Baking. UGH

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Generally speaking I have this vision in my mind when the holidays roll around. Mom & kids making christmas cookies. Grandma's apple pie. You know HAPPY people making goodies.

Somehow I got pie duty this year. Pie duty? I haven't made pies in forever. I CAN make pies and good ones but I do not enjoy it.

My spotless kitchen is a wreck. So much clean up. eck. I don't remember my mom's old Hamilton Beach making the mess that the $ Kitchen Aid does either. Give me back the appetizers!

What holiday chore do you like least?

Not my kitchen but you get the idea:

[bnoble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bnoble]

I would rather cook than clean. Luckily, my wife would rather clean than cook.

[joycapecod Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close joycapecod]

I hate the cleaning up part. I try to do it as I go, but somehow that never fully happens.

Joy

[Kay H Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Kay H]

I love to bake. I'm dessert chairlady every Thanksgiving when we dine at DS and DIL's. I clean up as I go along so I don't have a lot to do when I'm finished and tired. Baked a plain pumpkin pie, which I will top with Cool Whip, caramel ice cream topping and whole pecans. Also baked a Stuesal topped pumkin pie, a chocolate cherry trifle and an impossible coconut pie.

I don't bake for just DH and me because neither of us needs daily desserts but love it for holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

What holiday chore do you like least?

Prepping the turkey. Especially when it isn't completely defrosted, which is depressingly common - either the fridge is too cold or, when the fridge is behaving, hubby gets a big ol' Tom instead of the hen I was planning on. But at least that doesn't take too long, once the thing isn't frozen. My least favorite holiday chore would be basting the thing, which I hate with a deep dark passion, but hubby does that.

Although I will confess I'm using the refrigerated pie crust this year. I do prefer made from scratch, and I don't mind doing it sometimes, but when it comes to big holiday meals I tend to cheat. Hubby and most of the kids can't tell the difference, so it's only eldest daughter and I who really care. And I always tell eldest if she wants from-scratch crust, she's welcome to make it. She has figured out how to always get from-scratch pie crust out of me, though - she just demands a 10-inch pie for her birthday. She knows the refrigerated jobbies are all for 9-inch pies.

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

Baked a plain pumpkin pie, which I will top with Cool Whip, caramel ice cream topping and whole pecans.

That sounds wonderful! I am totally doing that with ours tomorrow. Except for the Cool Whip - we do squirty whipping cream on Thanksgiving.

[catwgirl Contributor - Bronze Find all posts View Profile Close catwgirl]

Lawren,

Where did you get that picture of my kitchen?!

[shaggy Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close shaggy]

I also hate baking. I don't like messing with dough. Yuck!!

I have a confessin to make. I have never made home made cookies
Poor Kelli has a bad mother!! shaggy

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

I hate baking, too, and cooking in general.
Yet every year I host Thanksgiving for a crowd of anywhere between 20 and 30 people. In the past 25 years I have gotten it down pat, and it is almost always a success.
However this year I am stuck making the pudding pies, which are a non-negotiable family staple at Thanksgiving. My brother who always had this task moved to N.C. and will not be with us this year.
My family is crazy when it comes to these pies. They have to be made with My-T-Fine. No other brand will do, and believe me they can tell the difference. A few years ago the brother couldn't find the brand and bought Royal and after only one bite they were all hollering at him. It has to be cooked pudding (which is the part I am dreading - how boring to stir and stir and stir) and poured into a graham cracker crust. One year they were put into Vanilla Wafer crusts and there was almost a riot. This is a simple pie, we are not talking brain surgery here.
So what SHOULD be a very simple and undemanding task turns into a nightmare for anyone who tries to undertake it. Last year my new sister in law (just married another brother) offered to do it and they didn't make the grade. No one was shy about telling her this either, poor girl.
So no one at all volunteered this year, and I will have to do it. I told my mother and another brother (I have 5, all maniacs) that I was going to make them and they rolled their eyes and asked "Are you sure you want to do that?".
No, I can put out an elaborate dinner for 30 but I can't manage a couple of pudding pies!
OMG, I am dreading this. Maybe a few glasses of wine while I am stirring....

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

I would rather cook than clean. Luckily, my wife would rather clean than cook.

