Freezing Trays of Food in adavance?

Is there any foods that I can prepare in advance, 2-3 days before a party and defrost day of. What holds up? Ziti, sausage & peppers? chicken cutlets? veal. I have never prepared trays in advance and am looking for some advice on how to pull this off! tia

Re: Freezing Trays of Food in adavance?

If you are only making the food a couple of days in advance, then I don't think you need to freeze it.

I host a lot of large parties, holidays, etc., and I routinely make food in advance and then bake it or just heat it up before serving it.

If you are making baked pasta dishes, like baked ziti, lasagna, stuffed shells, etc. -- I think you'd be fine to assemble the components a couple of days in advance, wrap it tightly, keep it in your fridge, and then bake it right before serving. You may need a few extra minutes of baking time (than the recipe states) since you are putting a chilled dish in the oven rather than a room temp/warm one.

I've also done chicken parmesan by making the cutlets a day or two in advance (breading them and cooking them), and then just baking them with the sauce and cheese right before serving.

You can definitely do sausage and peppers and then reheat in the oven.

I also do a lot of side dishes (e.g. potatoes, quiches, etc.) in advance, keep them in the fridge, and then re-heat in the oven (or microwave, even) before serving.

How far in advance you make something depends on the type of food. Most things will stay fine in the fridge for 2-3 days, but somethings I'd only make the day before (or even night before the party). A lot of times, recipes will tell you how far you can prep in advance or up to what step.

I would try to avoid freezing big trays of food (unless of course you need to start cooking like a week before), because it takes awhile to defrost things and sometimes the taste/quality is compromised.

But you can definitely freeze cakes, breads, and baked goods with no problem... I have a friend who does a dessert party every Christmas and starts weeks in advance and freezes everything. I've also done hors d'ourves in advance -- such as homemade cheese puffs -- and frozen them. They are easy to just pop into the oven frozen.