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Get ready to make an easy, delicious Christmas dinner from start to finish! In this festive step-by-step guide, Nicole shows you how to pull together a full holiday menu—from comforting sides and show-stopping desserts to elegant appetizers and a perfectly cooked beef tenderloin. With simple instructions and helpful tips, Nicole walks you through creamy Delmonico potatoes, a decadent peppermint bark cheesecake, bacon-wrapped green bean bundles, and more. Plus, you’ll learn a few fun, crowd-pleasing extras, like chips and dip with caviar and a freezer door dirty martini that keeps holiday entertaining stress-free.
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00:00We're getting festive today and I'm teaching you how to make a complete Christmas dinner just like
00:03I used to have and the number one thing I'm promising is that it will be easy. I'm also
00:08promising that it's going to be special and absolutely delicious. Let's go. I'm going to
00:12start with the easy side dish, Delmonico potatoes. These are just a creamy, super rich and cheesy
00:19potato casserole. It's sometimes made with shredded hash browns. I'm using
00:23the frozen diced hash browns. Something about this makes it sound less like a breakfast casserole
00:31and more like a dinner casserole. I start out just by dicing up some onion. I didn't really know what
00:35Delmonico potatoes was. I saw some TikToks with it and it looked delicious but I Christmas-fied this
00:43one. I'm just going to cook this up briefly with a little butter. A lot of recipes I saw use cream
00:48of chicken. That's just the old hash brown casserole. This meal is too special to bring out
00:53the cans. I'm going to go ahead and add in the onions while the butter's still melting. That way
00:56that flavor really comes out. Cook this for about two minutes and then add in some seasonings. I'm
01:00just going in with some salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder. Now we're making it super creamy by
01:04going in with some heavy cream and milk. It is the holidays. We're going to make things rich and
01:09indulgent and delicious. Once it's heated up I'm going to go in with just a little bit of nutmeg and our
01:14cheeses. There's lots of different variations. I think the original only had parmesan
01:18cheese but most of the versions I've seen have some sort of cheddar in there. So I'm going in
01:23with white cheddar and then some parmesan cheese. Just stir that till it's melted and we pour it over
01:28the potatoes. These can still be frozen. I've got them like kind of partially thawed. You could also
01:33just cut up your own potatoes if you want to. I told you easy. It might not look that thick now but as
01:38the potatoes cook they absorb this milky mixture and the whole thing thickens up and gets nice and
01:43creamy. Lightly greased a casserole dish 9x13. This is one of the things you can make a day ahead of
01:49time and just stop right after I top it with the cheese. You know I shred my own cheese. If you get
01:54an eight ounce block of white cheddar and shred it yourself you get more than two cups. If you buy an
01:59eight ounce package you only get two cups. The parmesan I took it the shortcut. At this point you
02:04can have it made ahead cover it with foil and stick it in the fridge. It's good for a day. When it comes time
02:08to bake. Uncover it. It goes into the oven 350 degrees for about 30 to 45 minutes. Then we uncover
02:15it and put the broiler on for just a couple minutes till it gets nice and brown. That is not your
02:19grandmother's hash brown casserole. We are celebrating. That is what the butter is all about. It might look a
02:24little loose to you right now but trust me as it sits and it does not take long it all tightens up and
02:29it is so rich and creamy. See it's kind of like scalloped potatoes but without all the work and they
02:36definitely taste fancy. The cheese on top forms this little crust and what's inside
02:41tastes almost like a loaded mashed potato but when you can get a bite that also has
02:46some of that brown crusty cheese.
02:51Mmm. Oh my god. The potato part is like velvet. If you cut up your own potatoes you're gonna have a
03:01little more structure in there. Like a bite of a potato but using the hash browns like this I
03:07mean they melt in your mouth. The flavor is so good. These are special enough that the adults will
03:12appreciate but also they're comforting enough that the kids will devour them. We're off to a fabulous start.
03:19I'm going ahead and making the dessert because this is something you can make ahead. You can even do this
03:25one two three days before. Peppermint bark cheesecake. This is an almost no-bake situation.
03:30If I've gone all out for such a special dinner I like taking the easy road when it comes to dessert.
03:34The only thing you have to bake is the crust and it starts with Oreo cookies and like who doesn't like
03:39that. So I'm just gonna pulse these. Make an Oreo crust. Pulse your cookies until they're nice and fine
03:44and then I'm just gonna go ahead and add the butter into here. Give it one more pulse and then we press it
03:49into our pan. I give it a little spray mainly for the sides so that when we put our cheesecake filling
03:54in it comes out easy. I'm gonna just kind of press it in. This goes into the oven 350 degrees for about
04:0010 minutes or until it's fragrant and lightly toasted. The star of the show is the peppermint bark. It does
04:07not have to be this fancy one okay. A lot of times this can be given as gifts so if you have been
04:11fortunate to receive this and don't know what to do with it I'm telling you right now what to do with it.
