What is entertaining without food? Not very much, one can only get so far with clever conversation! Now that you’ve done some creative dreaming about your entertaining theme, it’s time to do some thinking about menu planning. There is always so much creativity in the process of choosing the food you will prepare, whether you are doing the hosting or you are a guest. It can be its own design process, to consider food color, texture, new frontiers in taste, and lots more. I really love getting into that zone.

When planning the menu and looking at all those gorgeous food illustrations, you may also want to notice the cookware that is required, something very easy to forget, with all the focus on the menu. Especially during the holiday season, many of us tend to experiment in the kitchen, enjoying the cooking experience and process. For me, sometimes that means that I forget all about the practical part of the process until I do not have the piece of cooking equipment that I need for this new recipe I’m trying! It actually happened just last week, as my daughter and I searched for the muffin pan to pour the just blended mixture in…blueberry muffin cake, anyone? So, here’s an idea…

Take pictures. That’s right…turn on the lights in your kitchen, open your cabinet doors to expose your cookware (probably the oven door too, where a few pieces may be stored AND the hall closet) or anywhere you store cookware, and snap away. It should take no more than 15 minutes to do that. Then, upload the images into an album in your computer. When you need to remind yourself of the cookware pieces you have…or don’t have for that recipe you want to include on your menu, you simply have to take a VERY quick look at your kitchen cookware image album. It’s all right there.

Your cookware image album is also a great resource to use to evaluate if you need additional pieces of cookware, and it’s just super convenient! Better yet, if you can put the cookware album on an internet photo site, you can look at it on any computer, anywhere, anytime. I’ll tell you one more benefit…We nearly always KNOW what equipment we have, we’re not just always sure where it is located. Yet, as in the case of my blueberry muffins incident, it was gone from the face of the earth. More often than not, my husband will confess to having used a piece of cookware for some sort of outdoor task for the garden or the car (don’t ask) or what-have-you. He has STILL never learned, despite my admonishments! So, another good idea to just double check the pieces you need for the recipes you want to make them with.

While you are taking your photos, although the items are smaller and perhaps a bit less easy to see, you could try to take pictures, too, of not just cookware, but mixing bowls, utensils, and specialty cooking equipment that you may not be sure you still have or will be able to easily locate again (you know that frantic back and forth and running around search, bending, bumping into others, and so on!) It will be very useful, as you accummulate your recipes or after you are finished menu planning, to make one master list of the cooking equipment you are missing, for one trip out. For those very detail oriented people, you can even assign cookware pieces to certain recipes to make sure you are covered on any big cooking day.

 I actually enjoy finding out if there is any cooking equipment I am missing. I love to purchase, say, even one good quality piece of cooking equipment, one pot, a set of new stainless steel mixing bowls, a handful of new cooking utensils (I love those little cooking luxuries.) It just makes the process a tad more enjoyable with a new cooking “tool.” You could also take this opportunity to rearrange your cooking equipment in a more logical way within your kitchen in preparation for your cooking for entertaining. If you do that, you’ll need to take pictures again, as no doubt, it will be easy forget where all the “logically” placed equipment is NOW placed.

This entire process, the picture taking, and organizing into an album should take less than an hour. The menu planning…if you’re like me, that’s where you’ll also sit back, think, visualize, taste in your minds eye, and procrastinate on your other tasks in a big way. And, with confidence in your cookware, you will be an ocean of calm….guaranteed!