Merry Christmas, family! You’re going to love this episode from 2010. Arlene is making a delicious Christmas dinner with Patti and Paul, including cranberry glazed pork loin, creamy Christmas corn casserole, creamed Brussels’s sprouts, gourmet garlic mashed potatoes, chocolate trifle dessert, peaches n’ cream salad, and more.
As this is the time for gifts and giving, we want to thank all of you for being a part of our “At Home family.” What a gift it is to share all these classic episodes with so many friends here on the internet. Although Arlene and Paul are no longer with us, it’s such a blessing that At Home continues to bring inspiration, joy, and encouragement to so many people. Merry Christmas!
Savory Cranberry Glazed Pork Loin Roast
Ingredients
- 2 cans whole berry cranberry sauce (14.5 oz, each)
- 2 cups apple jelly
- 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 8 cubes chicken bouillon, crushed
- 2 tsp prepared horseradish
- 4 tsp garlic powder
- 4 tsp dried crushed thyme
- 1 boneless pork loin roast (4-5lbs)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Foil-line a baking pan with sides.
- Combine cranberry sauce, apple jelly, mustard, crushed bouillon, horseradish, garlic powder and thyme in a saucepan. Bring to a boil.
- Place pork loin in pan, fat side up. Sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. Use a pastry brush and a small spoon to completely coat the pork with sauce.
- Cook until pork is no longer pink in the center, about 45 minutes, basting every 10 minutes with remaining sauce. An instant read thermometer inserted into the center should read 145-150 degrees. Makes 8-10 servings. Enjoy!
Creamy Christmas Corn Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, melted
- 4 large eggs, beaten
- 2 pkg dry cornbread mix (8.5 oz, each)
- 2 cans whole kernel corn, drained (15 oz, each)
- 2 cans creamed corn (14.5 oz, each)
- 2 cups sour cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch baking dish.
- In a large bowl, combine butter, eggs, cornbread mix, whole and creamed corn and sour cream. Spoon the mixture into prepared dish.
- Bake for 45-55 minutes in preheated oven, or until the top is golden brown. Makes 12 servings. Enjoy!
Creamy Brussels Sprouts
Ingredients
- 2 lb Brussels sprouts, trimmed and scored
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 2 cups milk
- 3 1/2 cups Velveeta or American cheese, diced
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup butter flavored cracker crumbs (like Ritz)
- 2 Tbsp butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter a casserole dish well.
- Bring a saucepan of water to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low and cook the sprouts for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water, and set aside.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and stir in the flour, salt, and pepper. Cook the mixture until it turns a slight tan color, about 1 minute; whisk in the milk. Bring to a simmer, whisking constantly, and cook until thickened, about 2 minutes. Stir in the cheeses until melted and the sauce is thick and smooth. Transfer the Brussels sprouts into the sauce, stirring to coat. In a small bowl, combine cracker crumbs and melted butter. Mix well to coat.
- Pour sprouts into a greased casserole and cover with cracker crumbs. Place in preheated oven and bake until crumbs are crispy, about 15-20 minutes. Makes 15 servings. Enjoy!
Arlene’s Garlic Gourmet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 5 lb red potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 head garlic, roasted
Instructions
- Place cubed potatoes in a Dutch oven and cover with cold water. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. Cover and turn down heat to keep water boiling, but not over the edge of pan. Cook until a fork enters a potato and drops off easily. Drain water very thoroughly.
- Place potatoes in large mixing bowl and, using a mixer, begin to mash potatoes. Add salt, pepper and butter; continue mixing until there are no more lumps. Add cream cheese, sour cream and squeeze roasted garlic from the skins. Turn mixer to high speed and whip the potatoes until well combined. Taste for seasonings and adjust as needed. Makes 12 to 15 servings. Enjoy!
