Texan Magazine
By Matthew Harvey
The holiday season is officially upon us. There’s the preparation, the decoration, the traveling, the planning, and then there’s the cooking.
Menus are planned out, groceries are bought, and more home cooking is done over the next two major holidays than most of us do during the course of the calendar year.
For me, the cooking doesn’t start with the main dish, we’ll get to that, but with the side dishes, and even more so, with some appetizers, or simple snacks that can tide over that hungry crowd while the cooking is getting done.
The Yule Log
I like to start with something simple that can be eaten with crackers. It’s called a yule log. This is an easy little treat that combines:
2 pounds of Velveeta
2 packages of cream cheese,
1 cup of chopped pecans,
1 tablespoon of either garlic or garlic powder.
Chili powder
Smoked Paprika
Crushed red pepper to taste (optional)
Wax paper
Once they’re at room temperature blend the cheeses together.
Mix in the nuts and the garlic.
Put this in the freezer for about 30 minutes. You’ll know it’s ready for what’s next when you can put a finger on it and nothing sticks to you, or very little does. When you’ve reached that point, grab some wax paper. In a separate bowl, mix together the chili powder and smoked paprika (about a 1 tablespoon to 2 tablespoon ratio.)
Roll the cheese into a log and then roll it in the powder mix (for even more flavor and heat you can add crushed red pepper). Once it’s coated, wrap in wax paper and place in the refrigerator. At any point, the Yule log can be taken out and served with crackers for folks to enjoy.
Bacon Cheddar Bread
One of my favorite things to bake during the holidays is bacon cheddar bread. You’ll need:
2 pounds of bacon, cooked then crumbled
(You’ll only need one pound for the bread, but let’s face it, if you don’t cook more than one, the pound you need isn’t going to make it to the bread.)
Reserve about 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease.
In a mixing bowl, combine the following 4 ingredients:
3 cups of all purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda,
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup chopped green onion
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1 large egg
1 ½ cups of milk
3 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
3 tablespoons melted, cooled shortening
2 cups, sharp grated cheese
But wait, you’re saying, I’m on Keto, or I’m gluten free, how can I do this? Well, it’s the holidays, you can make an exception. No, but seriously there are some good alternatives.
I use, “Just About Foods Gluten Free All Purpose Flour” and “Swerve Granular Sugar Replacement.” Both are 1 to 1 replacements for traditional flour and sugar for those trying to, or are unable to eat regular flour and sugar.
Once this is mixed, set it aside and grab a medium skillet, or sauté pan. Slowly cook 1 cup of chopped green onion, and 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds with salt and pepper in the bacon grease you saved. Once it’s sweated and soft, turn off the heat and set it aside to cool.
In a second bowl mix together 1 large egg, 1 and a half cups of milk (lactose free and hormone free are ok here,) 3 tablespoons of spicy brown mustard, 3 tablespoons of melted and cooled shortening, the crumbled bacon (assuming you haven’t eaten it yet, the sauteed onions and caraway seeds. Once this is thoroughly combined, slowly add in the dry mix and stir until it’s thoroughly mixed and combined. Then add in about 2 cups of sharp grated cheese.
Grease 2 regular loaf pans or 4 small loaf pans and divide equally into each pan.
Bake the loaves at 350 degrees for about 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick can go in and come out clean.
This makes a good snack, or breakfast for folks during the holiday season.
The Holiday Meal
Let’s get to the serious cooking.
But again, stop stressing. Let it be fun.
There’s a number of traditional and non-traditional things my wife and I do every year over the holidays when it comes to cooking. We do try to plan things out a month or so in advance, not to make sure we have it down to a science, but to just get it figured out.
Turkey
Let’s start with the traditional. Let’s talk turkey. I mean literally, let’s talk turkey. I’ll be honest, I haven’t BAKED a turkey in 20 years. And not because I don’t like baked turkey. I’m just impatient, unless I’m using my smoker. For some reason I can smoke meat for 14 hours, but I can’t stand when an oven takes longer than an hour. I know, I’m weird. I’ve fried turkeys for the better part of that time, mainly because I enjoy the flavor of it more. I’ve smoked a few as well. I just don’t bake them. Last year I tried something fun though.
I used an extra-large air frying Ninja convection oven to air fry our turkey.
It had all the flavor, and not nearly the normal amount of oil was needed.
Every year though, I prepare my turkey the same way. I max out at about a 12-pound turkey, but again, that’s me. I like em smaller and leaner.
