Holiday Recipes

When I was little my mom and dad had lots of parties especially at the holidays. With upwards of 70 people the easiest thing to serve was punch. This is Mom's concoction. The guys love it too. See Dreamsicle Punch too.

A delicious side dish for your Thanksgiving dinner.

This delicious dish is made with dried fruit, sweet cherries, juicy apples and seedless grapes.

Dried figs, apricots, and almonds pulsed with honey, coriander, and sweet wine, then rolled in toasted sesame seeds. This Yemenite charoset brings a rich, fragrant twist to your Passover Seder table.

Buttery crescent cookies with ground nuts, chilled overnight, then shaped into half moons and rolled hot in powdered sugar. A traditional Christmas cookie with crumbly shortbread texture.

What's for dessert at Christmas day? How about some homemade candy cane ice cream? It's made of low-fat milk, egg yolks and crushed candy cane. It's creamy and silky, crushed candy cane adds some crunch and minty sweetness. Don't have to pay high price for hagen daz, this is as good as hagen daz, and it's lower fat.

So yummy, store-bought seven-layer dip can never beat freshly homemade version, no doubt.

Turkey topped with creamy fresh Chavrie and tangy, sweet cranberries. Just perfect for Thanksgiving!

Cranberries and pears are a great pair. They make this deliciously fruity filling, and it tastes great with the buttery and flakey pastry. It's as delicious as an apple pie.

Roast turkey with Grand Marnier apricot stuffing featuring pork sausage, slivered almonds, orange juice baste and herb stuffing mix. Elegant holiday centerpiece with bright citrus notes.

No-bake holiday apricot balls: ground dried apricots and shredded coconut bound with sweetened condensed milk, rolled into bites and coated in chopped nuts. Chewy, tangy-sweet, and ready with no oven.

Turkey cutlets pounded thin, rolled around hot Italian sausage and sage stuffing, browned, then simmered in Madeira and chicken broth. All the Thanksgiving flavors, scaled to a 2-person dinner.

Cherry and almond Christmas cake: maraschino cherries, apricots, ginger, and almonds macerated in amaretto and brandy, baked into a lighter apple-puree batter, then soaked in more amaretto. A boozy, fruit-packed festive cake that keeps for a month.

Gingerbread house dough that bakes rock-solid for sturdy construction. Built with shortening, dark molasses, and a generous hit of cinnamon and ginger. Cuts cleanly, holds shapes, makes 5 walls.

Lemon-Cheese Babka, an Eastern European yeast bread with a tangy cream cheese and cottage cheese filling, plump raisins and cinnamon-nut crumb on top. A bright, citrusy twist on the classic holiday sweet bread.

Kolachki: tender, flaky Eastern European cream cheese cookies wrapped around a sweet ground walnut filling and rolled in sugar. A buttery, melt-in-your-mouth holiday tradition.