Your tree should be decorated. Your presents should all be wrapped. Your holiday food should be ready to go. What’s left to do? Enjoy the holiday!
May your guests be on time, your gifts be all the right size, and your dinner be perfect.
From my family to yours, here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas!
Art (aka “Mr. Food”)
P.S. If you need some last-minute recipes for Christmas Eve, Christmas morning breakfast, or Christmas dinner, we’ve got plenty of easy ones to help you at MrFood.com!
Mr. Food's homemade quiche is a perfect make-ahead Christmas breakfast recipe!
From Helayne Rosenblum, Mr. Food Senior Writer
Our family and friends celebrate all the December holidays, including a few extras like birthdays and anniversaries that arrive at this time of year, too. This year, we’ve been invited to our friends’ home for Christmas morning and they’ve asked everyone to bring something along for the breakfast buffet.
We’re going to have to leave home really early to drive there on Christmas morning, so I need a make-ahead breakfast recipe. I refuse to give in and buy store-bought for Christmas breakfast, so I’ve decided to make one of my favorite bed and breakfast-inspired quiches. I’ve been to quite a few really beautiful B & B’s, many of them along the California coast where, years ago, an innkeeper told me her secret to a custard-like quiche was to always use heavy cream. Let me tell you, her advice was spot on. It never mattered what other ingredients have gone into it…the eggs, the veggies, the ham or bacon…it was that cream that made the difference, plus no low-fat anything. Forget it — not the cheese, nada.
I’m going to bake off my “Helayne version” of Quiche Lorraine the day before Christmas. I’ll do the usual “wrap it tightly and store in the fridge routine” and, on Christmas morning, I’ll keep it in an insulated bag for the car ride to our friends’ house. I already checked with them about needing 15 minutes of their oven time to simply reheat the quiche, and they said that would be fine.
Mr. Food has a bunch of super quiche recipes you can put to good use at this time of year, whether you’re entertaining on Christmas morning or you need a good bring-along. Two of my all-time favorites are his Spinach Quiche and Tomato Basil Quiche.
Besides the quiche, another easy idea that I like to do at my place whenever I’m making a breakfast for company is to have sliced bananas, strawberries and blueberries on hand – along with confectioners’ sugar. It’s like my garnishing arsenal. All you do is sprinkle them over store-bought or homemade pancakes, French toast or waffles…and people go crazy over them. It makes your breakfast dishes look like something you’d get at a restaurant…and all it is is pieces of colorful fresh fruit and some sugar.
The most important thing now is not to knock yourself out in the kitchen. Take shortcuts where possible, and always check our Mr. Food recipe search box first. It’s a treasure chest of great-tasting, easy recipes! Enjoy your time with those you love – in the end, that’s all that really matters. I want to wish all of you a happy holiday season, and I look forward to sharing lots more with you in 2011…so stay tuned!
Mr. Food Hassle-Free Holidays Free eCookbook is available for download now from MrFood.com!
From MrFood.com Editor Caryl
How cool is this?! We just finished putting together the latest eCookbook for Mr. Food fans, full of holiday recipes and tips…and it’s available at MrFood.com totally FREE!
“Mr. Food Hassle-Free Holidays” has everything you could need for the holiday season, from Hanukkah recipes to New Years’ recipes with Christmas recipes and Kwanzaa recipes in between. There are easy recipes for party hors d’oeuvres, main courses, side dishes, fancy but easy homemade breads and, of course, loads of tempting desserts that are so gorgeous that, as Mr. Food says, “They’ll knock your socks off!”
If that’s not enough, there are crowd-pleasing recipes for Christmas breakfast plus helpful hints for planning the perfect party buffet, and packing and shipping homemade holiday cookies.
What are you waiting for?! Click here and download your free copy of “Mr. Food Hassle-Free Holidays” eCookbook right now, and be sure to share this amazing gift with your friends, family and co-workers so they can take advantage of this great opportunity, too.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS from me and the entire Mr. Food Family!
Order the Mr. Food Double Glazed Stuffed Pork Roast today for the easiest Christmas dinner ever!
You know we have lots of easy and elegant Christmas recipes for you at MrFood.com for edible gifts, cookie exchanges, Christmas Eve, Christmas dinner, and quick meals on those hectic days and nights before and after the holidays.
