My mother has to work on Christmas this year. As a result, my sister and I will be doing the majority of the cooking for the first time ever. It’s actually kind of exciting! However, I am tired of the same old same old at every Christmas. I want to try some new recipes. Give me some ideas!
My advice is to not go too far off course with new recipes. Change up one or maybe two side dishes, but don’t do what my daughter did one year and decide we were having Mexican food for Thanksgiving. No one has really forgiven her, and the whining for years after about not getting turkey and stuffing in 2007 was unbearable.
What do you usually do for Christmas? Since we do turkey at Thanksgiving, Christmas for the last 15 years has been ham, potato/cheese peirogis, asparagus with hollandaise sauce (or roasted asparagus), sometimes shredded Brussel sprouts (which are amazing), corn, rolls, pie. Or I’ll do Jaques Pepin’s smashed Yukon gold potatoes. Since Christmas is one of the few days I DO get off, I want cooking that is quick and easy, and none of those dishes take much effort at all.
Our old Christmas feast, which was the same as Thanksgiving, was turkey with bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, cranberry relish, green bean casserole and gravy. All homemade. All labor intensive. And very traditional, and comforting. But now I usually eat at my brother’s, and I bring a gluten-free green bean casserole, and that’s it.
It’s funny that you mention Mexican food, because I thought it would be fun to have posole and tamales for Christmas dinner, but I’m pretty sure my family would revolt. We usually have ham, cranberries, sweet potatoes, and potato casserole with pie for dessert. BORING! (Except for the pie. Must have pie.) I’m just looking for what people’s favorite holiday recipes are to try to change it up a bit.
Seriously, the Pioneer Woman has made me the total heroine of holiday cooking. This recipe is foolproof and absolutely crack-addict kind of delicious…
This is a good Turkey Day recipe too, and also extremely easy (my mom, who is a fantastic cook keeps exclaiming how AMAZING it is that I can bake a cake because she never could …except I know for a fact she can but whatever):
I made this stuffing one year and that was it, it had to make an appearance on the table every year or there would be rioting in the streets.
It is delicious and filling, almost a meal all on it’s own… I leave out the chestnuts because I don’t like them and it is just lovely without them. I can also report that this is just fine assembled the night before, refrigerated overnight and baked the next day, which will make your lives easier.
Oh, yeah, I forgot about the Pioneer Woman! I’m always browsing through her website, drooling over the recipes but never making them because they’re so unhealthy. But the holidays are the perfect time for unhealthy.
Dr. Righteous, that stuffing sounds yummy. Sausage stuffing is my favorite kind.
Slight highjack:
Hey kittenblue, can you give me the recipe for these, or point me to one online? I love brussel sprouts, and have been looking for other ways to prepare them.
I had to try this recipe today and can report that it is excellent. The local market has a fantastic chicken Italian sausage and bulk dried cranberries. Fresh local apples added a lot to the flavor. This is really a dish that can stand on its own, but we had it with a roast chicken. I think I’d cut the bread chunks smaller next time around.
A lot of people (and I’m one of them) really, really don’t like to have certain traditions changed. You might try adding or changing one or two side dishes. In your family’s case, I’d try to add in some non-starchy vegetables, because everything you’ve listed is starchy. Cruciferous veggies go well with ham (and with pork in general), so how about some brussels sprouts or cauliflower? This can be plain or fancy. My family always makes a big pot of broccoli, rice, and cheese, which is fantastic. Yes, it has starch in it, too, but we always have a lot of nonstarchy veggies. I would also suggest maybe offering some fresh fruit and maybe some good cheese for dessert, along with pie. Also, we have a tradition of offering a veggie platter for appetizers, just stuff like cut up raw carrots and celery and bell peppers and such, with some things like marinated artichoke hearts and baby pickles (dill and sweet) and olives and maybe some deviled eggs.
It’s OK to offer a new dish, but unless most people don’t like one of the traditional dishes, you need to offer it. My mother loves fresh cranberry relish, and keeps making it, even though she’s the only one who will eat it. We’ve taken to bringing the cans of jelly to her house when she hosts, and then just grabbing a plate, and setting the chilled and sliced jelly on the table. It always disappears.
