Nothing like reminiscing about Christmas dinner in the middle of January! Seems I have a little recipe sharing catch-up to do!! Anyhow, this year was the first time my mom and I cooked Christmas dinner together at her house instead of traveling to visit family. The pressure was on!! If I learned anything from watching the holiday cooking specials on the Food Network it’s – keep it simple!! The holidays, and even entertaining in general, are all about enjoying the people you’re with not slaving over the stove. So here is how we mastered a perfectly simple and delicious Christmas dinner.
My dad helped out BIG TIME by smoking our turkey in the Old Smokey Smoker Cooker. It was moist, juicy and had great flavor – way to go, dad! It was the perfect base for a great meal.
To compliment the smoked bird we made homemade cranberry sauce, roasted sweet potatoes and sautéed green beans. A healthful, colorful Christmas feast.
Homemade Whole Cranberry Sauce Ingredients:
2 packages of cranberries
1 cup of water
1 cup of orange juice
1 cup of sugar
- Combine water, sugar and orange juice in a medium saucepan and bring to boil.
- Add cranberries, return to boil.
- Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes until cranberries pop, stirring occasionally.
- Cover and cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate until serving time.
Cranberries Popping - Cook until syrupy consistency
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Roasted Sweet Potatoes:
1 sweet potato per person
Olive oil
Sea salt
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Wash potatoes and chop to cubed pieces. Raw sweet potatoes are so hard to chop – be careful! You might want to microwave them a couple of minutes first to soften before chopping.
- Toss potato chunks in olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt on baking dish.
- Bake for about 40 minutes – turn once midway through baking to evenly roast on all sides.
Sautéed Green Beans
Green beans
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
- Rinse beans and cut off ends.
- Toss green beans in sauté pan with a couple tablespoons of olive oil.
- Cook on medium heat; stir to cook all of the beans.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Depending on how crunchy vs. soft you like these babies you can cover them with a lid and let them steam while sautéing a bit or just barely cook them. My dad likes them barely done, so I had them on the stove for about 4 minutes – just to heat up.
Christmas Turkey Dinner
Zach-n-Dad-o-Meter: Our men loved this festive meal. All of the flavors went together like a delicious food puzzle of perfection. The best part was that the four of us had a blast together enjoying the evening, sipping wine and being thankful for the Reason for the Season. Oh, and the leftover turkey sandwiches with mayo and cranberry sauce…mmm…
