Christmas Dinner - Main Dish

This year we're doing a briskit. Marinade it in Allegro seasoning (it's a liquid) overnight and then slow cook it in the oven. The briskit is on sale right now at Tom Thumb for 88 cents a lb. Good Luck! And Merry Christmas!

If you are in charge of the main meat dish prepare what you want to, a good brisket will feed a crown, or a large ham, make a change in the menu from past prime rib, if others don't like it let them be in charge next year. good luck!

How many people? I would go with a ham or 2 for a large group. If you have a Costco membership, they have some very reasonably priced spiral hams. Also at Kroger they have shrimp rings buy one get one free, so that would make an easy appetizer. Green bean casserole is a very inexpensive side dish that can be doubled or more and mashed potatoes go well with ham also. Good luck!

Rosemary Pork Roast

INGREDIENTS
3 pounds pork tenderloin
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons dried rosemary

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Rub the roast OR tenderloin liberally with olive oil, then spread the garlic over it. Place it in a 10x15 inch roasting pan and sprinkle with the rosemary.
Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 2 hours, or until the internal temperature of the pork reaches 160 degrees F (70 degrees C). \

Asparagus-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

INGREDIENTS
2 (6 ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 green onion, finely chopped
10 asparagus spears, trimmed
3 tablespoons crushed butter-flavored crackers
HOLLANDAISE SAUCE:
1/4 cup butter, cubed
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon water
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

DIRECTIONS
Flatten chicken to 1/4-in. thickness. Spread with mustard; sprinkle with onion. Place asparagus spears down the center of chicken; fold over and secure with toothpicks if necessary.
Place seam side down in an ungreased 8-in. square microwave-safe dish. Sprinkle with cracker crumbs. Microwave, uncovered, on high for 6-8 minutes or until chicken juices run clear. Keep warm.
For sauce, in a small microwave-safe bowl, melt butter. Gradually whisk in egg yolks, lemon juice, water and salt. Microwave, uncovered, at 30% power for 30 seconds or until mixture reaches 160 degrees F and is thickened, stirring once. Spoon over chicken. Sprinkle with almonds. Remove toothpicks.

Beef Sirloin Tip Roast

INGREDIENTS
1 (3 pound) sirloin tip roast
1 1/4 cups water, divided
1 (8 ounce) can mushroom stems and pieces, drained
1 envelope onion soup mix
3 tablespoons cornstarch

DIRECTIONS
Place a large piece of heavy-duty foil (21-in. x 17-in.) in a shallow roasting pan. Place roast on foil. Pour 1 cup water and mushrooms over roast. Sprinkle with soup mix. Wrap foil around roast; seal tightly. Bake at 350 degrees F for 2-1/2 to 3 hours or until meat reaches desired doneness (for medium-rare, a meat thermometer should read 145 degrees F; medium, 160 degrees F; well-done, 170 degrees F).
Remove roast to a serving platter and keep warm. Pour drippings and mushrooms into a saucepan. Combine cornstarch and remaining water until smooth; gradually stir into drippings. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Serve with slice beef.

An excellent recipe called "Christmas Chicken"

1bottle of French dressing
1 can whole cranberry sauce
1 envelope onion soup mix.

Stir all ingrediants together. Pour over chicken (or salmon) and bake in oven until done. Viola! Easy and delicious. Since you have a lot of people coming you might use both the onion soup mix evelopes that come in the box and double up the other stuff.

The sauce is a sweet and sour type of sauce, brightly colored for festive occassions.

combines well with rolls, green beans, etc.

The ingrediants all store well in the pantry/fridge so it's nice to have this on hand for unexpected meals (someone got sick, someone had a baby, someone's wife is in the hoospital, etc)

A. <><

EASY EASY TURKEY!
Let the turkey thaw inside the fridge for about two or three days (not on the counter).