Interestingly, there’s a tradition in some places of eating tamales on Christmas. I think it’s in order to break the pre Christmas fast, I know a lot of people here in Texas do this, whether they’re Hispanic or not. Many mom and pop Mexican restaurants put up signs in December urging people to get their tamale order in early. It’s not MY tradition, but a lot of people don’t feel like it’s Christmas without their tamales.
I very much agree with what others have said-change up one or two traditional dishes a little, or add a new one, but don’t futz around too much with your ‘traditional’ menu. One thing I started doing a few years ago (to rave reviews) was to punch up my mother’s traditional bread stuffing recipe (slightly dried bread, eggs, chicken stock, celery, onion, lots of sage, melted butter, salt and pepper) by adding cooked sausage and chestnuts to it. The sausage adds some ‘zing’ and the chestnuts add a little sweetness and an interesting texture (they also smell amazing when they’re roasting!)
Another thing I started, about three years ago (at hubby’s request) was serving a pea salad with the holiday dinner.
Otherwise, I don’t mess too much with the regular menu. When you’re in the kitchen all day, cooking like a mad woman, that’s not the time to discover that such-and-such a recipe isn’t nearly as awesome as it sounds, or that even though you may love the mashed sweet potatoes with vanilla bean, nobody else in the family does!
My family eats tamales for Christmas, although I hate tamales so my Nana makes me a ham.
But yeah, don’t change traditions. I, personally, hate it when traditions are changed, especially if there isn’t a valid reason for it. I remember my grandparents moved the tree one year, I was not happy (seriously though, the tree has been in the back left corner of the den every year since I have been alive. Why would they ever change it? It belongs in that corner!).
If you do want to mix something up I’d add in another dessert. If you want I can give you the recipe of a really good coconut cake.
(What they said. Don’t get creative, please! Much as I personally would love a pizza buffet or Chinese food, the Big Christmas Feast MUST go on as it ever did, or you will never hear the end of it.) Just add a couple of ‘new’ side dishes. I made a rice pilaf one year (from boxes of healthy-organic-whole grain mixes I found in the health food section of the grocery store) and just added toasted nuts of all kinds, and it went nicely with the other dishes. Also appreciated was a kind of Waldorf salad: chopped apples tossed with a little lemon juice to keep from browning, walnuts or pecans, red seedless grapes, chopped dried apricots (that have soaked in warm water till somewhat softened), chopped dates/golden raisins/craisins, maraschino cherries, folded into enough vanilla yogurt to bind. Put it into a glass bowl, top with more nuts, and there ya go.
It mainly depends on who we are having supper with but with Grandma depending on how many people are coming she’ll fill out the table with cabbage rolls (made with sour cabbage), meat balls and gravy, and creamed onions. Definitely cabbage rolls though, it’s not a holiday at Grandma’s without them.
My aunt does a lovely broccoli casserole as a side, and her specialty is apple raisin stuffing.
From memory, broccoli casserole is broccoli, cream of mushroom soup, red onions, sliced almonds and bread crumbs. Mix everything but the bread crumbs (I usually just mix in the pan I plan to bake in, why dirty another bowl?) flatten and sprinkle bread crumbs and a few more almonds. Bake for about 30 min in… I want to say 350 degree oven. Very yummy. I think there might be some cheese in there too, but I don’t have the recipe in front of me.
I was feeling the same last year. We have our favorites that have to be on the table but I like a little something new to add a surprise. Sometimes it gets added to the favorites list and sometimes not.
Here’s what I tried last year and it’s definitely going to be added to the list. I gave it as gifts and tucked a few pieces into my cookie tray.
I found it in a newer version of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.
Key Lime Fudge
3C. white baking pieces (I don’t even want to know what these actually are.)
One 14 oz. can (1 and 1/4C.) sweetened condensed milk
2t. fresh lime zest (I used a little more.)
2T. bottled lime juice (I used fresh with good results.)
1C. chopped macadamia nuts, toasted if desired.
Line 9x9 inch pan with foil and butter foil.
In large heavy saucepan stir baking pieces and milk over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in other ingredients.
Spread in pan and chill for two hours. Cut into pieces.
Simple, tart/sweet and tasty.
The Pioneer Woman has a great recipe for a pumpkin caramel cheesecake that’s become a staple of holiday dinners at our house. It’s really the only actual recipe we reuse year to year. Everything else is either a general technique or shifts as we find things we think sound good.
