Our Best Christmas Recipes, Tips & Tricks

Dinner party plans stressing you out? Puff pastry cheese straws are here for you. These crispy, flaky, cheesy twists require just two ingredients and a few minutes of your time, and yet they deliver big — real big — out on the buffet table. Make puff pastry cheese straws for your next holiday party or serve them with cocktails for happy hour at home.These cheese straws are really an equal-opportunity appetizer. They go just as well with a glass of wine or a pint of beer.

The humble banana gets the spotlight.

You can sleep in this morning!

Cranberry sauce is the jewel of the Thanksgiving table and often the only spot of brightness on a table full of brown, orange, and tan dishes. While canned cranberry sauce is available year-round, you have to wait until October for fresh cranberries to come to market. Once the ruby-red fruits arrive, it’s your cue to make this easy sweet and tangy sauce for your Thanksgiving celebration.  Only three ingredients.

On Thanksgiving, I don’t think any dish inspires quite as much love and jealousy as classic stuffing. Or, for that matter, technical debate over stuffing vs. dressing. Sure, if it’s baked inside the turkey it’s stuffing, and if it’s not, it’s dressing. But to me, it will always be stuffing — it sounds so much more satisfying than dressing, which brings to mind vinaigrette. And on my table, the stuffing is always some version of this classic sage and onion mix.

Hot mulled cider is a must-have at all our fall and winter shindigs. It’s a great non-alcoholic drink option for holidays like Thanksgiving — guests of all ages never seem to turn down a mug, but grown-ups can also take the opportunity to do a little self-spiking and mix with their alcohol of choice. Slow-cooker mulled cider is the easiest way to serve a crowd.

Who needs turkey when you've got stuffing on the table?

One is never enough.

If you’re buying a big bone-in ham for the holidays this year, consider this your friendly reminder that you’ll be left with a tasty ingredient after all the meat’s been picked off: The ham bone. So, whatever you do, don’t toss it in the compost bin or trash. Ham bones are packed with so much rich, smoky flavor. Don’t have time to put the ham bone to use right away? No problem, just freeze the bone, as you would any other meat bones and food scraps.

Ham is one of my favorite things to serve as a main dish. I’ll either cook my ham in the slow-cooker or bake it in the oven. I love that it’s easy to make and provides the perfect savory foundation to build the rest of your dinner around. In my opinion, a large part of the pleasure of serving ham is enjoying the side dishes that play well with its rich flavor. Plus, leftover ham can be reinvented into several other meals throughout the week or frozen until further notice.

When the creators of Funfetti cake mix suggested stirring rainbow sprinkles into the batter instead of reserving them as decor, they flipped celebration-style cakes on their head. Well, we’re here to flip it once more, by transforming that iconic box of cake mix into the easiest-ever Funfetti cookies. Here’s how to make them. We discovered the key to making cake mix cookies taste like homemade.

Consider these honey balsamic Brussels sprouts the only recipe you’ll ever need. The sprouts are roasted until they’re ridiculously crispy, then tossed in a sweet and savory honey-balsamic glaze. They’re reminiscent of the kind of Brussels sprouts you order at restaurants that leave you wondering what is it that they do to them? It’s a veggie side dish that (almost) rivals the main course. Here’s how to make them.

It's even great for beginners.

I make risotto at home almost weekly, which means I’ve run through just about every iteration. My favorite, though, is mushroom risotto. Mushroom risotto contains all the ingredients found in traditional risotto — aromatics, short-grain rice, white wine, broth, Parmesan cheese, and butter — plus lots of meaty mushrooms scented with fresh thyme.

A sponge cake (also called a foam cake) is a light and tender cake that gets its texture from whipped eggs. Cakes like angel food, genoise, chiffon, and Victoria sponge all lie under the umbrella of “sponge.” Here, I’ll let you in on all the details — and share the recipe for my very favorite one. I’ve made it even easier to make. There are many variations of sponge cake, but this recipe is closest in ingredients and technique to a chiffon sponge.

If you find yourself with a lot of leftover ham, simmering it in a soup is one of the easiest ways to transform the smoky meat into something completely different. Adding a few humble ingredients like potatoes, onions, milk, and broth turns the ham into a comforting bowl of hearty soup that can work for lunch or dinner. If you’re a fan of creamy soups, like New England clam chowder, this ham-y version will be right up your alley. It’s perfectly creamy.

It doesn't get any fancier than this.

Once you’ve tasted these roasted carrots bathed in a honey-garlic butter sauce, you might proclaim (like I did) that it’s the only way you’ll ever eat carrots again. The combination of nutty brown butter, fragrant garlic, and sweet honey is basically the dream team.The carrots soak up all this goodness to become a side dish that rivals the main course, and they’re nothing like the mushy carrots of your childhood. Believe me: You’ll dream about these carrots.

