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Awesome Life Hack of the Week: Hacks to make your Christmas dinner in Toronto super easy

Cooking a Christmas dinner is one of life’s more daunting tasks. There’s the fact that, should you mess up roasting a 15 lb turkey, there are no do-overs. There’s the timing: everything’s got to be hot when it’s served, and it all has to be served at the same time.

If you’re making Christmas dinner for family and/or friends this year, or even if you’re helping with the Christmas dinner, these hacks will make the ordeal much less painless.

Turkey Hack: Barbeque the turkey. The easiest and arguably most delicious way to roast a turkey is on the barbecue. It’s so good, in fact, that you may not even have to brine or season it. According to Butterball, “10 to 16 lb. turkeys will take 2 to 3 hours to grill. When done, remove and let stand for 15 minutes before carving.” Watch a video on how it’s done here.

Fresh Baked Bread Hack: Prep bread mixture the night before so you can pop it in the oven just before Christmas dinner and have a fresh loaf (or two) ready just in time. We found a super simple recipe here that should rise for 12-18 hours, and bakes for 25 minutes to make a loaf of ciabatta that feeds 6 to 8 people.

Everything else is all about timing. The Mirror out of the UK has an AMAZING tool that helps you time everything for your Christmas meal. Beware, though – when we tried it, it told us to start cooking at 3:30 am and said dinner would be ready at 9 am, although we’d set it for 5 pm. Anyway, enter the weight of your turkey and what time you’d like to start eating. It even reminds you to start thawing your frozen turkey a day or two before Christmas – and encourages you to have a wee alcoholic beverage here and there.

Mashed Potatoes Hacks: You’ve got options when it comes to mashed potato hacks. You can cook potatoes in the microwave in 7-10 minutes, saving you from 30 minutes of boiling. Or, if nuking your potatoes doesn’t sound good peel potatoes with your bare hands in seconds by boiling them for about 30-40 minutes or until they’re cooked through. Then put them into a boil of ice water until they’re cool. Now, the skins will come off with your bare hands! See it here.

Salads. While the potatoes are cooking, make the salads, since they’re served cold anyway.

Stuffing Hacks: The easiest way to cook stuffing is to put it inside the bird, then when the turkey’s cooked, scoop the stuffing out into a bowl using a big spoon. Careful, it’s hot! You can also make stuffing in a slow cooker, crock pot and in the oven, rather than stove top where it might burn.

Brussels Sprouts Hack: Just kidding, nothing makes brussels sprouts taste better.

Got your own Christmas dinner hacks? Share them in the comments section!

Erin Cardone: Born on the Prairies, Erin Cardone grew up knowing there was more to life than canola fields and AAA Alberta Angus. So she escaped, living in Europe and Australia, white-knuckling it through plates of calf brains and raw horse meat, and learning languages she can't remember anymore. After a stint as a jaded, skeptical journalist, she changed tack and began writing rather awesome blogs and showing businesses that advertising is dead, so long live social media, with her businesses Legendary Social Media. She now splits her time between various Canadian cities, Costa Rica and wherever else the wind blows.