Christmas Tree Charcuterie Board

This Christmas tree charcuterie board is a fun and tasty appetizer for holiday parties or small get-togethers. 

This Christmas tree charcuterie board appetizer can be customized any way you like. While mine is fairly small and meant for four to six people, you can make it as big as you like, especially if you have a large serving board or tray. 

Honey Garlic Sweet Potatoes

These Honey Garlic Sweet Potatoes are slightly sweet, garlicky, and crispy. 

These honey garlic sweet potatoes are swoon-worthy. The combination of the garlic and honey, plus a bit of cayenne, will have everyone going back for second helpings. 

Stuffing Muffins

These stuffing muffins are cute little individual servings of Thanksgiving-style bread stuffing. They are moist on the inside and extra crispy on the outside. If you favor the crispy edges of baked holiday stuffing, you will love these. 

One of my favorite courses for Thanksgiving dinner is the stuffing. I've baked it, made it in the slow cooker, incorporated it into dinner rolls, and used leftovers for pancakes. 

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes

This recipe for make-ahead mashed potatoes will feed a crowd, perfect for your next holiday gathering.  

This recipe for mashed potatoes is perfect for busy holidays or those times when you are feeding a crowd and you don't want to be stuck in the kitchen mashing potatoes for a large crowd at the last minute. 

Creamed Spinach Gratin

This spinach gratin recipe is comprised of an already tasty creamed spinach topped with Gruyere and Parmesan, and then baked. The top is crispy and cheesy, and the inside is creamy and seriously flavorful.

 

 I have made this spinach many times, especially on holidays to accompany roast beef. It kind of reminds me of the side dishes, e.g. creamed corn and Yorkshire pudding, that would be served in the old traditional prime rib restaurants.

Parker House Rolls

 These Parker House Rolls are soft and fluffy, and wonderful served with your holiday dinner. 

 I've always wanted to try making Parker House Rolls. They are an American classic, originally recorded in the Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook, published in 1933. The rolls are soft and airy, and most of all, buttery.

No Knead Cloverleaf Dinner Rolls

 These no knead cloverleaf dinner rolls are perfect for pulling from the oven and immediately turning out into the bread basket for holiday dinners. 

I absolutely love warm dinner rolls for the holidays, as you can tell by the number of times I've posted dinner roll recipes. I've got recipes for big batch dinner rolls, make-ahead buttermilk dinner rolls (which are so convenient). no knead rustic dinner rolls, and par-baked dinner rolls (also super convenient). 

Orange Cranberry Sauce

This Orange Cranberry Sauce is such an easy-to-make holiday side dish.

This year, skip the canned cranberries. It's so easy to make cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries. Plus, you can add flavors to the cranberry sauce, such as port wine and spices.

Make Ahead Buttermilk Dinner Rolls

These make ahead buttermilk dinner rolls are so soft and fluffy. 

What is wonderful about these buttermilk dinner rolls, besides the fact that they are delicious, is that you can make the dough in advance, assemble the rolls, and then let them sit in the refrigerator up to 24 hours in advance of baking them.

Homemade Crescent Rolls

Homemade crescent rolls - buttery and soft on the inside and slightly crispy and flaky on the outside.

Crescent rolls always remind me of Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. While dinner rolls or bread were rarely a part of "regular" dinnertime when I was growing up, warm rolls slathered in butter were always a part of holiday dinners. Butter!

Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

This make-ahead turkey gravy will take the stress out of managing to get your turkey dinner on the table without having to worry about making gravy as your guests arrive.

The broth for this make-ahead turkey gravy can be made up to 2 days before making the final gravy, and the final gravy can be made the day before your holiday dinner and then reheated just before you serve the meal.

Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies

These Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies are totally fun to make, and they are so "pepperminty!"

These peppermint candy cane cookies are flavored with both peppermint and vanilla extracts, which give them a wonderful flavor and aroma.

St. Lucia Buns | Lussebullar

St. Lucia Buns are a Swedish holiday tradition, symbolizing the winter solstice. Today, December 13 is St. Lucia Day in Sweden. It is also known as the Festival of Light, and ushers in the holiday season in the country. 

In its honor, I've made these St. Lucia buns, the official bread of this holiday. The buns are scented with saffron, which also gives them their lovely yellow color.

Pumpkin Rolls with Salted Maple Butter

These pumpkin rolls with salted maple butter are over the top wonderful for a holiday dinner. They're also perfect for sandwiching leftovers the next day. 

You can pull the dough for these rolls together and set it aside in the morning to rise while you are assembling the rest of the holiday meal. You can even make the dough a day in advance, and let it rise in the refrigerator. The rolls themselves only take about 15 to 17 minutes to bake, which is perfect timing while your turkey or roast is resting.

Smoked Salmon Paté

This smoked salmon paté is one of my favorite "go-to" appetizers. It is easy to make, and wonderful spread on crackers, crostini, or bagels.  

I could pretty much eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's that tasty. To stop myself from eating the entire recipe, I took about half of it to work, set it in the break room, and it was wiped out by mid morning. This makes me happy.

Stained Glass Christmas Cookies with a Hard Candy Center

Welcome to Day 6 of Christmas Week. This year we have over 35 bloggers sharing festive sweet recipes for the event.

I've always wanted try making Stained Glass Cookies.

Stained Glass Cookies? They are cookies with brightly colored see-through hard candy in the middle. If you poke a hole through one side of them, you can actually hang them as Christmas decorations.

Chewy Sugar Cookies for Santa

Welcome to Day 3 of Christmas Week. A huge group of talented bloggers joined forces to bring you some holiday cheer. We hope you love all the festive recipes we're offering up this week. Be sure to enter the giveaway to win some amazing prizes.

Do you like your sugar cookies crispy or chewy? I like both, but when I think of the traditional sugar cookie, I always think "chewy" and coated in sparkling sugar.

Pecan Kringle

This Pecan Kringle is the perfect breakfast treat for Christmas morning.. or any morning! The pecans in the filling are toasty and flavored with buttery cinnamon and brown sugar.

Butterflake Rolls

These Butterflake Rolls are brushed with melted butter between layers of enriched dough prior to baking. They are so soft and tender, and are perfect for a family feast.

I pulled these out of the oven around 5:00 PM, a little early for dinner. For "quality control purposes," I pulled a small layer off of the smallest roll, spread a teensy bit of butter on it, and taste tested it. About 15 minutes later, I felt it was necessary to try one more layer "just to make sure."

Romanian Easter Bread | Cozonac

This month, the Bread Baking Babes are making Romanian Easter Bread.

I posted my braided dough on a bread baking group, and a sweet person posted, "Cozonac! It looks perfect! I'm Romanian and I know!" How cool is that? I'm pretty sure she is referring to Elle's (the Bread Baking Babes' kitchen of the month) bread, which I also posted, but I still beamed with pride. Bread geeks do that.