Christmas 2023: Recipes, Menus, Gift Ideas, More!

This holiday breakfast is warm, cheerful, and tasty. Everything on the menu is easier than it looks, so you won’t wind up stranded in the kitchen all morning. Whether you’re cooking for a crowd the day after Thanksgiving, or planning ahead for December brunch, this menu of creamed spinach with baked eggs and ultra-easy cheater sticky buns is the way to go. Imagine actually sitting down to enjoy the meal along with your family and friends.

Whether you’re planning a low-key holiday meal or sneaking in a midweek dinner date amid other holiday plans, put these tender pork chops glazed with brown sugar on your list. It’s one of those dishes that is so easy and so simple, and yet feels like a special feast all its own. A quick brine is one of my favorite ways to add flavor to thin cuts of meat like pork chops and also ensure that they stay juicy and tender during cooking.

These whipped sweet potatoes are a great recipe when you need to get out of a vegetable rut. They’re a little more dressed up than the average weeknight side so think of them as a minimalist dish for your holiday feast. With coconut milk for interest and richness, and a swirl of vanilla bean paste, consider adding this to the Thanksgiving table when you want something on the sweeter side that still leaves the marshmallows out of the equation.

Tall, golden loaves of panettone are everywhere this time of year. Traditionally eaten around Christmas and New Year’s, this fruit-studded sweet bread can be enjoyed plain or simply toasted — but it doesn’t have to be. How about crisp-custardy panettone french toast or even a savory panettone panzanella with pancetta and brussels sprouts? • Panettone Bread Pudding at BBC Good Food: Fluffy panettone bakes into a beautiful, flavorful bread pudding.

I had the best Brussels sprouts of my life last week at a lovely little restaurant in Brooklyn called Vinegar Hill House. It was just before Thanksgiving and it got me thinking about the dwindling stock of green food coming from the earth this time of year. Winter eating can be depressing for a girl like me, but given the limits and challenges of cold-weather cooking, some pretty amazing stuff can pop through this kind of tabletop sorrow.

pumpkin butter Alcohol always warms the body, and hot alcohol doubly so. Delight your guests, and warm your insides, with this tweak of an old recipe. Now, if you have never had hot buttered rum before, you may be a bit skeptical. Alcohol and butter? Believe and do not doubt. Butter adds a certain richness to this drink, as well as a bit of flavor. Imagine drinking a warm glass of boozy pumpkin pie. Don’t you love fall? Nancy Mitchell loves a hot drink on a cold day.

We asked some of our favorite food bloggers to share a holiday treat with us over our holiday break. Allen writes Eating Out Loud — a bright and scrumptious food blog full of good things to eat. He doesn’t disappoint here — how about some frozen peppermint cake?Every year as we inch closer to Christmas my mind races with all of my favorite holiday desserts. My mother would make everything from peanut brittle to cakes and pies.

Many people have strong opinions about mints, especially those of the wedding variety. But those who have either been on the fence or a little shy about them — you’ve never had a real, melt-in-your-mouth butter mint. Bonus: they’re easily customizable for any party and a snap to make!Amanda over at Bake It Pretty has been kind enough to share her recipe for butter mints. This time she pressed them gently into a small snowflake mold to make them festive for the season.

We could go a lot of places with ball puns (Jingle Balls, anyone?)—all of them tricky. So let’s just say this: Popcorn is cheap, fun, and hard not to like, especially when you make it into these cocoa, curry, and eggnog-flavored clusters. Yes, eggnog.We are no strangers to flavored popcorn, with our Peanut Butter Popcorn, Maple-Butter Spiced Popcorn, and Smoke Monster Popcorn (from the Lost finale).

What happens when you combine the flavors of roasted cranberries with fragrant cloves and rich brown sugar with clementines? A festive homemade gift to inspire the cocktail lover in your life.These holiday inspired cocktail mixers are fun, flavorful, a bit unexpected and begging for a chance to toast salud! with loved ones. The technique to make them is simple and can be easily adapted to personal taste by swapping out any of the spices, citrus and fruits.

Last night I stood in my kitchen mashing freshly roasted squash with a little cream and a few other assorted ingredients when my husband comes in. He was shocked to learn what he thought was going to be a delicious side dish was instead going to be a popsicle… that tasted like pie! This dessert is the perfect make ahead, zero fuss dish for your holiday parties that’s packed with pumpkin pie goodness!There are several great reasons to love this recipe.

