A Fantastic Christmas Dinner Buffet!

♪ Make yourself at home ♪ ♪ Enjoy the time we share ♪ ♪ With the dash of these and a pinch of that ♪ ♪ Mixed all up with care ♪ ♪ The best company and conversation ♪ ♪ Recipes and meal creations ♪ ♪ We are cooking up something good here at home ♪ ♪ We are cooking up something good here at home ♪

• Well, Merry Merry Christmas from all of us here At Home. I hope we’re having a great day, the tree is decorated, the trimmings are done and now it’s time to do the Christmas foods the Christmas buffet. And I hope that by now, at this point, you have pretty well gotten most of everything that you’ve planned to do either really underway or you’ve just made some additional plans and said, I can’t do that this year. Whatever, I hope that this week, because this is Christmas week, I hope it’s a very special time that the anticipation, the preparation, just take some time to relax and remember what it’s really all about. I’ve said that time and time again, and I really want you to do that because that keeps you in focus. Then you don’t get too out of balance with all of the festivities and all the hustle, bustle. All the work that’s involved in this particular holiday. I was just reading in the Bible about in Luke, how that Mary and Joseph, what an unusual couple they were. And they were chosen of God because they, I believe they had a heart for God. And I believe he chose them because he could trust them. And when I was reading here this, I get a thrill every Christmas particularly when I read this account from Luke, where it says, and there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, don’t be afraid, I bring you good news of great joys, that will be to all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord. This’ll be assigned to you, you will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earths, peace to men on whom this favor rests. When I think about that, I’m reminded that God is in control. And that when he sent Jesus to be born as a baby in a manger, it brought hope to all of humanity. It thrills my soul when I think about it, excites me when I think about it. And I hope that this message will ring in your spirit throughout this time that we’re celebrating the birthday of the king. Well, today we’re doing your Christmas buffet, hold onto your hats, hold onto your seats, we’re gonna fly through recipes. We’re gonna show you a lot, we’re gonna demonstrate a lot and give you a lot of good ideas, for your Christmas buffet. We’ll be right back. Well, we’re gonna start our buffet, we have a beautiful holiday ham which is gonna be the center focus of our Christmas buffet, but we’re gonna add a lot of accompanying dishes with it. And the first one we’re gonna do it’s called pineapple stuffing. I mean I have never in my life ever had pineapple stuffing before, but this comes from a friend Julia North, she says you take five or six slices of white bread, that’s been cubed up, and then you take a cup of sugar, which I’m gonna do. This is my bread, a cup of sugar, half a cup of butter, I’m gonna take a couple of eggs here, and you wanna make sure that you have your deep dish pie plate greased or buttered real good, beat these up a little bit, and we only want 16 ounces of pineapple that has been drained. Okay? Put our eggs there. I tell you, this is a busy time. and we’ve got lots to show you today. And I do hope, I really sincerely do hope that, things are starting to slow down for you now. And you can enjoy this time enjoy these holidays with your family and friends and please don’t overdo it. Enjoy the moment, don’t get so caught up in the festivities, that you’re not enjoying what’s happening right now. Like when your family’s there, your friends drop in or whatever, and please let’s spend time pondering and thinking about what it’s really is all about. Make that Christmas day dinner, make it special. Get everybody around the table and come on and get out those nice dishes now, no paper plates on Christmas. I know you say, but I’ll be doing dishes all day. Well, let’s make it a family happening. Get the kids involved, get the folks that are there that have enjoyed the meal, get them involved. And say, come on we’re gonna do dishes, let’s all pitch in. Don’t be one of those hostesses that says no, oh I don’t want my guests to help. Some of the best memories you’ll have with your, with the guests that come for your dinner, will be when they’ve pitched in and they’ve helped you prepare or clean up your Christmas dinner. I think you’re gonna find out if you’ve never done, try it just one time. All right, this is gonna go into a 375 degree oven 30 to 35 minutes. This is a great accompaniment with ham. I like pineapple with ham. I always decorate my hams with pineapple. Now we’re gonna move along to our second dish, these’re accompanying dishes that we’re making today, and this is because it’s a buffet, we’re gonna have a variety because some people maybe don’t eat ham or don’t like ham, and so we want to please everybody and have something available for everyone. This is called easy, simple chicken divan, and what we’ve done is taken about a pound of broccoli. Now this has been cooked, we did it in the microwave very easily. Not till it’s real real soft, because it’s gonna bake in the oven. But we’ve done about a pound, you see we’ve just cut it in our spears, and put it into a two quart baking dish, now we’re going to add some delicious ingredients that I think is going to beef up the broccoli. This is just some boneless