But something even easier is our Double Glazed Stuffed Pork Roast. Wow! It’s ready to cook, so you don’t have to do anything to have a great main course for Christmas dinner…no hassles, no preparation! Check it out and order soon for delivery by Christmas. It’ll guarantee lots of “OOH IT’S SO GOOD!!” at your holiday table.
Polka Dot Cookies from Mr. Food are a fun twist on traditional chocolate chip cookies, and they make a great holiday gift!
From Mr. Food Team Member Jodi
When my kids were younger and each had only one teacher, I used to spend time shopping for that just-right gift for the holidays. Now that they’re both in high school, and each has 7 teachers, plus the dance teacher, plus the college advisor, plus friends who they want to give a little gift to, there’s just no way I have the time (or the money) to shop for something special for each person.
A few years ago, I started making edible gifts. A dozen cookies in a pretty holiday-themed container (there are some really cute Chinese take-out shaped boxes) makes a great teacher gift. I really like to use the Polka Dot Cookies recipe here on the Mr. Food site. They only use 4 ingredients, and being a chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips, they’re a nice change from your typical chocolate chip cookie.
Last year, my daughter helped me make Chocolate-Dipped Pretzels to give to her friends. We had fun shopping for different decorations. We used white chocolate and light blue decorating sugar for her friends who celebrate Hanukkah, and milk chocolate with a red and green candy drizzle for those who celebrate Christmas. The ways to decorate these are endless! How about crushing up candy canes and rolling the dipped pretzels in those? We found really cute holiday-themed cellophane bags to put them in, and tied them with pretty ribbons. It was fun, and much less expensive than buying all those gifts!
Need a hostess gift for a party? Why not try Chocolate Wreath Fudge? You can buy an inexpensive plastic holiday-themed platter to put the fudge wreath on, and give it as part of the gift. Or how about baking up some quick-breads, like Chocolate Chip Cranberry Bread? Homemade breads are very holiday-festive wrapped in pretty cellophane.
I’m always looking for new edible gift ideas, so if you have any to add, please let me know! Happy Holidays!
Everybody's favorite holiday treat, Gingerbread Cookies!
From MrFood.com Editor Caryl
Did you know that tomorrow, December 4, is National Cookie Day? There are days designated for just about everything now, so why not cookies?!
Now that we’re into the holiday season, it makes sense to celebrate cookies, too! After all, holiday cookies are a comforting tradition that everybody looks forward to. Take Edible Tree Ornaments, which are simply decorated butter cutout cookies that make perfect homestyle Christmas tree decorations, and unique ones like Brownie Bonbons and Fruitcake Cookies and, of course, everybody’s favorite holiday recipe, Gingerbread Cookies.
If you’re doing a holiday cookie exchange with friends and family, this is the perfect time to print out a bunch of easy cookie recipes from MrFood.com and present them with the cookies you bring to the exchange.
Not only are there loads of easy cookie recipes at MrFood.com but also in our beautiful new Mr. Food cookbook, Mr. Food Christmas Made Easy, out just in time for holiday gift-giving!
Have fun baking up your favorite holiday cookies this weekend and in the coming weeks!
We did it! My amazing team and I just finished work on our newest cookbook, called Mr. Food: Christmas Made Easy. The subtitle really explains it: Recipes, Tips & Edible Gifts for a Stress-Free Holiday.
And that’s gonna be my gift to you this year – recipes for a stress-free holiday! We worked really hard on this book but it was worth it, ’cause we developed and tested more than 150 scrumptious, quick ’n’ easy recipes for not only Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but also for holiday parties, edible gifts, and even survival dinners for those busy days leading up to the holidays. Of course, most of these no-fuss recipes will work for you throughout the rest of the year, too!
Early version of the photo of Clams Casino and Saucy Cola Meatballs -- easy recipes that are great for holiday parties!
And, oh, what mouthwatering photos we took for this book. Honestly, Hal and Frank of the Hal Silverman Studio are just the best at food photography…and they take pretty good shots of me, too, especially considering what I give ’em to work with!!
Butter Pecan Fudge is the perfect homemade holiday gift from the heartWe’ll be introducing this book on QVC in September, so watch MrFood.com for details on how to place your advance order. I can’t wait to bring more ho-ho-ho into your holidays this year.
Loading ...