Christmas and New Year, those seasons of the year when celebrations are at their peak. We save for this period. And whether we are on low budget or with fat pocket, Christmas must be celebrated. And to celebrate, we buy and eat and merry.

We stock fresh meat, fish, snacks, vegetables and other holiday goodies. But as we prepare those food, eat and enjoy that Christmas meal, keeping the leftovers and making them still taste great can be a challenge. And if we do not take care of them properly, they can easily go bad.

So, here are some ideas that will keep your leftovers to still taste great.



What To Do When You Have An Abundance of Meat
After the chicken and turkey have been served and everybody have eaten to their satisfaction, but some leftovers are just too much to be given to the dogs (if you have any), here is a good method to go about them; wrap the leftover meat in an aluminium foil and put them in a tightly sealed container, then inside the refrigerator. By doing so, you are preserving the flavour of the meat until when next you are ready to take another bite.

However, do not consider putting your food when they are hot in the refrigerator. It is bad for the food because it can condense it and affect its taste and also bad for the refrigerator as it can overwork the refrigerant.



What About the Sauce, Stew, Soup etc.
Mothers don’t joke with their refrigerators because of this reason. They want their Egusi soup and Chicken sauce to last longer because they prepared them in large quantities. Allow the hotness to warm before keeping the leftover, tightly covered in your refrigerator.



Keeping The Vegetables Fresh
Carrots, lettuce, peas and other vegetables whether cooked or fresh might not spoil so bad like meat, but it is still important to keep them properly. To preserve flavor as long as possible, put the vegetables in a storage container and seal the lid tightly. If you want to avoid the flavor of your vegetables mixing with other leftovers, be sure to store them in their own container.



Don’t Refrigerate those Snacks
Leftovers can come from the snacks we buy from those eateries we visited. When everyone is tired of eating more pie, cake and their likes. That’s fine. Kindly place them in a safe container and keep them out of the reach of curious pets. Do not store the leftover snacks in the refrigerator as leftover snacks taste much better when they are not served cold. Anyway, that leftover vanilla icecream can be best kept in the freezer. Cover it tightly and do not get it close to any food which might diffuse its content into it.



The Fruits!!
It is not proper to keep fruits naked in your refrigerator, considering the fact that you are in an environment where light is unstable. Bacteria can rejuvenate themselves when the fridge is not working and the inside is assuming a room temperature. Your fruits might be at risk when this happens. So, it’s better you get a transparent plastic bag or bowl to store your fruits.



The Drinks
If power is steady, please don’t put bottles made of glass material in the freezer. It can explode. Freezers now even crack plastic bottles.

Except there is an event and you are in a hurry to chill the drinks, you can allow the drinks inside the freezer for few hours.

But if there’s a leftover fruit juice or its like, cork it well and place in a position that wont allow it to tumble. The taste will surely change if you place it near a food that its aroma could easily permeate into the juice.



Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.