chicken pieces and really to make it simple, you can buy them in a can, Swanson’s makes it. You have to get the chunk pieces of chicken and drain it real well. That’s the only thing. And just scatter it about, you don’t wanna add the moisture. So make sure it’s well drained. Right? That’s two cans. That was just small five ounce cans. Make sure you have the two cans, now that we have that done, we’re gonna make a covering or a sauce for it, and the first thing we use, is a can of broccoli cheese soup. Right out of the can, okay, it’s just such an exciting time of year though. Everybody is so full of joy and I know it’s, things going on but nice to see people saying hey, Merry Christmas to you. Hey, season’s greetings. It’s a great time of the year for friendships to even develop. People that, neighbors maybe you’ve never talked to before. This is the time of the year to do that. All right, now we’re gonna combine the soup and this is about a third of a cup of milk, okay, and take a whisk, you wanna get the, you don’t want it to be lumpy want it to be as creamy as possible. So we’re gonna whisk it around. Whoop. And now we’re gonna pour this over top of the chicken and broccoli. Very easy to do. That’s the kind of things when you’re doing a buffet, and in preparation for that, do as much as you can, chop your vegetables, you could cook the broccoli the day before and just put it in the refrigerator in a Ziploc bag or something like that so that, when it comes time to assemble this you can have your dinner together very quickly, and we’re just gonna kind of push it down through here we are, just like that. Okay. Now for, we’re going to take some cheese and this is the cheddar cheese and we’re just gonna sprinkle this on top very evenly, we have so many things to show you at the end of the program that we just don’t have time to prepare but it will round out our buffet. Of course, we’ll have a big, beautiful baked ham that we’re gonna include all of the recipes not just what we showed, but all of them for your complete buffet, we’re gonna include them in the booklet that we’ll tell you at the end of the program too I hope you’ve sent for yours already, so that you have these recipes that you enjoy. Now what we’re gonna do, is add some melted butter to see. This needs to be little bit more melted set up a little bit while we’re waiting, to some bread crumbs, and this will make a crusty, crunchy topping. Okay, and basically you’re just gonna put that on top of the cheese. Now this should be melt a little bit more, it’s not, but it will still work. And we’ll just sprinkle that over the top. The butter, it will incorporate better when the butter’s melted. Just remember to do that. Tell you, we’ve been working like busy bees around here. I mean, the guys, on the crew everybody’s pitching in today, ’cause we’ve got so much to show you and it’s been a lot of work but we’ve enjoyed doing it because we think you’re worth it. We’re glad that we could do this for our family. And this is gonna go into the oven for about 20 minutes until it’s good and hot and bubbly. So now you can put it right in beside our pineapple stuffing and it’s looking wonderful. And they’ll be ready when it’s time for the buffet. Last minute things, I love it. You can put them together, an hour or two ahead of time, set them to the side. And then when you want that, you determine what time you’re gonna have your buffet, just backtrack and put those dishes in the oven, I’ll tell you what, you’ll be amazed at how easy and simple your buffet will go. Now we’re gonna do something with some shrimp. And this is a quick and easy type of a dish that I know you’re gonna enjoy because you don’t have to bake it, and it doesn’t take a lot of preparation, probably the hardest or the most time consuming part will be cleaning some beautiful medium-sized shrimp. Aren’t these beautiful? And these have, the veins cleaned out and these, the shells are all off them. We have left the tail on, but we’re gonna get this good and hot, and first of all, what we’re gonna do here this is called festive shrimp and fettuccine. Because once we make our shrimp, we’re gonna put it on top of fettuccine, in hot fettuccine noodles. And again, now we have a variety. We have some chicken, we have our ham with a stuffing beside it and now we’re having some shrimps. So you have three varieties. We’ve left beef out this time but you could do some easy elegant meatballs could be added to this or something like that. So maybe little individual fancy pieces of beef that you’ve cut up and put it like into a stroganoff sauce or something like that. Lots of different ways could be served with rice but you wanna make a variety that you definitely do. So this is one pound of medium shrimp. We’re just gonna put them in the skillet. And while they’re cooking, this is about a half a cup of diced green pepper. Well, that’s a winning combination butter, shrimp and diced green pepper. Smell will be incredible here in just a moment. This is just gonna brown slightly, and I’m gonna add a clove of garlic. ‘Cause I’ve got my garlic in there, and I’m gonna add it I’m gonna mince it. And add it to the mix, because that adds such a unique, special, delicious flavor to whatever you make, it’s you just can’t imagine something. Without garlic, when you’ve tasted it with garlic and you know the difference garlic can make on it. Well, while this is cooking, we’re gonna take a break, and we’re going to be right back in just a moment to finish our Christmas buffet. Stay with us.
