that many families endure before the holiday can be replaced by flipping through magazines or, let’s face it, Pinterest, to find enticing offerings for dinner.
One thing to consider is personal taste. This is your Thanksgiving after all and you should keep in mind that there is a special art in choosing dishes that work well together. You also do not want to get the same of everything, so it’s a balance you have to strike just right.
For instance, many families like to have a mac and cheese dish on the table and it’s a great recipe to have some fun with, taking into consideration everyone’s personal tastes.
Redbookmag.org recently published an article on 15 unique recipes for Thanksgiving and suggested a “creamy butternut squash mad and cheese,” a dish with “chunks of squash and kale stems.”
Another popular unique dish in years past has been pumpkin risotto, which shows up in almost any general search on Google or Pinterest.
Let the chef customize the meal
No matter how you choose to make your Thanksgiving dinner unique, be sure to speak to your chef about any dietary restrictions. For those who are more health-minded, chefs can also be conscious of that as they prepare your dinner.
But perhaps the greatest advantage of hiring a personal chef could be the time gained from not having to spend hours in the kitchen cooking, or cleaning afterwards. And in turn, that’s time families can spend together during a holiday that brings people together, especially those who live far apart from each other.
Dinners can come and go, but gaining more time with family members you haven’t seen all year is something precious and is essentially what Thanksgiving is really about. Be sure you don’t let this opportunity pass you by.
For help finding a personal chef for your Thanksgiving celebration, contact Colonial Domestic. You can rest assured knowing that the chefs in our network come with the best experience in the industry to ensure everything you want for the holiday dinner will be perfect.