Hosting As A Single

Now usually couples and families host the big events but there is no reason a single cannot. This will be the third year I'll be hosting (with my sister) for New Year's and it continues to grow in the number of people who show up. The first year it was small just one aunt, her kids, a couple older teenage cousins, my grandmother and mother. Last year we included some friends with kids and another family friend, this year we are adding even more people.

Now don't think I have some grand abode with space to spare, not even in my simplest dreams. I have a good sized kitchen which helps but my house is small. My budget and my time are not excessive either so these are just a few tips that I have employed and learnt along the way.

Relax
This is so important. Something will likely go wrong or at least quite not how you want it. Do NOT  let it become the focus.

Decide Time or Money
Which do you want to save, when and where? Spend the money and save the time by buying a bag salad. Spend the time and save the money making rolls from scratch. This year I am spending the money on disposable plates after two years of spending the time washing dishes I am over it. there are perfectly cute or event appropriate disposable plates that can easily fit a theme.

 There were even plates that said happy New Year, Merry Christmas and 2014. These looked close to real.


Plan to do only one or two dishes well
I do not follow my own advice here but a week ago my friend hosted her single friends for a dinner, she did drinks and décor well, while leaving the rest to us. I did an amazing and well loved tiramisu for the dinner, everyone brought something and we had a great time. I like the cooking and baking part of hosting so I go all out with that and leave the other details to my sister. Know your strengths and go with it.

Have fun
Don't get so caught up in the details that you don't get a chance to mingle and be a part of the whole thing. My first year I spent most of my time in the kitchen and running all over. Last year I set things up, I got a chance to mingle and if I just had to spend some time in the kitchen I didn't go alone I took a cousin or two with me.

Don't be afraid to go casual
I don't have a dinning room table. I have a coffee table in the living room and some patio furniture outside with a table. Everything is served buffet style, everyone gets to freely move around and mingle as they like. At my friend's dinner (she has a dining table which we didn't use) and sometimes at mine, the board games come out, stories are told. We don't miss the sit down dinner that much and I don't feel self-conscious with the mismatched plates, what I own came in sets of four but we are close to 20 in people who show up. It also helps when someone unexpected shows up.

Pray
Even a well loved relative or friend can get on your last nerve at the wrong time. It is easy to get just a little overwhelmed even when you try to relax. Let God be a part of the party.

Christmas doesn't end until after the 6th January, invite a few people over and spread some cheers.

If anyone has any other ideas feel free to share them.

Merry Christmas to my readers!!!!!

Christmas in Trinidad and Tobago: The preparations

Whirlwind. Chaos. Calamity.

Words to describe preparation for Christmas in Trinidad. At least that's what I thought my house was growing up. Most Trinidadian housewives "turn down", "turn up" then "put away" their houses before Christmas (i.e make it total inhospitable to the kids who live there) so that it will look brand new for Christmas and it does but I'll get to that.

Schools in Trinidad close for "vacation" a whole week to a week and half before Christmas to give enough time for the children to be home to help their parents, at least that's what parents tell themselves and the kids. If you have a parent or grandparent or great-grandparent like my grandmother that means you have a million ornaments/ornamental pieces to clean and not break anyone because they are all older than you. Glassware, plates, and silverware that has never been used except for decoration and display also need to be clean and once again not be broken because of course they are older than you also.

Painting was fun if not messy because many Trinis paint every year, some every few years but most when painting choose Christmas. We didn't do much painting but I am intimately familiar with furniture varnish because while many Trinis used Christmas to get new my grandmother believed in preserving with I actually like.   If you have a major renovation most people also choose the months leading up to Christmas.

Most Trinidadians didn't actually finish setting up for Christmas until well Christmas. This is changing and many people are finishing everything earlier but as a kid I could go to sleep at midnight Christmas Eve with something still in the oven baking, my mother or grandmother cleaning something, and an assortment of other chaos going on throughout the house, then wake up on Christmas morning to a whole new house. This has always made Christmas magical to me, I have always been the first person to get up on Christmas morning and at 4:30 or 5 everything is still dark out, the house is quiet and you just a whole new world to what you last saw when you went to sleep a few hours ago. The furniture is rearranged, new (or haven't been seen in a few years) curtains are up, the Christmas lights are on, the house still has a faint whiff of baking and a reverent silence.