• All right. As you can see, we’re still cooking the shrimp, and remember we’ve added it’s just a couple of tablespoons of butter, we added our pound of medium shrimp, half a cup of green pepper, and I added that one garlic clove of garlic minced, and then see these little red pepper flakes, it’s about an eighth of a teaspoon just to really perk it up and give it some tang. They’re cooking beautifully, now what I’m gonna do, is add a can of zesty tomato soup. Okay? Zesty tomato soup. Sometimes it’s hard to find but you look for it, cause it’s worth it. Zesty tomato soup. I believe you could probably use regular tomato soup if you had to, but the zesty has more spices and more flavor seasonings in it. And that would be the one that you’d want to use. Okay, into that then we’re going to add half a cup of water, mix it around, this is gonna make our sauce for the shrimp and for the fettuccine that we’re gonna put this over. And you’re gonna, once it comes to a boil, you wanna turn it down because there is one additional ingredient, that you have to put in this, and that is, just one tablespoon of wine vinegar. Now that’s gonna give it some additional flavor. You can see this already looks really, really good. The shrimp are all nicely cooked and the green peppers there, and what I would do is just let this cook until it’s heated through, really that’s all there is to. Once the shrimp are nicely cooked and you have warmed up the green peppers, you don’t want this to cook and cook and cook because it would not be good. So I’m gonna turn it way down now and just let it heat through, the soup hit through, and then we’ll pour that on our cooked and drained fettuccine noodles. I know we’ve been making cookies and we’ve been making candy for the last couple of weeks, but I like to have something fresh that I show with my buffet. Big tray of the cookies that we’ve prepared nut rolls or whatever. But this is an unusual dessert because everybody likes cheesecake. And one of the girls that works here with us, she and her husband both in fact, Lauren many times is the director for our programs, a great guy, his wife, Jane Sperry, they’re from New England originally, and she gave me this recipe, she said, Arlene, you have to try this. Somebody in my family makes this, escapes me right now who it is, but she says, it’s great. It’s called chocolate chip cheesecake. Can’t be any easier than this, I’m telling you. You buy two rolls of Pillsbury chocolate chip dough, it comes in a package it’s in the refrigerator part of the supermarket, and all you do is begin to cut slices and you lay them in the pan, just like this. All right, and this is not hard, as you can see, this is definitely not hard. You wanna keep them? Oh, cause they’re gonna bake together. They will bake together, but you want to keep them in the refrigerator until you go to use them because this dough will start to come up. It gets very soft and we’ll have a hard time trying to get it to cooperate when you’re slicing. So you just make, I would say little scant, half inch slices of the cookie dough, and like I said, it just comes in a log like this. And you would put it all over the bottom, Of a 13 by nine pan, and this will, it’s a process of what we do here, you have one role for the bottom, then we’re gonna make a filling and put the filling on the top, just make sure it covers completely. And if you have to push together some pieces you can do that, for time’s sake I’m not gonna take the time to do that. But I think you get the idea. You just have to cover the whole bottom of the pan, and it covers a 13 by nine pretty well. And here’s a piece. Okay, next, we make the filling, which is two packages of cream cheese, and you have to have that soften to room temperature, and to that, we’re gonna add, make sure it’s soft. It has to be good and soft, to that, we’re gonna add some sugar which is about a half cup sugar and two eggs. Jane is such a sweetheart. She’s a good mom, good wife, and very interested in cooking, she, in fact, she probably has opened some of your letters when you’ve written to us. And she was very, nice of her. Here we go. We’re gonna beat this till it gets creamy, once it’s creamy, we’re gonna spread that over top of those cookie, that cookie dough, just the way it is. And it’s imperative that you make sure that your cream cheese is room temperature. Has to be soft. Spread that over the dough, and then again, with the second roll of Pillsbury dough