The Chocolate Trifle Dessert
Ingredients
- 1 pkg brownie mix
- 1 pkg instant pudding mix (3.9 oz)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
- 1 jar caramel ice cream topping
- 1 cup whipping cream whip this with 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
- 1 container Vanilla Cool Whip, thawed (12 oz)
- 1 bag Health Toffee bits
- 1 chocolate candy bar
Instructions
- Prepare brownie mix according to package directions and cool completely. Cut into 1 inch squares.
- In a large bowl, combine pudding mix, water and sweetened condensed milk. Mix until smooth, then fold in whipped cream until no streaks remain.
- In a trifle bowl or glass serving dish, place half of the brownies, half the caramel sauce, half the pudding mixture and half the Cool Whip topping. Top Cool Whip with Heath Toffee Bits and then repeat layers. Shave chocolate onto top layer for garnish. Cover and refrigerate 8 hours before serving. Makes 12 servings. Enjoy!
- * Use brownie mix that has chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or anything else you may enjoy, if desired. Plain is delicious, also.
Peaches and Cream Salad
Ingredients
- 2 large cans peach halves in heavy syrup
- 1 pkg cream cheese, softened (8 oz)
- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup maraschino cherries, drained, for garnish
- 8 lettuce leaves
Instructions
- Drain peaches, reserving the syrup. Set aside.
- Place softened cream cheese on a flat dinner plate and combine with 3 Tbsp of syrup drained from peaches. Using a fork, combine cheese and syrup until smooth and creamy. If too dry, add syrup until right consistency. Add walnuts and blend.
- Place lettuce leaf on plate and place 2 peach halves on lettuce with cut sides up. Divide cream cheese into hollowed out pit holes and allow to run down edges of peaches. Place cherries on top of cheese as garnish. Makes 8 salads. Enjoy!
Transcript
Very Merry Christmas, family. It’s so nice to have you here in our kitchen today. It’s a wonderful, wonderful day. We’re preparing our Christmas dinner and we have the crew all here and some friends have dropped in and we’re making a wonderful dinner. And I trust that your plans for your Christmas dinner are in full swing. Maybe we can give you some ideas for something that’s a little easier or something that would jog your memory to think of — oh, maybe I should make that or substitute. You know, there’s — it’s a balance between the traditional stuff that you always want to make ’cause Aunt Minnie likes it or Uncle Tom likes it. And then wanting to introduce something new and different. But, either way, it’s always a welcome, welcome time. Nothing like friends and family to be together in the holiday season. It just makes it special. And I trust that you have kept the focus of what this is all about, on our Lord Jesus Christ. Especially if you have children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews, please, please, please, sometime today, tell them the story of that precious baby that was born in a manger in Bethlehem that changed the whole outcome of the world. There was no hope for us until Jesus came and then he died at Calvary for us. The greatest gift of all. You know, this is gift-giving time, and at some point today you’re going to open up gifts. And I trust that you will remind everyone that the greatest gift you can give is yourself to Jesus. Well, we’d better get going because we’ve got lots to do, and the guests are coming. So right after this announcement, we’ll be right back to get started. Stay with us.
Well, here we are. Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you, too.
Thank you. Are you all ready?
I — yeah, I think so.
Pretty much. If you’re not — too bad, because it’s that day.
This is it.
All right. We’re going to have — first of all, on the menu, I’m going to do a savory cranberry-glazed pork loin roast. Something entirely different. And you’re making one of the sides.
Yes. I’m making Christmas corn casserole.
Creamy Christmas corn casserole. So these are the things you want to start with first because they bake long. Okay? All right. You want to get started?
Sure. Spray your pan — lightly spray it so it doesn’t stick. And then all you do is you add — your melted butter, which is a cup.
You’re going to mix everything together.
You mix it all together. And then you pour eggs that you mix together. Give them a little whisk.
Okay.
There we go.