Take a paper grocery sack (one w/ no ink on it) put peanut oil in your hand and put it (all over) the bag from the inside. Then take paprika and sprinkle it all over the inside. Clean the bird really good and make sure to take out the bags from inside. Salt, pepper, oil and paprika the bird and place inside the bag. Breast side up. You will close the bag by folding up the ends of the bag once and staple it shut. Make sure the staples are one right after the other. I PROMISE YOU IT WILL BE COMPLETELY DONE AND THE JUICIEST YOU'VE EVER EATEN.

And no, the bag will not catch on fire. This is the easiest way I have ever cooked a turkey. Cook on 350 10 min per pound. Example, if you have a 25 lb bird that's 4 hrs and 16 min. (25x10=250min) (250min divided by 60=4.16)

If not the usual turkey or ham, we all love brisket.

I once did a large roast, it was easy because it wasn't too expensive and I could put it in the oven and not worry about it too much.

Everyone loved it and it was a change from turkey or ham.

A standing rib roast would also be nice, but not very budget friendly. I would suggest a stuffed pork tenderloin. You can buy one pre-stuffed and ready to bake or you can prepare one your self (less expensive). Central Market and Whole Foods butchers are great with this sort of help.

Honeybaked Ham, sister!!! You can get a good sized one for $50 if not less. It's easy and everyone loves it! Good Luck!
L.

Kroger has some nice strip steaks on sale for $2.99 a pound.

We're going non-traditional as well: we're having lasagna and chicken spaghetti! It will actually be nice, I hope, with not being in the kitchen as much and not as much clean up, too.
Merry Christmas!
M.

We always make either a duck or a goose...yummy :o)

Ham feeds a lot of people and is probably in your price range.

Hi D.- We are preparing this Sangria Ham that I found a recipe for on AllRecipes.com . I'm looking forward to preparing it. Alot of places are running sales on hams right now. Good luck

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sangria-Ham/Detail.aspx

I saw rib roast on special at Kroger and Tom Thumb this past week ($5.99 and $4.99 /lb). I did a double take on the price because I purchase my meats from Hirsch's (and won't go elsewhere....he has the BEST) but the meats at the grocery looked pretty good. Especially if you slow roast, they should be tender. How many people are you talking about? They had some good sized rib roasts for around $30.

I do prime rib for Christmas as well.

Hope that helps.

Susan

We always have ham (sometimes with pinepple slices added and some cinnamin) for Christmas.

Target has a prime rib dinner with all the fixings for about that same price, and it feeds 8. I'm not sure about a prime rib a la carte.

We've adopted a Hispanic/Texas tradition for our Christmas dinner, and that is tamales. If you can find them homemade, those are the best. Most Mexican restaurants sell them by the dozen, and I haven't found one yet we didn't like!

We usually have Italian for Christmas at my house -- Lasagna, Rigatoni, etc. But I did see Emeril making ham on the Food Network the other day, and it looked fabulous! I didn't want to try it because it looked like it would feed a bunch of people, and there's only 4 of us for Christmas. Here's the link:

http://www.wchstv.com/gmarecipes/emerilssugarcanebakedham...

Merry Christmas! B

Hello D.! Well, my step-dad is so picky, and my mom makes turkey, dressing and lasagna for us, and she cooks a roast in the crock pot for him. It is always soo good!! I'm sure whatever you do will be appreciated!

I'm going completely non-traditional this year and we're having an Italian feast for dinner. :) caesar salad, brushetta, italian wedding soup and lasagna

Beef Wellington is awesome!!!! The better the quality of meat is of course, what makes all the difference in the world as well.
best of luck,
K.

Ham. Buy it at the grocery store, not the specialty store. They are good!. . .we alway do tamales, we're Mexican, go figure! If you'd like tamales let me know. $6/dozen

G.

Since we always have ham/turkey for Thanksgiving we often have brisket for Christmas dinner. We just pour Claude's brisket marinade all over it and let it bake slow, but it always is just falling apart and so yummy.

How about ham or brisket? Then, there is always the traditional turkey... Ham was always the tradition in our house though - when I was a kid.

Now, we just get a large meat and cheese tray from Wal-Mart and snack on it all day.

Merry Christmas!

I was going to suggest rolled rib roast...
hmmmmm
I'll have to think about it...