I get it thawed and unwrapped, and pull out the gizzards, the neck, and the organs (I actually cook those for my dogs for a treat). I then take about a half a roll of paper towels and dry out the turkey. I prep it like I’m frying it regardless of how I’m cooking it.
And my secret is drying the bird inside and out.
The less water, the better. It dilutes the flavor, and if you’re frying, can cause issues with oil popping. It’s not fun when the oil pops you when dropping the turkey into it. Once the turkey is nice and dry, I go over the turkey and pull out any remaining pin feathers with a clean and sterile pair of needle nose pliers. What can I say, I’m a bit country sometimes.
I then grab a bottle of Tony Chachere’s Injectable Creole Butter Marinade and inject every part of that bird with it. By the time I’m done, that turkey looks like it’s been to the gym. I don’t stop injecting until some of it starts coming back out of it. I take the remaining and brush a small layer over the bird. I then take a dry rub of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and sometimes smoked paprika and coat that bird with it using the remaining marinade I brushed on as an adhesive.
From there the turkey goes into its own shelf on the fridge for two days. I let that sit so the flavors can absorb into the bird. And to again, take the stress out of trying to cram all the work into one day. This preparation method can be used for either smoking, frying, air frying, or even baking a turkey. Now your cooking times are definitely going to differ. 45 minutes to fry, 2 hours or so to air fry, 12 hours to smoke, and 4 hours to bake, if memory serves (again I haven’t baked a turkey in quite some time, not my preferred method. I use the oven for the sides to get things going at the same time. I’m a multitasker.)
Yes, trust me, that bird is going to be delicious and juicy. The marinade imparts that lovely flavor inside, and the rub imparts amazing flavor on the outside. It crisps up the skin and will even get into the meat as well. It’s going to be a tasty bird.
The Sides
The sides are where we have more fun. Every year we make cornbread dressing. It’s a must-have, a go-to, it’s a staple in my house.
And it’s all done from scratch.
First, I make the cornbread either a day before, or first thing in the morning the day of. Now I like a sweeter cornbread, just because that’s what I like. Some people don’t. That’s ok.
For the Cornbread:
1cup of flour,
1 cup of cornmeal
3 tablespoons of sugar
4 tablespoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of milk
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1 egg
You can also substitute the cornmeal for “Miss Jones Baking Company Keto & Paleo Not Cornbread Mix” for the cornmeal and flour and sugar with the “Swerve” substitute I recommended with the bacon cheddar bread if you’re wanting to be a bit healthier or if you have someone in your house that must be.
Bake at about 425 for 25 minutes, and then remove it from the pan and let it cool. You’ll know it’s done similar to the bacon bread, when a toothpick can be inserted and removed and comes out clean.
And if you have more family coming over, just double the amounts above and use a second pan.
Cornbread Dressing
Once the cornbread is cooled, crumble it in a large mixing bowl and set it aside.
Now for the rest of it, I have a little fun and break away from the tradition.
Sauté celery and caraway seeds with cleaned and chopped leaks in butter.
I just love the flavor that the leaks add to the dressing. I hard boil 6 eggs, peel and rough chop them as well.
Now some folks use the turkey gizzards and livers in their dressing, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t, I let the dogs have those. I use bacon, or brisket in my dressing. Again, I just love the flavor it adds.
For this, no I don’t smoke an entire brisket just to use some in dressing. I’ve purchased smaller briskets for a quick oven cook, I’ve gone to bar-b-que joints and bought a pound (a half for the dressing and half for me.)
I’ve even bought pre-cooked from the store. It’s your dressing, make it the way you want.
In a large bowl, mix everything together. The cornbread, the eggs, the sauteed mix, and the bacon or brisket, or both.
Put it all into a large baking pan, then pour on chicken or turkey broth.
You want a good amount over all of it, enough to get an even saturation. Why? Well, when it’s cooking, it’s another flavor that the dressing is going to absorb and help add a fluffiness to it. Cover this with foil and bake for about 45 minutes at 375.
You’re gonna love it!
I mean, I can bypass the turkey and just eat that some days.
For a second side, I always throw in a vegetable dish. It can be green bean casserole, or it can be any other vegetable dish your family prefers. Like my turkey and my cornbread dressing, I do my green bean casserole a bit different. Go figure. The main reason for this though is due to the fact that my lovely wife is deathly allergic to mushrooms. So for us, no cream of mushroom soup. Instead, we’ve used cheddar cheese soup, cream of celery (I didn’t realize that was even a thing until we looked for alternatives), cream of broccoli, etc. Again, we get creative.