Okay. While she’s doing that, I’m just going to salt and pepper. I have two — we’re having a lot of people, so I’m doing two nice big pork — boneless pork loin roasts. These are — the folks at CW Meats here locally. I’m telling you, you can’t find anything — this — look at the color in this. Is this beautiful or what? Beautiful, beautiful boneless pork loin roast. Okay? So we just want to salt and pepper them. And, Patty, what are you doing over there?
I am putting corn muffin mix into the bowl. This is my daughter, Brittany’s absolute favorite side dish. When I make it at home, I usually double it ’cause everybody really likes it. This is Brittany’s favorite. And it is so good, and it’s corn muffin mix — oh, my goodness — in it.
Well, you know, I like corn with almost any — it goes with almost any kind of a — of a meat. But it’s really nice with pork, too. And I like to — to mix — when I have a pork roast, I like to put fruit with it. That’s just a good —
Right.
— I don’t like to do fruit with beef, but I like it with chicken and pork. So I’ve just done the — the salt and pepper. You want to put the fat side up. Okay? And you want to preheat your oven to 425. Now, in this pan, I have — because I’m doubling the recipe because we have a lot of people — I have two jars of apple jelly and four cans of whole berry cranberry sauce. This is going to make a lot of sauce, but we’re going to be basting with this, like, throughout the whole time it’s baking. Every ten minutes, we baste. Okay? So we want to bring that to a boil. Then we’re going to add — this is — this is really interesting. This is chicken bouillon cubes that we’ve mashed and there’s eight of them per serving. And we’re just going to add that because that’s going to add such flavor. Oh, boy! And then we have thyme. Okay? And I have garlic powder. It’s going to make wonderful flavor. Oh — just incredible. I’m going to turn this puppy down because it doesn’t have to go that — rolling boil like that. Ah, Patty — that’s a pan full.
Isn’t that a pan full?
Gee.
This is a lot, and it’s just four cans of corn — two creamed and two whole kernel. Mm-hmm.
Okay. And then what are you mixing in there now?
There’s sour cream in there.
Okay.
Two cups of sour cream and it — this stuff is so good.
Wow! That’s nice and thick, too, and there’s some eggs in there?
Yeah, there’s four eggs.
Okay?
Pound of butter melted. And there’s corn muffin mix. It’s really simple to throw — you saw how quick it took me to throw it together.
Yeah. It doesn’t take long. And that’s what’s nice. You want things that are not labor intensive when you’re trying to get a meal together. And you could probably do that ahead of time and put that in the fridge and just bring it out and bring it to your room temperature —
And then bake it off —
— and then —
— yeah.
— that’s exactly right. Now we’re going to add some Dijon mustard to this — and a little bit of horseradish. It’s going to add a good flavor to that, too. And once this dissolves and comes to a boil, all you’re going to do then is baste it, put it in your oven, and start to baste it. And you’re going to baste every ten minutes. Okay? Like, if you’ve got somebody who is there saying, “What can I do to help you?” Hello! You’re the baster.
Yup.
Just give them the — this whole pan and let them baste. I’m telling ya, this is going to be a great, great glaze. And, also, we’re going to put some in a dish on the side, too, to put it — as you’re serving it. So that’s going to be good. Okay.
Yeah. Look at —
She’s putting that in the oven.
Yeah.
And we — I’m going to get this in the oven. When we come back, a whole lot more. Stay with us. Well, it’s Christmas dinner and we’re having a great time. We’ve got our pork roast in the oven. We have our corn pudding casserole in the oven. And now you’re going to make a cheese sauce because we’re having Brussels. Paul loves Brussels sprouts and they’re so good for you. Patty is going to be making a cheese sauce —
Right.
Simple.
I’ve already melted butter and I’m getting ready to add the flour.
What kind of cheese? This is just what.
Just Velveeta.
Velveeta and some parmesan. She’s going to mix those together. While she’s doing that, you’re going to make a roux. Right?
Right.
A little flour and butter —
A little flour and butter.
— put together.