If you’re looking for a way to give your basic mashed potatoes a seriously impressive upgrade, there’s no better way to do it than by taking inspiration from a loaded baked potato with all the fixings. I’m talking tangy sour cream, smoky bacon, sharp cheddar, and fragrant fresh chives.From Thanksgiving dinner to game day when there’s a slow cooker of chili and you need a little something extra to round out the meal, loaded mashed potatoes are always the answer.

Lumpia Shanghai is a popular Filipino spring roll that’s traditionally filled with ground pork, onions, garlic and/or vegetables and shallow-fried in a skillet, giving it a light, crisp exterior.It’s the first thing the kids line up for, patiently waiting for the aunties to be done frying so they can cram a piping-hot lumpia into their mouths. I’m guilty of piling my plate up with lumpia only and eating as much as I can, not really caring about who doesn’t get any.

You’ll love its coconut flavor.

Great anytime.

It’s anything but dreadful.

A perfectly cooked beef tenderloin is truly a sight to behold. The delectable cut often made special-occasion appearances when I was growing up, but Easter Sunday and its rosy-hued tenderloin tea sandwiches was always a holiday favorite.After early church and egg hunts in our finest spring whites, my family would race home to enjoy my mother’s fabulous Southern spread.

And they only get better with time.

When it comes to cookies, we all have our preferences. Me, I’m a texture girl. I like them soft and chewy. From peanut butter cookies and oatmeal cookies to gingerbread cookies, any soft and chewy cookie automatically has my attention. These snickerdoodles were redesigned with that in mind. I often don’t like snickerdoodles that much; they get too crisp, too crunchy. Not these — they’ll still be soft days after you’ve made them.

Perfectly crunchy and so nutty.

They're perfectly light and airy.

It's all about the cheesy sauce.

For any time of the day.

Oh, eggnog — you devilish seasonal treat, you. We love you in our morning lattes and we love you spiked with bourbon before going to bed. You make the most delicious French toast ever, and even our favorite cake is sending you love notes. Is there anything you can’t do? Truly? This holiday season, I say let’s skip the store-bought cartons and additive-laden jugs, and have our eggnog the old-fashioned way: with real eggs.

My father in-law is not a big fan of turkey. So about five years ago, we started adding a bone-in-ham to the family Thanksgiving menu. But each year I am the host and cook, and so I would run into a problem: After making the turkey, how do I season and heat a full ham while all the side dishes are hogging the oven space? Fortunately I settled on a solution: Put the ham in a slow cooker!I admit, spiral-cut ham wasn’t something I always loved.

Chocolate-lovers, rejoice!

A tried and true family favorite.

And it's only five ingredients.

It’ll surprise you how easy they are to make.

For a very special Christmas Eve.

Party-ready punch.

A festive pick-me-up treat.

Nothing says “Christmas” like pernil.

‘Tis the season.

This plus mashed potatoes is actual heaven.

Cinnamony, sweet, and totally delicious.

This refreshing white cranberry margarita is the perfect winter cocktail — suitable for Christmas, New Year’s Eve, or even just a snowy day. It’s a simple mix of just four ingredients, and a garnish of glittered cranberries and rosemary adds some seriously festive sparkle. It’s perfect for the holidays. Garnished with sugared cranberries and rosemary, this margarita is fun and festive for the holidays. It’s so refreshing.

The best bite of the season.

It’ll get you in the Valentine's Day spirit.

Roasted fingerling potatoes are an easy and versatile potato side dish, ready to be enjoyed with anything from roast chicken to grilled steak. To really make them shine, I use a mixture of olive oil and butter to give them a creamy, melt-in-your-mouth quality. I also add a generous amount of minced garlic to infuse them with savory flavor, and a final flourish of parsley brightens everything up. They’re crispy, tender, and buttery.

Eating fancy at home has never been so easy.

Who doesn’t love crispy cheese?

Every bite is unforgettable.

A hot chocolate in cookie form.

A refreshing summertime classic with a frothy holiday twist.

Two cookies for the price of one.

They’re a throwback in the best way.

They’re crispy, buttery and loaded with cinnamon sugar.

Tangy cream cheese frosting makes these sing.

I grew up making this chocolate fudge with my father, who spent a fair amount of time in the kitchen (which was rare for a man of his generation). He was always welcoming, pulling up a chair to the stove and hovering close as I stirred the molten chocolate bubbling away. This chocolate fudge recipe is a family-favorite and easy to make for the holidays (or any time of the year).This fudge is not the creamy, smooth kind.

Better than classic thumbprints.

It’s everyone’s favorite.

It's truly restaurant-worthy.

It's tropical and coconut-y.

Put a little yee-haw in your holiday cookie tin.

A festive twist on a classic cocktail.