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You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Holiday Recipe Exchange: Dinner Recipes

Holiday Recipe Exchange: Dinner Recipes

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I thought it would be helpful to put together some ideas for Christmas dinner. I’ll follow that up with a compilation of holiday treats for dessert or to give as gifts.

Let’s start with this year’s Christmas Eve menu:

  1. Spinach Lasagna
  2. Collard Greens with Bacon
  3. Garlic Cheese Bread
  4. Ice Cream Sundae Bar

All those recipes can be found here

============================

Next up, the more traditional turkey dinner, with my new favorite cooking technique, wrapping the spatchcocked turkey in a bourbon, maple syrup, and butter-soaked cheesecloth:

Spatchcock Roasted Turkey with Bourbon and Maple Syrup (recipe here)

Garlic Mashed Potatoes (recipe here)

Christmas dinner here will be a standing rib roast:

Standing Rib Roast (recipe here)

Photo by JeffreyW

Roasted Smashed Potatoes (recipe here)

============================

I had a request for some easy potluck sides:

almost there

French Onion Casserole (step by step photos of recipe here)

  • 2-3 tbsp of butter
  • 3 large sweet onions (or 4 medium yellow onions),thinly sliced
  • 8 oz shredded Swiss Cheese
  • 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup (substitute mushroom soup for vegetarian)
  • 2/3 cups milk
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • pepper
  • 8 slices of French bread

skillet, shallow 2 qt casserole or baking dish (glass)

Melt butter in skillet over medium heat and add onions. Sauté until onions are translucent, a little caramelization is ok.

In baking dish, layer onions, 2/3 of the cheese and pepper to taste.

In skillet, heat milk, soup and soy sauce, stirring to blend well.

Pour soup mixture over casserole and fold in gently to mix.

Top with bread slices.

Bake at 350 degrees, uncovered for 15 minutes, bread should be brown and toasted. If not, turn oven to broil to crisp the bread (watch closely). Remove casserole, return oven temperature to 350. Push bread slices into sauce, top with remaining cheese, return to oven and bake an additional 15 -20 minutes until cheese is melted.

============================

I love taking Jicama Slaw to get-togethers, it is so unexpected and fresh.  Jicama Slaw (recipe here)

And finally, I make these as appetizers – they are so simple and really look great on a plate. You can prep them ahead of time and just pop them into the oven just before guests arrive.

Wild Stuffed Mushrooms (recipe here)

That should be a good start. You can access all the holiday recipes here.

Now it’s your turn, let’s share some recipes and maybe we can find something new to try this week (that’s how I got the French Onion casserole recipe).

If you celebrate, what are you cooking up for the holidays?

(BTW, this entire post was composed with 25 lb of puppy on my lap…so let me know if I missed something or something is unclear)

 

 

Reader Interactions

55Comments

  1. 1.

    eclare

    I wondered what Trixie weighed!

    That French onion casserole sounds yummy! I decided today not to go to my relatives’ for Christmas. They insist on going to a Christmas eve church service, which I would have done although I don’t believe, but I can’t with covid. You would think the church would at least require masks, the minister died of covid this year.

    Nope.

  2. 2.

    Yutsano

    My family has done enchiladas for Christmas dinner since well beyond I can remember. There’s no real special recipe for the ground beef ones. My youngest brother makes these really good chicken enchiladas that I really need the recipe for. I’ll bug him for it this year if he makes them. I hope he does.

  3. 3.

    sab

    My mother used to make a creamed onion dish with tiny frozen pearl onions. I sneered at through my childhood and young adulthood until finally in my thirties I actually tasted it and it was delicious. Unfortunately we never wrote the recipe down because for decades it was on the frozen onion package,  until one year it wasn’t.

    Does this dish ring any bells with someone who does have the recipe? Mom made it every Thanksgiving and Christmas for 50 years.

  7. 7.

    Ken

    @sab: My 1960s Joy of Cooking has:

    Prepare Steamed Onions [presumably you would substitute the thawed pearl onions].  Cover with one of the following:

    • 1 cup White Sauce
    • 1 cup Allemande Sauce

    Cook the onions and the sauce together for 1 minute. Add:

    • 1/4 cup chopped parsley
    • A dash of cloves
    • 1/4 teaspoon paprika
    • (2 tablespoons sherry)

    Serve the onions on toast.

  8. 8.

    MelissaM

    Also, our Christmas Eve dinner is Swedish meatballs with noodles, gravy, lingonberries, and some kind of veggie. The meatball recipe comes from a Scandinavian cookbook I bought at Farm & Fleet some years ago, and hubby has perfected them.

  10. 10.

    TaMara (HFG)

    ….and now I have a 15 lb cat on my lap. Sully’s having a little hard time adjusting to the puppy and makes sure he gets lap time, even if he has to push her (or my computer) out of the way.

  11. 11.

    Benw

    @Yutsano: when I was growing up our next door neighbors did tamales on Christmas eve every year. We’d bring over our Xmas cookies. It was awesome

  17. 17.

    HinTN

    I like to keep it simple.

    Soak a country ham for 3 days. Change the water after two days. Cook it at 200F for 18 – 24 hours until it’s done. Take it apart, scraping all the fat and gunk away from the muscle. Cool and serve. Goes with anything.

  18. 18.

    sab

    @TaMara (HFG):

    @Ken:

    Those both look close. It was the no cheese version. I think Birds Eye dropped the recipe from the package when they introduced their own version of onions w/ the cream sauce.

    Thanks.

  20. 20.