When we’re feeling like something different, we’ve done sauteed green beans, steamed broccoli in butter (surprisingly I have two kids who like broccoli), squash and zucchini, again we just have fun and make sure we’re including vegetables.
Dessert
For Thanksgiving, you can go the traditional pumpkin pie route if you want, or even an apple pie. I love a good pie, but again, I like something a little simpler, and very, very tasty. It’s called “Fluff,” or I’ve also heard it called Watergate salad. It’s a simple dish that I’ve made hundreds of adjustments to that have yet to go wrong. Its foundation is simple:
1 large tub of cool whip
Drained crushed pineapple
Instant Pistachio pudding
Mini Marshmallows
From there, it’s your decision on what to put in it. Traditionally it’s drained crushed pineapple and instant pistachio pudding mix all mixed together. I also like to add mini marshmallows. I mean, it’s the holidays, calories don’t count for dessert.
Just mix it all together and put in in the refrigerator to chill until you’re ready to serve. Other combinations of fruits and pudding mixes I’ve done are cherries and chocolate pudding and apples and vanilla. Just find a good combination and have fun with it. There are of course many other options to choose, but Fluff has been a tradition with my family since I was a kid, and it is just something we’ve kept up with.
What would holiday cooking be though if we just focused on the meal?
There’s more to Christmas and even Thanksgiving than just the sit-down meal.
I believe the true stress may come from the baking. The need to have cookies, and other goodies all baked and ready to go for guests, family, and friends.
So, let’s bake some stuff.
Seven Layer Bars
Every year, my wife makes her wonderful and oh-so-addictive Seven Layer Bars.
Melt one stick of butter in a 9 by 13 inch pan
Press in 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs to make the first layer, either by getting a box of crumbs, or for even more fun, place them in a bag, and smash them to crumbs (so therapeutic).
Once this layer is added, the next layers are:
12 ounces of butterscotch chips
12 ounces of chocolate chips
12 ounces white chocolate chips
3 and half ounces of coconut flakes
1 cup of chopped walnuts
15 ounces of Sweetened Condensed Milk
(Cover the top with 15 ounces of condensed sweetened milk.) Once done, place the pan into a 350-degree oven and bake for 30 minutes.
When the time is up, take them out of the oven and let them cool for about 20 minutes. After they cool, remove them from the pan and cut into bars. These have become so popular with our friends we have to make several batches.
Sugar Cookies
Another Christmas tradition we have is to make cookies. At our house, it’s sugar cookies.
Cream a 1/4 cup of butter with
1 cup of sugar in a mixer, add
¼ cup of milk
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
In a separate bowl combine:
3 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons of baking powder
½ teaspoon of salt
Add the dry ingredients, again slowly, to the mix and combine well.
Chill the cookie dough overnight and fight the urge to eat it while watching a movie.
And again, for all those health-conscious folks, you can substitute in “Just About Foods All -Purpose Gluten Free Flour” and “Swerve Granulated Sugar” if you choose to.
Now the next day, assuming the cookie dough wasn’t the victim of a late-night snack binge, roll the dough out into about a quarter inch thick layer and find some fun cookie cutters to cut shapes into cookies. Or if you’re a truly artistic person you can attempt some free-handed cookie shapes. I’ve done this, I’m not good at it, so I stick to cookie cutters.
Bake on a parchment covered baking sheet at 375 degrees until the bottoms are light brown. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool. From here, you can then turn to if you wish, decorating the cookies. Make this something the whole family can get into.
Go get some sprinkles, decorating icing, you name it. Have an art contest with the family. See who can make the best design, the most unique, or even the truly bizarre. Again, we’re looking at taking the stress out of this, and put the fun into it. For the design challenged, or those who are just thinking, man, I just want to eat them, get a jar of your favorite cake icing and dunk. And if there’s none left to share? Whoops. Well, at least you’re stress free.
These are just a couple of things we do at my house over Christmas and Thanksgiving for cooking and baking. There are a ton of other options available out there. Discuss what you want to do now and plan. Get the ingredients early to avoid the holiday shopping madness. But most of all, don’t stress. Don’t feel you have to be a one person baking and cooking machine. Get the family involved, get your friends involved. Have cooking parties, baking contests, or even potluck assignments. Turn it into something you’re going to make a great memory out of. Don’t see it as an insurmountable mountain you have to scale with a whisk and your wits.
See it as a time of fun.
It is the holidays after all.
