<p>My big hit was EVAN WILLIAMS eggnog with a sprinkle of eggnog. It’s made with Tennessee whiskey, rum and brandy. All you do is pour it out.</p>
<p>This was really good!</p>
<p>[Potato-Leek</a> Gratin | Williams-Sonoma](<a href=“http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/potato-leek-gratin.html]Potato-Leek”>http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/potato-leek-gratin.html)</p>
<p>Ooh those pecans sound yummy. I may give them a try.</p>
<p>I decided to do a standing rib roast this year as I now also have thanksgiving and did not want to do turkey again. It was wonderful and my family all want it to be our new traditional Christmas dinner. I was a but nervous as it is kind of expensive and I kept reading different best ways & temps to cook it. I also wanted to do it in my electric counter top roaster for space saving (best $22 I ever spent on an appliance) and was not sure how that would work out. I ended up searing it in the regular oven at 450-500 then continued cooking it at a very low temp of 225 in the countertop roaster. It was amazing - perfect pink all the way through. And I made au jus which I have never done before. I could not imagine before that just the drippings and water and some red wine would make something very tasty - but it was really yummy.</p>
<p>We have been eating beef sandwiches since. yum.</p>
<p>Bombay Curried Turkey Salad (great for leftover turkey)</p>
<p>2 cups cooked turkey breast diced into small pieces
1/2 cup reduced fat mayonnaise
1/2 cup plain low fat yogurt
1 tablespoon peach chutney
2 teaspoons curry powder
Salt and ground pepper to taste
1 red apple, unpeeled, cored and sliced
3/4 cup red and/or green seedless grapes
2 tablespoons snipped fresh chives
Curly green or Bibb Lettuce</p>
<p>Instructions</p>
<p>In medium bowl, combine mayonnaise, yogurt, chutney, curry, salt and pepper.
Add cubed turkey to mayo mixture. Add apples, grapes and chives; toss gently to coat ingredients with dressing. Serve salad on a bed of lettuce.</p>
<p>Sprinkle with slivered almonds.</p>
<p>This is a tasty way to get rid of some ham:</p>
<p>[Mini</a> Ham and Egg Casseroles Recipe - Every Day with Rachael Ray](<a href=“Everything to Make Rachael's Favorite Recipes | Rachael Ray”>Everything to Make Rachael's Favorite Recipes | Rachael Ray)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I, too, made a rib roast that made me very nervous. It was yummy but too expensive in my book.</p>
<p>The turkey salad sounds great, thumper! I am going to try it.</p>
<p>Leftover turkey - I make a shepherd’s pie, something like the turkey pot pie above, but easier. Cut up the cooked turkey and put in the bottom of a deep pie plate. Add vegetables (I use Trader Joe’s Organic Foursome - carrots, corn, peas, green beans, add some gravy (Trader Joe sells it in a box in the soup section). Cover all with leftover mashed potatoes, bake at 350 degrees until heated through.</p>
<p>My best new recipe - Roasted Cauliflower from cookinglight.com. It was great!</p>
<p>[Roasted</a> Cauliflower with Fresh Herbs and Parmesan Recipe - MyRecipes.com](<a href=“http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1120275]Roasted”>http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1120275)</p>
<p>^^ my friend’s mom did the same thing with her leftover turkey, and even her leftover pie crust! she used the crust as the topping for the pot pie, so it was perfect and flaky without her having to slave over it :)</p>
<p>I made a rolled eye of rib roast. The local grocery had standing rib on sale ($6/pound!); I asked the butcher to take off the ribs (which I saved for special dog treats, they love them!) and trim the fat, and roll and tie the roast. </p>
<p>Then I put the probe from the brand-new oven in, set the oven temp to 325 and the probe temp for 145 and left the whole set up alone. It was perfectly done, easier than any roast I’ve ever cooked. Note the brand-new oven; remodel is close to complete and the oven is astonishingly good. It even has a bread-rising setting (110).</p>