    TaMara (HFG)

    Okay, I’ve got to take care of some things, I’ll check back…but I leave you with camoflouged puppy. A friend gave me this great blanket as a gift last year, little did we know it would match a Great Dane one day.

    Holiday Recipe Exchange: Dinner Recipes

  22. 22.

    Dagaetch

    Xmas Eve dinner: Beef tenderloin with mushroom Madeira sauce, Yorkshire pudding, creamed spinach, glazed carrots. Plus my dad’s homemade ice cream for dessert.

    Xmas day brunch: honeybaked ham, crepes, all the jams and candied sauces my mother has collected over the past year, and probably something healthy that no one eats.

    It’s a gluttonous feast and I love every minute of it.

  23. 23.

    Yutsano

    @Benw: My co-worker is from Mexico. Her family used to do this but her father died of COVID so that may not happen this year. However a carcineria near her house sells a dozen for $15.99. I may give her $40 and have her pick me up a couple dozen.

  24. 24.

    Dan B

    I have a simple salad that is great with sides that are rich.  Some ingredients may be challenging to locate outside of the coasts but should be online.

    Napa Cabbage sliced into 1/2″ or a bit larger.

    Minced garlic to taste

    Toasted Sesame Oil to coat the Cabbage

    Ponzu Lime or plain Ponzu to taste.  I like a lot and like to dress the Cabbage a couple hours in advance.

  29. 29.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @sab:

    I sneered at through my childhood and young adulthood until finally in my thirties I actually tasted it and it was delicious.

    Heh. That was me with beets and Brussel sprouts

  31. 31.

    Chacal Charles Calthrop

    @HinTN: except Passover- true story: NYC supermarket had a sign on their hams: great for holidays! Passover’s coming!

    this sign was not up for long, of course, but cellphone photos posted to the Internet last forever.

    does anyone here marinate turkeys in buttermilk? Apparently that’s a thing

  32. 32.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Chacal Charles Calthrop:

    does anyone here marinate turkeys in buttermilk? Apparently that’s a thing

    Whole or cut up?  Because whole would…time to pick up the turkey, a 5 gallon bucket and who knows how much buttermilk!

  33. 33.

    Yutsano

    @Dan B:  I was thinking, “ponzu isn’t that hard to locate, I can get it at the grocery store!” then I remembered where I live. :P

  35. 35.

    JMG

    My children are in charge. I believe we are having roast goose on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve I dunno. My financial adviser sent me his firm’s annual ham as a present, so maybe that.

  36. 36.

    Feathers

    I made this once for Christmas, but it turned out to be overkill as a side dish. It is excellent if you are looking for a single dish holiday dinner, though. I may make it this year. I leave out the chestnuts, unless I find them at the store. The jarred cooked ones are ridiculously expensive. I use cornbread instead of regular bread.

    Giada di Laurentis Sausage and Chestnut Stuffing

  39. 39.

    Ken

    @NotMax: For grins, let’s peek back to the fabulous 50s.

    Am I missing something, or does the chicken salad recipe not mention the pimento-stuffed green olives that are so very visible in the picture? Or was it just that all 1950s recipes assumed you’d add those?

  41. 41.

    Feathers

    And to add an especially delicious and unique adult cranberry sauce recipe, from a cranberry farmer who I was in a writing group with:

    1 bag cranberries

    maple syrup

    Cabernet Sauvignon or other full bodied red wine

    Place cranberries in small saucepan. Add 50/50 mixture of wine and maple syrup to just below the top of the cranberries. Cook until cranberries have burst and sauce is slightly thickened.

  43. 43.

    Wag

    The recipe  for the roast looks great, similar  to what I was planning. After reading your recipe I will bump up the amount of garlic.  I’m also planning a reverse roast, long and slow at 225 until I reach an internal temperature of 125-130, followed by a quick blast at 550 to develop a nice crust.   I’m also experimenting with a week of dry aging before cooking the roast.  It’s always fun planning Christmas dinner!

  45. 45.

    Wag

    @mrmoshpotato:   I did a buttermilk marinade for a whole turkey for thanksgiving this year, and it was kind of a hassle. Good turkey, but the bag leaked so I didn’t get the full benefit from the marinade.  I’d experiment with a whole chicken before trying it again.

  52. 52.

    Percysowner

    Your standing rib roast has been our holiday go to since I found it a few years ago. Great recipe, thanks for sharing. I may try a few of the sides the next time I cook for Christmas.

  54. 54.

    Cathie from Canada

    We CANNOT have Christmas without turkey, it would be illegal or something.

    I’m the designated family cook so every Christmas morning for 40 years you can find me in the kitchen, stuffing a turkey – I know, I know, I could cook it as dressing, on the side, but its just not the same flavour without my mother-in-law’s sausage and apple stuffing.

    Our family dinners are a little more challenging these days — our son is vegetarian now, and our daughter’s wife is gluten-intolerant.  So we search for recipes that work for everyone, or sometimes I cook three versions of things like my dressing, so everyone can have some.

    Barbara’s stuffing is really easy:

    bread crumbs (4 cups or more), 1 lb sausage meat, 1 cup golden raisins, 2 grated apples, 1 grated onions. 1 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning, 1 tsp salt. Mix everything gently, stuff the bird, and cook.  Any extra can be baked in a casserole on the side – pour over some chicken stock and dot with butter first.

  55. 55.

    sab

    @Dan B: I can’t believe it. Our local grocery store chain in Akron OH had Ponzu right there in the Asian/Mexican/Kosher aisle, and Mirren over in the condiments aisle. Now I have to figure out how much ” to taste” is.  ;)

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