04:17Then you're just going to chop this up. You need about a cup chopped for the filling and then you
04:21need a little extra for the topping. Peppermint bark, cheesecake filling, and whipped cream. You
04:27can use Cool Whip here if you want. I'm going to make fresh whipped cream because it is Christmas.
04:35Worth it. Oh my crust is done. That needs to cool completely. But now we can mix up our filling.
04:41Ready-made cheesecake filling. You can get this at the grocery store. It's usually by like
04:46where the cream cheese is. To that I'm going to add in whipped cream. Fold that in. Just kind of
04:52lightens up the cheesecake filling a little bit. This cheesecake filling doesn't set up like a baked
04:57cheesecake does though so whenever I use it I call to freeze it. It won't freeze completely. It just
05:03freezes solid to where you can get a nice slice out of it. Okay once that's mixed then in goes the
05:08star of the show. It is as easy as that. Okay once this is nice and cool in goes the filling. I feel like I
05:16could just eat that filling with a spoon. Now I'm going to top it with a little more of the peppermint
05:20bark. Like you can't really tell just by looking at it exactly what it is. So we put a little more on
05:25top to really sell it. I feel like you can't see enough peppermint. So you can chop up some candy
05:31canes or some more peppermints or skip this step altogether. Now it just kind of adds a little more
05:36of the peppermint look. See what I mean? And that's the easy dessert that everyone will love.
05:43Now this goes into the freezer until you're ready to eat. As much as I want to taste this right now
05:48you'll have to wait until we serve up dinner. Green bean bundles. We have these once a year and it's
05:53at Christmas Eve and it's just my mom's thing. I think it's a lot of people's thing though. I'm using
05:57these little haricot ver. They're just the thinner more tender green beans. You can just use regular
06:02if you want. I saw some recipes with canned green beans. Let's not do that though. I've gone ahead
06:07and par cooked some bacon for about 10 minutes in the oven. This is going to give it a head start.
06:13I've seen too many recipes where if you get the bacon crispy the green beans are all shriveled to
06:18nothing. Or if you're cooking them until the green beans are perfect your bacon is still like halfway
06:22raw and chewy. With my recipe I want them to be I want my green beans to be tender and my bacon to be
06:28crispy. It's going to cook in this like sticky sweet and salty kind of situation and because I'm using
06:34the tender green beans I'll have to blanch them beforehand. So you want to take I don't know
06:40whatever you think a bundle is. Eight green beans. I'm going to take a piece of my par cooked bacon
06:45and wrap it around and then secure it with a toothpick. This is another great thing. I'm doing it now
06:50because I want to show you the other things you can make ahead. It's the perfect one you can make
06:54our symbol the day before and then just pour the glaze over and pop them in the oven. Boom. Okay
06:59here's your bundle. Let me show you the glaze. When it comes time for the holidays and butter goes on
07:05sale stock up. It's in everything. Sweet and salty for the salty Worcestershire. A little soy sauce.
07:13Garlic powder for the sweet. A little brown sugar. And as it cooks that brown sugar is going to thicken
07:18this up a little bit. Make it a little syrupy. Fit them in whatever casserole dish you want. You just want
07:22them to be in a single layer. All right then you're going to pour your glaze in. You don't want it to
07:26submerge the green beans. You want to leave some surface area exposed so that that bacon can get
07:30crispy. Then you've got something for them to flip around in and as they cook the green beans are going
07:35to let off a little liquid too. You can do it all the way to this step the day before and then it's
07:39ready to go in the oven. This is like how to keep your holiday dinner super easy. That's what we want.
07:45No soggy bacon here. That bacon is like crisp on the edges. Sticky sweet. These are like the perfect salty
07:52sweet combo. My kids don't like them when they're too sweet. This is not that. Green beans are still
07:58crisp tender. These green beans have absorbed so much of that sauce. It's like a roasted vegetable
08:09where it's brown and toasty on the outside but still crisp tender on the inside. It's another one.
08:15Everybody's going to love it. Everybody's going to love it. Are you ready for the main attraction?
08:19It's time for the main course. If you're in my house 100% of the time on Christmas we are having
08:27beef tenderloin. It is a special occasion. This is not something we do all the time but for Christmas
08:32we do. Now last Christmas I showed you several things with beef tenderloin, several sauces and a
08:38you know a classic way to prepare it. I have not shown you what I'm about to show you which is
08:43the foolproof perfect beef tenderloin. But first I'm going to make the sauce for today which is
08:49cowboy butter. I've made this a while back. My daughter just loves like a buttery sauce to dip
08:55her steak in. So that's what we've been doing a lot of. So you start with just some salted butter and
09:00then it's just about finely chopping a lot of flavor and adding it in. So I've got some garlic,
09:05parsley, chives and thyme, Dijon and then some lemon, a little zest and juice. I love this part.