<p>We made these Chocolate Toffee Cookies from Smitten Kitchen for the first time this year (twice), and I’m sure we will make them again: [chocolate</a> toffee cookies | smitten kitchen](<a href=“http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/11/chocolate-toffee-cookies/]chocolate”>chocolate toffee cookies – smitten kitchen).</p>
<p>The recipe suggests rolling the chilled dough into logs and then slicing the cookies, but I found that dropping spoonfuls of dough worked just fine.</p>
<p>How do you think the toffee cookies would be without the walnuts?</p>
<p>This pumpkin pie pudding recipe was such a hit at Thanksgiving that I made it at Christmas. It’s basically pumpkin pie made as a pudding–with some extras. The recipe is from Susan Simon’s
[Pumpkin</a> Pudding Caramel - Recipelink.com](<a href=“http://www.recipelink.com/cookbooks/2000/0811825086_3.html]Pumpkin”>http://www.recipelink.com/cookbooks/2000/0811825086_3.html)</p>
<p>[Classic</a> Crème Anglaise Recipe | Food & Wine](<a href=“http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/classic-creme-anglaise]Classic”>Classic Crème Anglaise Recipe - Grace Parisi)</p>
<p>Everyone’s favorite spud:</p>
<p>[Roasted</a> Garlic Mashed Potatoes and more delicious recipes, smart cooking tips, and video demonstrations on marthastewart.com](<a href=“Garlic Mashed Potatoes Recipe”>Garlic Mashed Potatoes Recipe)</p>
<p>I sub 1/2 and 1/2 for the heavy cream. Gotta watch those calories! :D</p>
<p>Thanks MysweetB; I will prepare that recipe tonight.</p>
<p>If you like Reuben Sandwiches you will LOVE this dip.</p>
<p>Reuben Dip</p>
<p>2/3 cup light mayo
1/3 cup thousand island dressing (lite is fine)
10oz or so of sauerkraut
8 oz shredded swiss cheese
1/2 pound deli corned beef chopped into pieces</p>
<p>Mix it all together. If it looks dry, add more thousand island or mayo. Put in a pie pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until bubbly.</p>
<p>Serve with those little deli rye breads or pumpernickels (you know the appetizer size rye and pump bread)</p>
<p>I made this Cranberry Dip for a Christmas Eve party.
[Cranberry</a> Dip - All Recipes](<a href=“http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cranberry-Dip/Detail.aspx]Cranberry”>http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cranberry-Dip/Detail.aspx)</p>
<p>It was very good and looked pretty festive on a Christmas plate. I wasn’t sure how I’d like it because I’m not a real fan of cranberries, but it was surprisingly good!</p>
<p>thumper: reuben dip was a huge hit at my big family holiday party. I’d never heard of it before!</p>
<p>We’ve also recently become obsessed with the chicken wing dip on the first page, but we just do cream cheese, hot sauce, bleu cheese dressing, and chicken. Mom uses canned chicken (pouch kind was gross) which is fine, but I think rotisserie tastes better. It’s quick and easy and popular with boys especially.</p>
<p>We made monkey bread for Christmas morning which was a huge and very delicious hit. It’s 3 (we used 4, which was too much) cans of biscuits cut into quarters. Dip the biscuit quarters in butter then coat with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar (use a big plastic bag for coating lots of quarters at a time). Place in the bottom of a well greased bundt pan (we used an angel food pan lined with foil since the bottom’s removable and we didn’t want our monkey bread to ooze) and layer with chopped up pecans as you see fit. Spread a mixture of whipped cream, brown sugar, and vanilla on top of the quarters/pecans and bake at 350ish for about an hour, until everything looks puffy and not dough-y. Let stand for a few minutes then turn out onto a serving platter with a lip (the butter and cinnamon glaze tends to run). No need to slice–you can just pluck little biscuit pieces off the finished product. It’s hot but delicious and extremely addictive. Good luck eating just a few pieces! </p>
<p>I used the method I just described with basically the proportions from this recipe [Praline</a> Pull-Apart Bread Recipe - MyRecipes.com](<a href=“http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1940886]Praline”>http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1940886) and some extra butter and pecans. It was incredible. </p>