As a general thing we try to stick to the basic traditional themes–turkey, dressing, cranberries, taters white and sweet, rolls, pumpkin pie. A lot of our relatives have fairly small comfort zones about food, so we try not to get too crazy with it, but we never serve the same actual dishes you’d get if, say, one of the grandparents was hosting. We get a lot of our side dish recipes from Food Network, various magazines, blogs, that sort of thing. We don’t use actual recipes for the turkey, just brine it in whatever seems like a good idea at the time and smoke it.
From the December 2008 Everyday Food magazine, I present:
Lemony Shredded Brussels Sprouts
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 2 pounds brussels sprouts, trimmed and shredded with a knife or food processor
* Coarse salt and ground pepper
* 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Directions
- In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high, add brussels sprouts and 2 tablespoons water; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp-tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in lemon juice.
These don’t sound like much, but they are great. A similar recipe cuts them in half lengthwise, and uses these directions:
In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add brussels sprouts, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until caramelized, 8 to 10 minutes. Add 1/3 cup water and cook until evaporated, about 2 minutes. Add lemon juice and toss to coat. Serve immediately.
Couldn’t be easier, and tastes so much better than the boiled ones I ate for years.
Sorry, folks (and my family), I’m young and rebellious! I am going to change more than one dish. Ham and pie are staying the same, because with cooking meat I’m not that brave and I love pie. However, this 1950’s thing we’ve got going on has got to change. Sweet potatoes with orange juice - out. Bizarre green jello salad with cottage cheese and horseradish - out. Potato casserole - really we’re all sick of it anyway.
However, I may be rebellious, but I’m not stupid. I plan to experiment with any new dish before it goes on the menu. Last night I made Pioneer Woman’s creamy herbed potatoes. Extremely yummy, needs less butter. That’s going to replace the usual potato casserole. Tonight, I’m doing roasted acorn squash. If it goes well, that will replace the sweet potatoes. I’m thinking of replacing bizarre green jello with egg nog jello, and also doing coleslaw. I don’t know if coleslaw is Christmasy, but I make a damn good coleslaw.
I’m sure my sister will be making cranberries and asparagus (she’s kind of crazy on the subject of cranberries). Traditional bread rolls, olives, and pickled watermelon are still on the menu. So, really, it’s not that radical.
You’re probably safe with the creamy herbed potato-potato casserole substitution, and possibly with the acorn squash for sweet potato substitution. How are the sweet potatoes usually fixed? And how is the green jello bizarre? I know that the cafeterias around here serve a surprisingly good and popular lime jello concoction that has cottage cheese and nuts in it. I wouldn’t have thought that it would work, but it IS good. The recipe makes quite a few servings, though, so I never make it at home, as I shouldn’t eat that much of it at a time. I usually only eat half a serving at a cafeteria, when I get it.
Remember, some people only eat certain foods at holidays…so someone might not eat sweet potatoes as a regular thing. Most sweet potatoes are HUGE, so one will make several servings.
Coleslaw goes well with ham, IMO, so even if it’s not particularly Christmasy, it might well be welcomed. And at least it’s fresh and crisp. You might want to garnish it with radish roses or strips of red bell pepper, to get that whole red and green thing going. Plus, of course, if you make a good coleslaw, by all means you should offer it at least a couple of times. It might become a tradition, and then in a couple of generations some young and rebellious cook might decide to strike it off the menu.
Eh, I change it up all the time. We offered to host the holidays right after we were married and my husband’s grandmother jumped on the chance. I’m a much more creative cook than most of his family, so they went from an identical menu every year to something slightly different. I’ve introduced them to a lot of things they really turned out to like, and if they want something more traditional, they bring it. It’s really worked out well for us.
The roast acorn squash was DELICIOUS. I recommend everyone try it (it’s Pioneer Woman’s recipe).
We joke that the green jello salad is bizarre because of the ingredients. My grandmother served it every year and we never found out what was really in it (mayonnaise and horseradish among other things) until she died and we started making it from her recipe. It’s really not horrible, but I don’t think anyone loves it either.
My family really isn’t as stodgy as some of you appear to be. 
We’ve done a variety of dishes over the years, including Cornish game hen, turkey, duck, and goose as mains and we usually rotate pie flavors. It’s just the last few years it’s been the same dishes, so that’s why I want to change it up.