09:12It really brightens it up. There's a lot of richness on the holiday table. So having something
09:17like lemon in there kind of cuts through it a little bit. Just a little bit of juice. All right
09:22and the smoked paprika like I said when you're thinking about cowboy you're thinking about the
09:25campfires. So using the smoked kind of gives it that smoky hint. Some salt and then just a little
09:31bit of chili powder and crushed red pepper. And then finally just a little bit of pepper. Get in there
09:35mix it up. And you want to make sure your butter is softened so that everything mixes in well.
09:40How many times have you heard me say color equals flavor? This is the most
09:42colorful butter you'll ever see. I really do like to get in there with your hands just to make sure
09:47every piece of butter has some flavor. All right so now you're going to want to roll it into a log.
09:53That way you can decide later if you want to slice this and add it to your warm tenderloin or melt it
09:59either way. You can do this on parchment paper or wax paper or just simply plastic wrap. Good to go.
10:05You're just going to stick this in the fridge until you're ready. Now let's talk about the tenderloin
10:10to go with it. Now I've gone ahead and trimmed off the silver skin and the chain. You can get your
10:15butcher to do this for you. This could not be any easier okay and you want to do this probably
10:20the last thing you do. Contrary to what you think and contrary to the standing rib roast that a lot
10:27of people do on Christmas this does not take long to cook at all. You're looking at half hour tops
10:32and then resting time. So get you a pan and line it with foil. All right then place your tenderloin on
10:40this skinny end. I'm just going to fold it under today. We're not even going to mess with twine.
10:45I just really promised to keep everything easy for you. All right so I've just got some melted butter
10:51and I'm just going to add in a little bit of soy sauce just for flavor and I'm going to rub this all
10:56over the tenderloin. It went ahead and kind of solidified on there because the meat is still kind of
11:01chilled. But now we've created something for the spices to stick to and as far as the spices go
11:05salt, pepper, and garlic powder. That is the extent of the prep. When you have a nice expensive cut of
11:12meat like this you really don't have to do that much to it. Here's the part where you're like there's
11:16no way that's going to work. This goes into the oven at 500 degrees. Based on how you like your steak
11:21you're going to go about 25 minutes. That will get you medium rare but don't don't overdo it. You can
11:27always go back and cook it more. This is fine for us because my mom usually likes her steak
11:32well done. So this end piece is still going to you know probably be closer to medium medium well.
11:38This nice like juicy part in the middle is going to stay a good medium rare. Oh yes. Oh yes.
11:48It worked. It's like you seared it but you didn't have to. It's got a nice crust. Oh that looks good.
11:55So you have to let this rest for at least 20 minutes before we slice. Just going to get a
12:00little sample of our beef tenderloin before we put it on the platter. Oh yes. See that's the way
12:07I like. I'm more of a medium kind of girl. And as you get like I said closer to the center it will
12:12get more rare. That was 24 minutes. If you want a little more medium pieces go more like 27 minutes.
12:20Let me just get a little taste. See how we did it.
12:27Mmm. Perfect. Mmm. I love doing things like this especially when work pays for it. Oh my god I
12:34got to get the cowboy butter. This is what it's all about. This just became the perfect Christmas
12:40beef tenderloin. Holy smokes. It's just so good. I just got so excited. Okay so here is the finished
12:52beef tenderloin. I'll serve it with our cowboy butter two ways. I'm just going to give it a little
12:59head start here. The dinner is done. We'll do the salad on the finished table. We're going to whip up
13:03a couple little appetizers and get the party started. So for my two appetizers we are doing
13:08shrimp roumoulade. My mom always will do like a shrimp cocktail. Basically the same thing. I'm just
13:13like elevating it one little bit by adding a dip. I'm using store-bought frozen pre-cooked shrimp
13:21because this is what all the stores use anyway at their little shrimp cocktails they sit out.
13:26I've already partially thawed these. I'm just going to let them finish thawing. Most recipes like have a
13:31ton of ingredients to them but I'm going to show you how to make this super easy because I guarantee
13:36the ingredients to make your roumoulade are already on your fridge door and this is how I make it
13:40because this is the way I learned to make it. The guy that really taught me how to cook when I worked
13:45in a restaurant he was from Louisiana and he just would go to the fridge and just pull out a bunch
13:50of stuff put it in the food processor and we had a roumoulade. Green onion is probably most classic.
13:58Some celery. Really just go for those inside pieces with the leaves. You could finely chop everything and just
14:05stir it together like as if you were making like a tartar sauce. I like some fresh parsley in there.