I was never the kid to rush presents, I always preferred the experience of Christmas and waking up on Christmas morning. It always annoyed my sister that I didn't open my presents until the afternoon but the experience of what I was waking up to was the best present I got everyday. I know what Christmas looks and smells like and that memory is a present that lasts a lifetime.

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To read the other two post in my Christmas in Trinidad mini series try here and here.

Christmas in Trinidad and Tobago: The Food

Food in Trinidad at Christmas time is out of this world, a bellyache waiting to happen cause you just can't seem to help yourself from trying just one more thing about a million times. Songs have been sung about it. The crazy obsessive serious cooks start somewhere about June soaking their fruits for the black cake. You make it your business to know who have the "sweet hand" for everything so you could make a pass during the season and take a taste, don't forget to take some home for later. Most of these food are only available or seen at Christmas time - black cake, sorrel, ginger beer, pastelle, they may hang around until carnival but these food signal that Christmas is near or here.

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Black cake the star of any Trini Christmas. A good black cake is good for ten years, I am very serious, the fruits in the black cake soak in alcohol no less than two weeks and as I said before some soak it since June and even much longer. Christmas is not Christmas without black cake and everybody's grandmother makes the best one. My grandmother doesn't measure she makes it by know and no one else in the family knows how. Our family makes our black cake on Christmas Eve night or the night before but you can also buy it but what self-respecting Trini don't know how to make black cake, well me but I don't have to yet.

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Pastelles. This is a cornmeal Pattie filled with minced beef seasoned with capers, olives and raisins (or craisins if you are being modern). This is very yum, I didn't like much as a child but my tastes have since refined. The minced beef can be replaced with chicken, pork, fish, veges, soya, or any protein you can think of I suppose. No one in my family actually makes this we buy or are gifted (I have a friend whose sister makes it incredibly well). Traditionally these were made and pressed and wrapped in banana leaves for boiling, many people just wrap in foil now and the trees are super thankful.

Ham. I prefer turkey myself but in Trinidad, Christmas is ham and back in the old, old days like before my grandmother was born (and during her childhood too) this was made by boiling a salt ham in a pitch oil pan. This was done by setting up firestones in the backyard, I have never seen it done but I hear there are places in the country and deep south that still do it that way. Now it's a picnic ham done in the oven decorated with cloves and pineapple rings for baking. Served with chow chow on some home made bread, yum even if I do prefer turkey.

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Sorrel. My favourite Christmas drink, those little red berries I guess you can call them are boiled, cooled and sweetened to make the best drink ever. You have to remove the top and the green pod in the center. I remember having to do that a thousand times give or take a couple thousand every year. This year I discovered black sorrel, I have no idea how long that has been around but I am anxious to try it on Christmas.

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Gingerbeer. The other drink, the one I don't like. It's a spicy drink made from the ginger root, it is also boiled and then left to ferment, cure or whatever else you can call the process in a glass container for a while before it is sweetened.

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Ponche de Creme or as it is fondly referred to puncha crema. This is similar to eggnog I guess but it is so it's own creation. Eggs, condensed milk, evaporated milk, nutmeg, bitters, and rum, lots and lots of rum. I have been helping to make this since before I was allowed to drink it, one rule you use good Angostura rum and only Angostura bitters, you have to keep it local after all.

Homemade Bread. Garlic pork. Pear Drax, a pear-flavoured pop but it is so much better than that. Trinidad is the only place in the world where it’s brewed and it is only available in stores in the month maybe two leading up to Christmas. Last year I was stalking the drink it sells out that fast.

And for New Year's because here in Trinidad we celebrate Christmas going straight to January 6th even though Carnival creeps in on December 26th, black eye peas or pigeon peas. Whether it's cooked in a pelau or stewed to the side, Trinis have to have peas at the Old Year's night lime or sometime on New Year's Day to start the year right.