Sweet Potato Soufflé, Sweet Potato Casserole, Candied Sweet Potatoes. All delicious, but are they really different? And what about the great topping debate?Every year my family battles it out over mini-marshmallows versus praline crumbles. To make the competition even more stiff, throw in the tasty corn flake crust I discovered last Thanksgiving. Oy vey.I had an Aha! moment while dining out recently that may have changed my opinion forever.

I am not exactly sure what most people eat for breakfast on Christmas morning. There is often a lot of talk about dinner: roasts and hams, traditional side dishes, and glittering desserts. But the day has to start somehow; you can’t dig through stockings and unwrap presents on an empty stomach. And it’s Christmas, so it better be special. That means no bowls of cold cereal or skimpy slices of toast.

The only frozen thing many of us have on our minds right now (especially in New York) is what’s falling out of the sky. But the snow piling up on our windowsill is not stopping us from making ice cream—especially when it’s a minty, Christmasy flavor.Peppermint ice cream with hot fudge sauce is pretty much a perfect dessert for us. This round, we tried putting the chocolate in the ice cream.

Here is a very, very last-minute food gift that takes literally five minutes to make, and yet everyone you share it with will love it (and you). Too good to be true? No — it’s just chocolate-dipped pretzels.The other very nice thing about this pretzel project is that it is quite inexpensive. All you need are pretzel rods, chocolate chips or another chocolate good for melting, and some sprinkles or coarse sugar.Here are a few tips for making these salty-sweet treats.

It’s a beet day! And with good reason: beets are in season and marvelously festive with all their scarlet coloring. Earlier today Sara Kate gave you a recipe for a wonderful salad with beets and frizzled onions. We take a step back now to the hors d’oeuvre course and offer one of our favorite appetizers, direct from New York City’s own Rick’s Picks and his famous pickles.

Sixty-seven years of amazing cookies — 1941-2008. That’s what Gourmet Magazine is featuring on their website right now. They went back through every year of their magazine’s history and chose a favorite cookie from each year.It’s like a time capsule back to their early days inthe 40s and 50s and all through the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. They give a quick recap of each decade and some of the new influences in each.The real stars of course are the cookies.

Old-fashioned candies, sweet and strong, are our favorites. Toffee, caramels, divinity – they all show up in our Christmas packages. Here’s a new favorite with an old flavor: molasses. These are strong little candies with a heady molasses kick that tastes of burnt-sweet and sour dark sugar syrup. We added a pinch of salt and a dash of cocoa to round out the flavor.We love how these appear hard at first – teeth crackers! – but soften into taffy as they warm in the mouth.

We chopped everything into even pieces, drizzled some olive oil over with herbs and salt and roasted. See the results below!Confetti Potatoes and Pearl Onionsserves 2-4 as a side About two pounds mixed baby potatoesAbout one pound pearl onionsKosher saltBlack pepperOlive oil 4 sprigs of rosemary4-6 sprigs of thyme Heat the oven to 400°F. Cut the potatoes into quarters – just a little larger than the onions. Cut the top off each onion, then slice in half and shuck away the skin.

These potatoes are a homestyle recipe – full of dairy and fat and other very, very good things. They are comfort food at its finest, with cubed potatoes boiled till just tender and then baked with all sorts of creamy cheese until soft and bubbling. They also come together faster than you might think, and they last for days in the fridge – if you can keep them around that long!

In fact, it never fails to amaze me that this recipe was invented by someone who did not have an electric mixer. How did they do it? How would they even think to whip egg whites this long? I wouldn’t even do this with a hand mixer – a stand mixer is what makes divinity easy.The almonds are highly recommended; this candy is so teeth-achingly sweet that it’s nice to cut it with some salt and smokiness.

These freeze well. I, regrettably, prefer them straight from the freezer. They are also the first of several Christmas candies, suitable for food gifts or the holiday buffet table, that we’ll look at in the next several weeks.Chocolate and Peanut Butter Buckeyesmakes about 13 dozen 2 lbs. powdered sugar3 cups peanut butter (smooth and not the all-natural kind)1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)1 1/2 lb. chocolate chips, semi-sweet (24 oz.