I rather eat have some wine add in a Cigar and then top it off with a shot of Espresso

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

I rather eat have some wine add in a Cigar and then top it off with a shot of Espresso

Now that sounds like my idea of Thanksgiving.

Actually luckily I always work on Thanksgiving so I don't have any chores on Thanksgiving. I just show up late to the party and graze on the leftovers after everyone else is stuffed and complaining about how full they are.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

I hate baking, too, and cooking in general.
Yet every year I host Thanksgiving for a crowd of anywhere between 20 and 30 people. In the past 25 years I have gotten it down pat, and it is almost always a success.
However this year I am stuck making the pudding pies, which are a non-negotiable family staple at Thanksgiving. My brother who always had this task moved to N.C. and will not be with us this year.
My family is crazy when it comes to these pies. They have to be made with My-T-Fine. No other brand will do, and believe me they can tell the difference. A few years ago the brother couldn't find the brand and bought Royal and after only one bite they were all hollering at him. It has to be cooked pudding (which is the part I am dreading - how boring to stir and stir and stir) and poured into a graham cracker crust. One year they were put into Vanilla Wafer crusts and there was almost a riot. This is a simple pie, we are not talking brain surgery here.
So what SHOULD be a very simple and undemanding task turns into a nightmare for anyone who tries to undertake it. Last year my new sister in law (just married another brother) offered to do it and they didn't make the grade. No one was shy about telling her this either, poor girl.
So no one at all volunteered this year, and I will have to do it. I told my mother and another brother (I have 5, all maniacs) that I was going to make them and they rolled their eyes and asked "Are you sure you want to do that?".
No, I can put out an elaborate dinner for 30 but I can't manage a couple of pudding pies!
OMG, I am dreading this. Maybe a few glasses of wine while I am stirring....

If they are that picky, I would suggest a meal out. That's what we are going to do. No mess and no fuss either. I'll bet you do just fine.

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

So what SHOULD be a very simple and undemanding task turns into a nightmare for anyone who tries to undertake it. Last year my new sister in law (just married another brother) offered to do it and they didn't make the grade. No one was shy about telling her this either, poor girl.

My kids whine when I don't make their particular favorite pancake recipe, even if it's another basic recipe rather than something exotic. Ten, fifteen years of the same recipe, I'm ready for a little variety - not going to replace the old recipe with ginger pancakes with lemon sauce, but seems to me once in a while they could be pouring their syrup on oatmeal pancakes or whole grain pancakes (I use half whole wheat or all whole wheat pastry flour in their favorite one anyhow). Now they're old enough, we apply the family rule, "You don't like it the way I make it, you make it yourself." Pity your mom didn't teach your siblings that, since it eliminates a lot of grief, IMHO.

In your position, I'd just not make the stuff. But the problem with that, of course, is I wouldn't get any. So maybe I'd make it my way the next day, to have with the leftovers.

[bjones9942 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bjones9942]

I bake my own bread, grind my own hamburger and make my own sausage - so a couple of holiday item's aren't a big deal.

The trick, and fairly easy to accomplish, is threefold.

1. Mis en place - just go through the steps in your head and set everything you'll need out before you start. If you're a little ocd you can even measure out ingredients to have ready.
2. Start with the things that take the longest to prep/cook and arrange things to finish at the same time. Sounds easy enough, but it's surprising how many people don't do it and then scramble when the mashed potatoes are going cold while the turkey is still cooking.
3. Clean as you go - wipe counters down, clean the easy stuff and soak the harder items. Really, it's not that hard to start cleaning once something goes in the oven. And the relief you get from not having a huge cleanup at the end is well worth it.

This year I volunteered to make mac & cheese (I have to justify the kitchenaid pasta attachment) and rolls. I cheat on the rolls and use the crescents-in-a-tube. Half have shredded cheddar rolled up in them, and the other half have raspberry jam. That reminds me ... time to go shred the cheese

Happy Thanksgiving!

[chellej Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close chellej]

At our house Thanksgiving is pies and christmas is cookies.

Right now ths pumpkin and pecan pies are baking and the filling for the chocolate pies are cooling. Chocolate pies are required - Hershey bars, marhmallows & whipped cream. It is a light texture but very rich.