Party tips from Rick Rodgers
(CNN) -- Caterer and cookbook author Rick Rodgers, who wrote "Celebrations 101," spent years cooking for the French consulate in New York City. Below he shares his tips for keeping the stress out of the kitchen this holiday season.
ASSESS YOUR SKILLS: "I think that people don't assess their own personal cooking skills, which is one of the secrets of having a good party. Be honest about what level you are at as a cook and cook within that level. Look for easy recipes if you are a beginning cook. Look for challenging recipes if you are an experienced cook, or somewhere in between."CLEAN THE REFRIGERATOR: "Make room in your refrigerator. Now is time to go through and say 'I'm never going to use these anchovies, they're out of here!' Clean up the refrigerator as much as you can so you have room to store your food as it's cooked."READ YOUR RECIPES: "Read your recipes -- each recipe -- 4 or 5 times. Really read it. Understand what you're going to do."CHECK PANS: "Be sure you have the right size pans, pots, utensils. There's a difference between a 9 by 5 loaf pan and a 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 loaf pan. It's only 1/2 an inch but by volume it's a cup and a half!"PHOTOCOPY RECIPES: "Xerox the recipe and then paste it up on eye level on the cabinet. No one has enough counter space. God doesn't have enough counter space. Also, if you have a nice cookbook and you don't want to get gravy on the pictures, this saves it."STORE FOOD FOR SPACE: "Don't store your prepped food in bowls. It takes up way to much space. Put it in zippered plastic bags and you'll be able to store a lot of stuff flat. Same with freezing chicken stock. Freeze in plastic bags."MAKE LISTS: "Make a zillion lists. Nothing feels better than when you finish something and you can cross it off of the list."DIVIDE SHOPPING LISTS: "It helps to break your shopping list down into perishables and nonperishables. You can always pick up things your going to need for your big party two or three weeks ahead of time."KEEP LIQUOR SIMPLE: "I don't turn my house into the tiki wiki cabana hut anymore. I think it's cooler to decide what you are going to have as your house drink that party. For example, for Christmas I would serve a really cool spiced cider. If it's 12 people I'll make mixed drinks. If it's more than 12 people it's the house drink and the house wine."DON'T FORGET NONDRINKERS: "Make sure you have something really cool for the nondrinkers 'cause you know you are going to have designated drivers and you want to be a responsible host or hostess. So, what I'd do with the apple cider, I'll spike it with rum or brandy as the house cocktail but plain it's still really good. ... Also be sure that you have attractive glasses for the nonalcoholic drink. Again, not just club soda in a paper cup. I would serve sparkling cider in a champagne glass. [The guests] don't feel like they're missing out."KEEP IT COOL: "If you are cooking in the day and you don't have enough room you could put stuff in your summer cooler with lots of ice in it."