14:10The main ingredient is mayonnaise because it is a creamy sauce. Now we head to the fridge door. Let me
14:16show you how we finish it off. Okay you always get a little like grainy mustard. That's kind of like
14:21the look of roumoulade so Worcestershire yes. Hot sauce. Of course I'm going to get a Louisiana one.
14:26Then you want something like pickley and briny. So you can just do capers, olives, and then sometimes
14:32you'll see chili sauce. We already have cocktail sauce so I could use that or just ketchup. You
14:36just kind of get all the condiments like this and that's what you use. So you've got your tangi with
14:41some ketchup, some mustard, the vinegar from the hot sauce also gives a little heat and then you want
14:47something salty and briny. I usually put capers. Sometimes I'll chop up some pickle and I'll throw in
14:52a couple olives. Oh I almost forgot one other thing. Lemon. It's going with shrimp so you know blend it up
15:00and that's our sauce. Then you taste, season, adjust if necessary.
15:09Mmm. Or pat yourself on the back because it's perfect. And so our dip for our already cooked
15:14shrimp is ready. See and then you just sound fancy. It sounds like a special event when you're like
15:18oh for appetizer we're having shrimp roumoulade. Doesn't that sound good?
15:21Mmm. This with the ice cold martini.
15:30Get ready. About to have a party. Appetizer number two is for the adults and the kids. I found this
15:37recipe. This is actually an Ina Garten. It's called caviar dip. I just thought everybody used
15:42creme fraiche and that's not going to appeal to the kids. So I saw this recipe and I was like
15:47that really sounds like my favorite kind of dip with just potato chips. So it starts with some
15:53softened cream cheese and some sour cream. Take a lemon, squeeze some juice. So instead of that
15:58dried ranch packet that we do use a lot, we're just going to use fresh herbs. You just want to
16:03finely chop green onions. You can do the green and the white part and a little bit of fresh dill.
16:08You could also whip this up in the food processor if you wanted to. All right and then just a little
16:11splash of cream or milk. Just enough to kind of keep it loosened up. And then just salt and pepper.
16:17Now Ina stirs her caviar into this dip. We're just going to serve it on the side so that we can make
16:23everybody happy. This is also a great base if you want to stir in some smoked salmon or chopped up
16:29salmon. I don't know. We just always eat a lot of seafood on Christmas. This is our Christmas Eve
16:33dinner which is more special, more fancy. And then our Christmas date. Wow. Ina would be so
16:39disappointed in there. And then our Christmas day is lasagna. What do y'all serve for Christmas?
16:45We don't redo Thanksgiving. We're done with the turkey by then. Dip is done. Obviously you could
16:50do this one a few days ahead of time also. But I'm doing all this in one day so it's not impossible
16:55for you to do it all the same day. See if this will make the kids happy.
16:58So here's how we're going to serve this up for kids and adults alike. Dip on your tray. It will also
17:10pair very nicely with some crudités. Always serve your caviar with a plastic or pearl spoon, not a
17:17metal spoon. We're going to put chips all around. Appetizer number two. Okay, let me get one little
17:22sample. Guys, it's time to set the table. I need to finish our final thing which is the salad.
17:37This is called quick Christmas salad. So it is just simply a dump and go situation. It involves a
17:42store-bought dressing and really whatever you want. This is just an extra. My kids love salad and then
17:48it's perfect for like if you don't eat the green beans, but you still need a little veggie in there.
17:52So I've just got some mixed greens. Top it with some pecans. This is like all the flavors of winter.
17:58Some salty shredded parmesan cheese and then some tart and sweet dried cherries. So you've got it all
18:05going on here. You got a little sweet, got a little salty. Tends to be the theme of the day. And then you
18:10just use a store-bought balsamic vinaigrette. The dinner is complete. But first, happy hour.
18:18You've seen this before, so I didn't show you again, but you can always go back and look at
18:22freezer door dirty martini. But for entertaining, this is the way to serve up cocktails. As soon
18:28as we get over to my mom's, everybody wants a little ice cold martini, but you don't want to
18:32stand there and have to make, you know, eight of them. There's eight of us adults, but it's all right
18:36here. And it is ice cold. Oh, it's so cold. And I've just worked hard today, so I just deserve this.
18:42You know me. Three olives. Slightly dirty. Look at that. Ice, ice, baby.
18:51I'm so happy and I'm so proud of this bread. You've already seen me taste everything, but just let me
18:55show you a picture of the perfect plate for Christmas dinner. Perfect bites all around.
19:01Let's not forget about our peppermint bark cheesecake. That not look incredible. All those
19:07little bites of peppermint bark with that buttery Oreo crust. I'm going to end it right here on this
19:13sweet note. I could care less if that cheesecake filling was made from scratch. The creaminess and
19:22the crunchiness and then the chocolate with those little bites of peppermint in there. This is the
19:27perfect way to end Christmas dinner. Best described, it just tastes like Christmas.
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