[bittersweet]

This is DH and my first Chirstmas together at home, just the two of us! I have xmas eve and xmas off work, so I wanted to cook a nice meal. I'm stuck on what to make as I have no good recipes for traditional things.

So...what are you all making? Please include the side dishes you plan on making and desserts! Also, if you have anything you really really love, you can leave the recipe too

[niknok]

Have you ever had the cheesy biscuits from Red Lobster? They are to die for! I can find the recipe if you are interested.

[bittersweet]

I LOVE those!!! So much I usually don't want my dinner by the time it comes

[LisanAndy]

We never have a sit down meal so I'm of no help. We have over 25 family members over and have a HUGE buffet style dinner that takes 3 days to prepare before hand. Some years I think it would be much nicer to have a small dinner. If we didn't have this buffet, I would make a ham, mashed potatoes, salad, biscuits, and a cake or pie of some sort

[Resi]

We will be home for Christmas Eve - just the 3 of us. We plan on having crab legs, some kind of mashed potatoes, aspargus, and cheesecake.

Christmas Day we will be with family and don't have to worry about cooking.

[ShannonMVT]

We always have spiral cut ham at Christmas. I'm not sure what we are doing since our plans are not set in stone yet.

[Angelaosaurus-rex]

I was going to make roast beef but I want to piss my MIL off so I'm making turkey bwahahahaha!!!! Then probably mash potato's, broccoli, carrots, and some bread. And Christmas cookies and coco for desert!

[midnight_starr]

We are having turkey, ham, cornbread dressing, green bean casserole, yams, deviled eggs, mac & cheese & pecan tarts at my mom's.. At DH's grandma's we are having chicken and sausage gumbo!

Since its just the two of you, I would either put a roast in the crockpot or cook a small turkey breast!

Here is the green bean casserole recipe I use Cheesy Green Bean Casserole - 146230 - Recipezaar

[*krista*]

I just planned the dinner yesterday. I usually get recipes off of allrecipes.com just because if you read through the first few reviews of each recipe you can see how good they REALLY are and how people might have tweaked them to make them even better. I have it all up now so I will share links with you!

I'm going all out since this is my gift to my family, so it was between prime rib and lamb leg. I will make appetizers, spinach artichoke dip and feta foldovers. For dinner I think we will be doing the lamb leg, fresh green beans, mashed red potatoes, a butternut squash dish, rolls, and three desserts: fresh pumpkin pie, apple pie, and a chocolate cheesecake.

Though if I was cooking for two I would probably do cornish hens.

Here goes it...

Spinach dip, this is an easy dish to make the day before then pop in the oven once it is time to eat, though I've never made it so I don't know how it is:
Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip II - All Recipes

Feta foldovers, again, never made it:
Feta Cheese Foldovers - All Recipes

Lamb leg, made it, delish, though you have to know how to prepare the meat (I did it wrong last time!):
Roast Leg of Lamb with Rosemary - All Recipes

Garlic mashed red potatoes, pretty basic, though I will probably add some cream cheese to it:
Garlic Mashed Red Potatoes - All Recipes

This is something close to the green beans I make, although I add brown sugar to mine:
Lemon Pepper Green Beans - All Recipes

Butternut squash, never made this recipe... the second link is the fresh cranberry sauce I will sub for the canned it calls for, fresh is so good and easy to make (I have made the cranberry sauce before and it is a good recipe):
Almond Cranberry Squash Bake - All Recipes
Cranberry Sauce - All Recipes

Pumpkin pie with a second link for the spice mix... if you have never made fresh pumpkin pie, give it a try, it is soooooooo good, although you have to have an axe or a really strong hubby to crack into those dang pumpkins! That is the only hard part... the kind of pumpkins you have to use have a rock hard outter shell. I have made this, and it is to die for:
Mrs. Sigg's Fresh Pumpkin Pie - All Recipes
Pumpkin Pie Spice II - All Recipes

Apple pie... this is by far the best apple pie recipe I have ever come across:
Apple Pie by Grandma Ople - All Recipes

Chocolate Cappuccino Cheesecake... made it before and it is really good (and rich), but it is only as good as the chocolate you use:
Chocolate Cappuccino Cheesecake - All Recipes

I think I am going to put my dad into a diabetic coma.

Anywho, that's it! Sorry for writing a book.

[~*sierra*~]

i usually make this deeeeeeeeelicious sweet potato (yam) casserole. it has a brown sugar and pecan crust. its to die for. its really sweet but its nice for a side dish on the holidays. PM me and i will post the recipe if you want it

[*krista*]

Okay, nix the lamb, I'm totally making beef tenderloin. My mom has this kick a** beef rub that she is going to email me! It can go on just about any kind of good beef, not just tenderloin, lemme know if you want the recipe.

Have you decided what you are going to cook??

[bittersweet]

Krista,

I LOVE allrecipes too! That is where I get all my cooking recipes.

Here is what I'm thinking so far...

Pumpkin soup as 1st course

Cream of Pumpkin Soup - All Recipes

A turkey breast like Amiee suggested

Turkey with Mushroom Sauce - All Recipes

The green beans and mashed potatoe recipes that you posted

I have some cheesy biscut mix in my cupboard, I'll make those too.

And I was thinking of making the apple pie you posted also. I've never made one before though, so I'm a bit nervous. Mostly about the crust. Do you have a good crust recipe? Preferrably something that doesnt involve shortening (it grosses me out a bit, but I suppose I'll use it if I must).

[Trannyfromtheuk]

We're just having a bog standerd turkey with all the trimmings.

On christmas eve we will get take out

[*krista*]

When I made that apple pie it was also my first time making one and it turned out beautifully! I used the store-bought pre-rolled crust dough and it was good. I've never made homemade pie crust, so I'm no help there.

I have a few notes saved in my recipe box on the website for that apple pie recipe which I got from the reviews, here they are if you want them, don't mind the goofy shorthand, I was limited in space:

1. Use 4 big Red Delicious
2. baked 350 degreees in glass 9" on middle shelf for the entire time
3. Add 2 tbls flour, 1 tbls cornstarch to the syrup
4. Add tsp cinnamon, good dash nutmeg, tbls vanilla, cloves, allspice to syrup (omit a tbls of water).
5. The syrup crystalizes easily, so I made half syrup to mix w/apples. Then when done made rest of syrup brushed in.
6. About 10 minutes b4 the pie was done brush milk & sprinkl with sugar & cinnamon.

I've never heard of cream of pumpkin soup, that sounds interesting!

ETA: I was writing my grocery list and I think my note on the "use 4 big red delicious" is more like use half big red delicious and half granny smith... the reviews said something about the granny smith being too tart, but there are mixed reviews on that.

[ANGWife]

This will be our first year making xmas eve dinner too!

We're making:

Stuffed porkchops (mixer with cornbread and cranberries)
Fried oysters
Scalloped Potatoes and Parsnips
Sweet potato casserole
Grilled veggies (including zucchini and asparagus)
Irish soda bread
Salad
Cranberry sauce

And I'll make some kind of fruit pie and sugar cookies for dessert.