Holiday Foods Cheaper

With the approach of the holidays, my mind always turns to food and menus. I like to try new recipis and experiment though the family doesn't always appreciate it and the bulk of the menu is usually family traditional. Still, the budget has varied and the food with it. Along the way, experiments and all, I've found some good tricks for serving festive and formal meals that didn't have to be expensive. Here are a few tips:

Hors d'ouvers (however that's spelled) always add something to the party atmosphere. They can be as cheap as "dollar store" ingredients or pricy, and it won't matter a whit to your guests: what matters is that you spend a little bit of time putting them together, preferably in several colorful combinations: crackers topped with cheese spread, some with an olive half, some with a quarter sausage slice will do nicely. Sliced hotdogs heated in barbecue sauce and served with toothpicks makes a nice hot alternative and give the host or hostess a chance to mingle with guests as he brings them around, still hot.

Basic foods "dressed up" will also add to the sense that you're giving your guests a treat. We dress up macaroni and cheese or other casserole foods by piling it into a baking dish (lightly oiled). We crush six or eight saltines with a little melted butter, and sprinkle the results on top. Bake for half an hour (forty five minutes if the cassarole was made ahead and is cold) to brown the crackers. Alternatively , dress up a bowl of mac and cheese with a sprinkling of paprika or a pattern of paprika and parsley for a pretty effect. Dress up canned beans by adding slivered almonds. The little added touches turn a common meal into something special.

Cheap meats can serve as well as expensive ones: the main thing is to cook them appropriately. Don't buy a cheap roast and cook it like a steak. The results will be unpleasant in all respects. Instead, cook it appropriately for a roast and present it on a pretty platter. If you do it as a pot roast, take the large chunk vegetables (we usually do quartered potatoes, small or halved carrots, and onion quarters with a pot roast, foil-wrapped baked potatoes with an oven roast, with thinly sliced onions as a flavoring on the roast itslf) and spread them around the side of the meat on a platter. Serve the broth on the side for gravy or save it as a soup base for leftovers and rice.

If you need to make several meals for guests staying over, you can keep them satisfied and your budget in control by stretching a soup lunch with the addition of rice, potatoes, or pasta. Pasta can be added directly to the soup (it will tend to turn it into a cassarole) or cream soups and thicker soups like chili can be served as a generous sauce over the top of pasta for a filling meal.

Jello can be made into an elegant dessert by making it with an extra packet of gelatin, cutting it up when it's firm, and mixing it with whipped topping and maybe fresh fruit. For a large group, use more than one flavor, make them separately, and mix the cubes together for a colorful treat. Alternatively, separate the liquid from a single flavor into two or three separate dishes, one of them them the serving dish or a series of individual dessert dishes. Chill the other parts only part way: whip. Add one to the serving dish in its new foamy state, stir whipped topping into the other third and put it on top of the rest for a three-layer dessert. It's the obvious effort to make it pleasing to both eye and pallat, not the expense of the dessert, that impresses friends and family best. (And a light dessert is all folks will have room for after a filling meal.)