chocolate chip dough, you’re gonna cut the slices and lay it over the top of the cheese Philly. You don’t wanna push it down, just do it very gently. And you’ll be amazed, when this bakes it will bake for let’s see for 45 to 60 minutes in a 350 degree oven. And, once it’s done, you have the most delicious looking cheesecake, chocolate chip cheesecake you’ve ever seen. While I’m loading the cheese on this cheesecake we’re gonna take a break and we’ll be right back. Stay with us now for the big ending of our Christmas buffet. To receive your Christmas packet, number 200 containing all of this month’s special holiday recipes, listen very carefully. Just send a self-addressed business size stamped envelope, with a dollar or more to At Home number 200 CTV, Wall Pennsylvania, one five one four eight one four nine nine. You will only need to write once this month to receive all our Christmas recipes from At Home and have a blessed holiday. We’re back with our Christmas buffet, and as you can see, this table is full of all the goodies that we’ve been preparing. A lot of these, we prepared today but there are a lot that we did not have time but we will include them in the recipe booklet. Let’s start with the center of attention, which is our holiday baked ham. Isn’t that beautiful, with pineapple. There’s a secret to it, and I hope you’ve got the recipe because it will be the best ham you’ve ever eaten. Right next to it is our pineapple, remember I told you pineapple stuffing great accompaniment with the ham, and on this side is our simple, easy chicken divan. What a wonderful way to combine broccoli and chicken. Next to it, here it is festive shrimp fettuccine. See how good that looks, just with some cooked pasta under it. Over here we’re added some, this is holiday handballs. This is a great appetizer. We didn’t get time to show you them, but that’s a great appetizer to get things started on your buffet. And next to it are butterhorns. This is a great recipe. It’s a light little horn, with just a little sweet icing on top. I know you’re gonna enjoy it. And over here is our chocolate chip cheesecake. Didn’t I tell you this was gonna be something you’d be uh and on about tell you, that’s got a layer of cheese cake filling in between the chocolate chip dough. And to top it off, we’ve added a variety of all the cookies and candies that we’ve prepared this past month. I’m sure you have those recipes if you’ve written, there is a variety of pralines and pecan pie bars. Here’s the turtle cookies. Here’s even a few buckeyes, pineapple chocolate chip, gobstoppers, a full variety. We’ve added a very nice vegetable tray, fresh vegetables, don’t forget that person that’s watching their weight. They need to have something to enjoy too. And some steamed green beans. We’ve set our buffet up with our plates and even put our silverware for a festive look with a little ribbon and tied the napkin. That helps when it comes time for everyone to be getting their foods, just to be able to pick up a few utensils. I wanna thank you, for watching, I wanna thank you for your support and for how you always respond to us, most of all, I wanna wish you a very very Merry Christmas and a blessed, blessed holiday season to you and your family. At Home could not be here without some really important people. And I’d like to have them be a part of our buffet but before I’d like to admonish you on Christmas day when you’re standing just about ready to take a part in your buffet, will you stop and just pause for one moment, and just thank God for the wonderful day and for sending his son, Jesus. Remember to bless the food before you partake Like to invite my husband, Paul, to come in, hi, Paul
• Hi.
• And my little elves, the helpers in the kitchen for Christmas. Here’s Linda, Sandy, and of course, Suzi. we appreciate, I appreciate all of these people and my dear friend Rose who’s standing in the shadows over there and doesn’t like to get in front of the camera. This crowd, this group right here brings you At Home, along with the guys behind the camera, the guys upstairs, and from all of us, we really, really want to wish you a Merry Christmas to you, your family, may it be a blessed time, may it be the holiday that you will never forget because Jesus Christ, the king is in the center. So be sure to join us the next time because it just wouldn’t be the same without you and have a very Merry Merry Christmas.
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