Yup.
It’s such a simple way — once you learn that technique, that’s the best way to make a sauce.
Oh, yeah.
No question. Okay. And I’m going to make a dessert. Along with our Happy Birthday, Jesus birthday cake, I’m making a chocolate trifle dessert. In here, we baked a whole pan of brownies, just from a mix, and then you cut them in one-inch squares. And I’ve loaded half of them in the bottom of my trifle dish. Now I’ve made some instant chocolate pudding and, I’m telling you, this is thick and — oh, it’s wonderful. See this? All right. Here’s what I’m doing. Whipped cream. You’re going to lighten that up because it’s so thick. We’re just going to lighten that up with our whipped cream. And this is not just plain — — instant pudding. We’ve actually doctored it up with some other things in there. It’s wonderful. Make sure you get all that out of there. And then we’re just going to lighten it up by mixing it really well. You want to have a couple of containers of Kool-Aid — I’m sorry, Cool Whip. Kool-Aid — okay — wrong season. And you want some Heath bits.
That looks so good.
Patty, what are you getting ready —
Just getting ready to add the milk to it.
Okay. You do that slowly and you have to keep stirring the whole time you’re doing it.
And I’m whisking.
Yup.
Whiskin’ away.
Good. And I’m just folding. It takes a while to fold it until you get it all in there.
And if you beat it too fast, you just break it all down. Right?
Yeah. And what happens is your — it’ll go flat, and we don’t want that.
No.
So you just have to keep mixing it. And mixing it. I love this time of the year. Such a wonderful time. Time for family. Time for friends. You know, think of somebody that doesn’t have anybody to spend the holiday with. Maybe you want to invite them to come and spend it with you. I’ll tell you what. God will bless you for that because that’s such a wonderful labor of love. Okay. I’m done here — with that. Now I’m just going to pour half of this right on top of those — oh, look at that! It’s like a mousse — yummy-yum.
Yeah. That looks incredible.
So simple. So easy. And this can be made the day before. I want to stress — you can do this the day before, which is just great.
— then it can set up longer.
It does. And it — it makes it moist. Makes the — the brownies nice and moist. And you’re going just make that go the whole way around. Make sure it goes clear to the edge of the bowl — just like that. Okay? And then we’re going to do caramel sauce. Take a jar. You’re just going to pour half of the jar in here now.
Oh, you have all my favorite foods in one little bowl.
Well, there’s nothing wrong with that, is there?
Heck, no!
Okay. And then — — we’re going to do — these are the little Heath bits. Those are going in next. Then we do a container of the French — this is the French vanilla Cool Whip.
I’ve never seen that kind.
Yeah. Oh, it’s — it tastes so much richer than the plain.
Plain. Oh, yeah.
And you just want to put that on there. And, again, it’s a layer. You want to push it down so it’s nice and —
Look how pretty it looks already.
— I know. It’s great. Easy to do. This is simple. This is basically assembling. Okay? Now you know we still have another half of our brownies, so we start again. More layers. And, you know, you just — it could be your favorite. If you like it with nuts, if you like it with peanut butter chips in it, just your favorite brownie mix. Just bake it and then cut it into squares. And, I’m telling ya, that’s — that’s the whole deal, right there. I mean, my mouth is watering so badly.
Heck, ya!
I’m drooling — trying not to. But these are all great ideas for your holiday. I pray that this will be a wonderful day. Make good memories with your kids, family members, you know. It’s a wonderful time. All right. That’s done and then we’re going to do more mousse — — right on top. How’s your sauce coming, Patty?
It’s coming. Waiting for this milk to thicken up a little bit.
Yeah. That’s not going to be thick until it boils.
Okay.
What she’s doing there. We also have mashed potatoes that are getting cooked over there. And show them your Brussels over there — how you’re steaming them. Those are in a steamer with a little bit of water, and you just really want to make sure that they get cooked well. You don’t want any hard Brussels. Okay?
