Some Quick Meals to Survive the Holiday Frenzy
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 1:01AM 
Short ribsBy Sandy Hu
From Thanksgiving until the New Year, there are never enough hours in the day to get ready for the holidays. While you’re trimming the tree, shopping for gifts, baking cookies and preparing to host parties, the daily cooking still must get done.
Special Fork, a mobile recipe website, was built to solve what to cook at 4 p.m. when you haven’t yet decided what’s for dinner. While spur-of-the moment decision-making is fine most of the year, during the holiday frenzy, it’s good to have some quick meals in mind for the week so you can plan ahead and stock up on the ingredients you’ll need.
Throughout the year, our Special Fork bloggers share a wealth of Ideas for quick-to-fix recipes; we blog daily, from Monday through Friday each week. I’ve combed through previous posts to find the best recipes to help you through the frenetic holiday season. Each is exceptionally quick and delicious, and inspired by popular global flavors.
From Marilyn: Croque Monsieur is the French version of a grilled cheese sandwich that’s dipped into an egg and milk mixture before grilling. Serve with your favorite prepared soup.
From Andrew: tasty Chinese Scallion Pancakes are easy to make with flour tortillas. Often served as an appetizer, you could turn this into dinner with soup and a salad.
From Dave: Kra Prao is as good as anything you can get from your Thai takeout, yet takes just 20 minutes to make, from start to finish. You need chiles, fresh basil and fish sauce for this recipe, which may take you on a special trip to an Asian market, but it’s worth the detour. Dave’s video demo shows how easy it is to cook this delicious, authentic Thai dish. If you don’t have ground pork, use canned tuna.
From Allison: Chicken Piccata is delectable and so quick-cooking, you’ll be sitting down to dinner in no time. The only trick is pounding chicken breasts to make them uniformly thinner. Allison shows how simple it is to do in this video blog.
From Lori: Slow Cooker Short Ribs is a fix it and forget it, hearty, no-fuss meal. Accompany with buttered noodles. And if you’re lucky enough to have leftovers, Lori shows how to repurpose for another meal.
From Katie: Tracey’s Scrambled Omelet is an easy technique for making omelets; vary the fillings to suit your taste and what you have on hand. Serve with a baguette and a green salad.
From Joy: Chicken with Asparagus and Mushroom Stir-Fry is quick, easy and infinitely adaptable, based on what you have in your fridge. You’ll need hoisin sauce for this one. Joy demos how to stir-fry, in case you don’t have the technique down.
From my posts: Curried Chicken and Potato Stew, a one-pot meal, cooks up in just 25 minutes and brings together the scrumptious flavors of coconut milk, ginger, garlic, curry powder and cilantro. This is a video Friday recipe.
For more quick recipes to tide you over during the busy season, go to www.specialfork.com on your smartphone and search Meal Type: Main Dish. Or on a conventional computer, go to this link to enter the mobile site.
Special Fork is a recipe website for your smartphone and PC that solves the daily dinnertime dilemma: what to cook now! Our bloggers blog Monday through Friday to give you cooking inspiration. Check out our recipe database for quick ideas that take no more than 30 minutes of prep time. Join the conversation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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