I’m a Food Network star – go heavy on appetizers & buy a shoulder of meat, my tips to save money on your Christmas meal
HOLIDAY cooking can be costly, but Food Network star Alex Guarnaschelli has some money-saving methods to help you feed everyone on a budget.
According to Alex, the daunting prices of hosting a holiday dinner shouldn't get you down — there are ways to stretch the number of portions and leave everyone full without skimping on the good stuff.
Alex, who can be seen on shows including Iron Chef and Chopped, said to start with the right cut of meat.
"Buying a larger cut of meat like a pork shoulder or roast beef can serve a lot of people when paired with a sauce from the drippings mixed with some mustard and a lot of onions," she told The U.S. Sun.
"Larger-format proteins definitely stretch the number of portions."
She also advises filling up your guests before digging into the main dishes as a way of staying frugal with your festive feast.
"Start the meal on the heavier side," said Alex, who recently taught Selena Gomez how to make some of her holiday classics on Selena + Chef: Home for the Holidays.
"A few wedges of cheese with some crackers, honey, and mustard, followed by a soup — white bean, split pea, potato leek — as a first course is a great way to whet a lot of appetites early on."
The New York native turned celebrity chef also shared some of her favorite meals that have been a part of her family traditions for years — which will also help you to save on your next trip to the grocery store.
"I gravitate to egg dishes for the holidays and they can certainly be a way to avoid pricey cuts of fish or meat," she said.
"My mother made a lot of humble Italian dishes like pizza rustica, manicotti egg dough, pasta, cheese soufflé.
"There is great nobility in dishes — and money to be saved — that are dairy-heavy!"
The famous foodie even dished on how to best upgrade your decor to create a feast for the eyes as well.
"I often make fruit desserts and decorate the table with some of that extra fruit, or even leftover seasonal vegetables that I am cooking in the meal," she revealed.
"An edible tablescape that indicates what dinner is all about can save money on decor and be beautiful at the same time."
One of her other tasty tips includes dispelling a common myth regarding the searing and browning of meat on all sides.
"Searing makes the meat taste delicious, that's for sure, but it doesn't lock any juices inside," she advised.
Some of Alex's fondest holiday food memories are centered around her mom's roast beef with Yorkshire pudding.
It would often be accompanied by a vegetable quiche with a vinaigrette salad and lasagna.
"These are the nostalgic types of dishes that I love to re-create this time of year and keep the memory of people that are no longer with me alive through these stories of food," Alex reminisced.
Now that she is also a mom, Alex is passing on these holiday traditions to her own family which includes daughter Ava.
"My family is small but mighty," she said.
"Ava and I sometimes cook a feast of the seven — or more like four or five — fishes as an homage to our Italian heritage.
"Sometimes we cook or re-create dishes my mother made, especially desserts.
"While we decorate the tree in advance, we wait until Christmas Eve to open presents.
"We are big on stocking stuffers and always have sugar-coated peanuts and roasted chestnuts as holiday treats."
The family that celebrates together also writes cookbooks together — or at least they do when the matriarch is a Food Network superstar.
Alex and Ava have recently released Cook It Up, which allowed them both to develop new recipes.
The book, which offers additional holiday favorites, is also meant to inspire a new generation of future chefs.
"We combined ideas and thought a lot about how we wanted the book to be an honest and achievable relationship family members and kids can have with food and cooking," Alex said.
"We often make the baked clam recipe and it's such a good one for the holidays.
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"It's definitely one of Ava's favorites and she takes great pride in making it.
"The chocolate cookie recipe is one of the first things I ever made in a professional kitchen. So Ava makes extra clams for herself, and I bake a few extra cookies for me."
