The Results are in, winning holiday recipes are…

December 27, 2007 | By Kristen | In Chaos of Life, Recipes

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Since I love to try new recipes while cooking and my husbands family is the best crowd to try the recipes on because 1. it is a big family 2. they will eat anything (pretty much) 3. they are totally honest on what they think of something and they won’t sugar coat it to spare my feelings.

Now, a few days after the food has been cleared away and here are the three recipes people are still talking about.

Onion Dip

I served these with sea salt and cracked pepper Cape Cod chips and bread. It was super easy to put together and I chopped all my onions a day before and bagged them so all I had to do was pull out the bag and throw the onions in a pan right before people started arriving.

1 1/3 lb med onions and coarsely chopped (about 2 cups)
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs cooking oil
2 tsp fresh sage
1/3 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese (I think I used a bit more since I love it)
2 Tbsp finely chopped red onion

In a large skillet cook the chopped onions and salt in the cooking oil, uncovered, over medium low heat for 20 minutes or until very soft. Stir in sage and cook for one more minute. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream and parmesan cheese. Transfer into a serving bowl and sprinkle with red onion and serve.

While this was a favorite I did take a little grief for breaking tradition. Every family gathering (for the last 11 years I think) I make the family and friends favorite of Onion Pita Bites. This is similiar to the above recipe except it has one cup chopped onions, one cup parmesan cheese, one cup mayo all mixed together. Then I top little triangles of pita bread with the mixture and broil until lightly browned. They are devoured before I get them off the cookie sheet. However, with the baby this year and of course, everyone always gravitates to the kitchen I decided to forgo the broiler and try the above recipe. I guess next year I’ll have to do both.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Saute half a cup of chopped onions in a pan with a couple Tbs of italian salad dressing. Once the onions are soft mix into your mashed sweet pototoes then fold in 1/2 a cup of sour cream. Yum. I could have eaten the entire bowl myself.

Overnight Turkey

I have a full house of people on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day so I prepped my Turkey during the day of Christmas Eve and placed it in my fridge. Around 10 p.m. Christmas Eve I moved the Turkey, pan and all, from the fridge into the oven with no worries of an extra mess and it leaves my ovens open for the ham and lasagna on Christmas Day.

I have no idea where this recipe originated from, my mother gave it to me and it is a copy of a copy with smudges and missing letters here and there but hey, it works and its delicious.

Rub turkey down with mixture of melted butter, couple shots of A1 sauce, some garlic, marjoram, and a little red wine. Salt and pepper it well and place in a large roasting pan. Put it into a very hot oven at 525 degrees, ok, for some reason my oven only goes to 500- thanks Thermador- so that has to work. Bake at this high temp for 45 minutes uncovered. This will singe all the juices into the bird.

Next, take out the bird and pour red wine over it until it is well doused. Soak a tea towel, cheese cloth or any towel that is NOT terry cloth in the red wine and when it is soaking wet lay it over the turkey covering the bird as well as you can. Hit the top with a little more red wine, I finished the bottle. Then cover it best you can with foil to make as airtight as possible.

Turn the oven down to 450 degrees and put the turkey back in the oven and let it cook for about an hour and half. Then turn off the oven- DO NOT OPEN the oven door- resist the tempation! Let it sit all night in the oven. In the morning, open the door and take the towel off the bird and ladle the juices over the turkey. Then heat it up for about an hour covered in a 400 degree oven. This will smell so good when you wake up!

For the Gravy: Remove the bird to the serving plate and skim off as much grease as you can, pour part of the juices into a blender and blend it with a little flour for thickening and return the mixture to the pan. Heat it until it slumbers adding salt and pepper or whatever is needed, maybe a little more wine, sour cream or milk to stretch the gravy.

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