<p>Another hit was this super easy hot fudge sauce. Melt a stick of butter and 5oz (5 squares) of unsweetened baking chocolate. Remove from heat. Add 3c powdered sugar and 1 can of evaporated milk, alternating sugar and milk and stirring to combine before adding the next one. Return to heat, bring to boil for 8 minutes. Stir constantly while heating and boiling. Add about 1t of vanilla when it’s done boiling. You can store it in a jar or whatever in the fridge then reheat it in the microwave. It goes great on everything.</p>
<p>Another family favorite is brownies with peppermint cream cheese frosting. Make brownies like normal. Make cream cheese frosting with a package of cream cheese, about 1/2 of a half-pint container of heavy whipping cream, some vanilla, and powdered sugar to get it to the sweetness and consistency you like. Pulverize about 10 candy canes in a food processor until they’re basically dust. Stir them into the frosting and spread it on the brownies. If you eat them soon, you’ll have little pieces of candy cane. If you leave them uncovered overnight, the frosting gets a little thicker and the pieces dissolve into the frosting so it’s smooth. I prefer the latter.</p>
<p>We’re pretty boring when it comes to turkey leftovers. We just make sandwiches. My favorite is turkey, bacon, lettuce, onions (tomatoes are no good this time of year), and ranch mayo (mix ranch with mayo–I know, it’s tough) on ciabatta. </p>
<p>Another one that was a huge hit were these cookies. If you’ve read all of these so far, and only want to make one, make it this one!</p>
<p>Cream 2 sticks of softened butter with 1c brown sugar and 1/2c white sugar. Add 2 eggs and 1t of vanilla, then beat on about medium high until the mixture’s fluffy. Fold in 2c (plus a little more–maybe 2 1/4c when it’s all said and done) of flour, 1/2t salt, 1t soda, 1/2 bag white chocolate chips, 1/2 bag chocolate chips, 1c chopped macadamia nuts (toasted if possible), and about 1c chopped dried cherries. Stir this just until everything is combined (stir too much and they’ll be tough!). Scoop out rounded teaspoons (I use a heaping spoonful of our smaller everyday spoons) onto greased cookie sheets and bake at 350 for about 10.5 min. Take them out a little bit before they look perfect–they’ll finish cooking while they’re cooling. Yum!</p>
<p>missypie, the chocolate toffee cookies would be fine without the walnuts, both for taste and consistency. The walnuts just add a little something. The cookie is mostly pure chocolatey goodness.</p>
<p>As promised earlier - my homerun holiday recipe from the Seattle Times:</p>
<p>"Roasted Root Vegetables with Fennel:</p>
<p>1 pound fingerling potatoes, washed and quartered lengthwise
2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
3 sprigs rosemary
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Salt and pepper to taste
1 small head celeriac, peeled and cut, large dice
2 parsnips, peeled and cut into matchsticks (tough core removed)
1 bunch baby carrots, peeled and cut in half
1 onion, sliced
1 bulb fennel, halved and sliced
1 Cameo or Gala apple, cored and sliced
Kosher salt and pepper to taste</p>
<ol>
<li>Preheat oven to 400 degrees.</li>
<li>In a large bowl, toss fingerlings with garlic, rosemary and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Liberally season with salt and pepper.</li>
<li>Place potatoes in an ovenproof dish with enough room to spread potatoes on a single layer. Roast for 30-40 minutes until golden and fork-tender, and keep warm.</li>
<li>Toss celeriac, parsnips, baby carrots, onion, fennel and apple with 2 tablespoons olive oil and season with salt and pepper.</li>
<li>Spread vegetables in a separate large roasting pan and place in oven along with the pan of potatoes and cook vegetables, stirring occasionally until vegetables are tender and beginning to caramelize, about 30 to 40 minutes. Toss potatoes into vegetable mixture, adjust seasoning, and serve warm or at room temperature.</li>
</ol>
<p>K</p>
<p>A cheater’s way of accomplishing the garlic mashed potatoes (if you haven’t planned ahead to roast the garlic or are just too lazy–I confess to both): put the peeled garlic cloves in the water when you cook the potatoes. Drain and mash together.</p>