6 HACKS TO MAKE CHRISTMAS ENTERTAINING EASY

LIFESTYLE REPORTER

Too often, hosts bite off more than they can chew and spend the evening playing catch-up. If a three-course dinner feels out of reach, plan something lowmaintenance, such as a champagne brunch or a low-key after-party.

Choose dishes you can prepare ahead of time and serve at room temperature.

Chill cocktails with funky ice. Water isn’t the only substance that can freeze and gradually re-liquefy. By adding other ingredients to your ice, you can create cocktails that evolve over the time they’re being consumed, avoiding palette fatigue.

• Whole chicken: 4 to 12 hours

• Bone-in pieces: 2 to 6 hours

• Boneless pieces: 30 minutes to 2 hours

• Bigger roasts, such as a chuck, leg of lamb, pork shoulder: 2 to 8 hours

• Tougher or larger steaks, like strip, T-bone, rib-eye or London broil: 1 to 2 hours

• More tender cuts of meat, like sirloin, skirt or flank steak, lamb or pork chops: 30 minutes to 1 hour

• Fillets, scallops, shrimp: 15 to 20 minutes

• Whole fish, thick fish steaks: 30 minutes

• Tofu: 30 minutes to 1 hour

• Seitan and tempeh: 1 to 6 hours

• Dense vegetables, such as carrots, squash, potatoes: 1 to 3 hours

• Softer vegetables, such as broccoli, zucchini, tomatoes: 30 minutes to 1 hour

Always have fresh herbs, preferably dill, and cream cheese on hand in the fridge. They are the base of most delicious and fancy emergency recipes and they go well with everything. In a bowl, stir lemon juice into cream cheese until smooth. Add chopped dill (or your favourite herb) and some chilli flakes (or whatever spice you like). That spread goes well with salmon, tuna, leftover roasts, crackers and even bread.

There’s nothing as irritating as setting your table only for flying insects to invade the table. Citronella candles, a fan and incense sticks work well, but a favourite of ours, which will also blend in with the table decor, is scattering herbs like basil, rosemary, mint, lavender and lemongrass around the table. These herbs repel pests like mosquitoes and flies.