Oh, this is getting about ready to boil.
Okay. Good.
That just looks incredible.
Just spread it around. Oh, my.
And it looks like a dessert that took you hours and hours and hours to do.
It does look fancy, doesn’t it?
Mm-hmm.
I like that, too. But you can see it didn’t take long at all.
No.
Okay. That one’s done. Caramel sauce — oh, yeah.
Now this is starting to thicken up.
Look at that bad boy. Okay. And then — — I’m going to put another container — this on top. And you want it to be a little bit above the dish, so just kind of looks like it’s overwhelming with goodness because it is.
Oh, yeah.
As I said, you can do this a day ahead. In fact, it would be better if you did because all these flavors will just do awesome things here. Look at the side of this bowl. Is that beautiful or what?
That’s incredible. I just want to jump right in.
I know. What’s not to like about this?
Uh-uh.
But I’m not done yet. Hold on.
You’re putting more on?
We’re going to do some more of these. Not as many.
Just to decorate it.
Just to decorate. But we’re still not done. Chocolate bar, potato masher — or potato peeler, and all you’re going to do is just shave some chocolate curls on the top. Simple as that. This will get covered and put in the fridge until you’re ready to go for dessert. What do you think? I think it’s a good thing. I think it’s a real nice thing. Okay.
And how thick should this cream sauce — ?
It should be pretty thick. Is it getting there?
It’s thicker than I started, but it’s not thick thick.
I don’t think it’s going to be super thick, but it’s going to be thick enough to cover — yeah, that’s right. That’s good.
Right there? Should I add my cheeses?
The cheese will also help to thicken it up.
Okay.
Okay, Laurie, can you put that in the fridge for us? There you go. Great. All right. Now our salad for that day — we’re going to use peaches for our Christmas dinner. And these are canned peaches. You want to drain them. Mama made this all the time. I just love it. We have some cream cheese in our food processor. We’ve kept the juice from the peaches, and I’m just going to add that in because I want to thin down that cream cheese. Okay? And so — — you want it to be kind of — kind of loose. Yeah. I’m going to take this off and give this a scrape down because you want it all to blend well. You want your — also, your cream cheese to be at room temperature so that it blends well. And then — going to add some walnuts — just some of those. And I’m going to add some cherries. This is very festive looking.
Mm-hmm.
We like this a lot. Okay? Put it back on. Here we go. And — — let it go again. Oh, beautiful.
Isn’t it coming out nice?
Oh, beautiful. Okay. And all you do then is just pour this wonderful topping right on top — look at that — of your peaches. Beautiful at the table, and we’re going to garnish with some — some cherries that have the stems on. All of that and a whole lot more. Hey, you know what? We’re going to check our roast. We’re going to check the other things, and we’re going to be in the dining room when we come back. Stay tuned. Here’s how you can get today’s recipes. Well, I hope you can see here at the table Paul has joined me, as always, and Patty is here. And there’s a spot right there just for you. We wish you could be here at our Christmas dinner table. And you can see there’s quite a variety — colorful, beautiful, and I hope delicious. First of all, let’s talk about our cranberry glazed pork loin, there in the middle. And the juice that’s left over and some of what you’ve been basting with, we heated that up and that’s going to go over the meat to keep it moist. That is incredible. Let it sit for about five, ten minutes before you — when you bring it out of the oven so that the juices don’t flow everywhere. That’s an excellent, excellent pork roast. Next to it we have our cream — creamy Christmas corn casserole, Patty, that you made right there. Isn’t that beautiful? A little paprika on top.
Oh, yeah.
And then we have our creamed Brussels sprouts. Aren’t these beautiful? That’s a Ritz — smells so buttery — because that’s the Ritz crackers. Do you smell that? It smells good. Yeah. Okay. And — and we have a cheese sauce on that. Delicious. And then our gourmet garlic mashed potatoes which we didn’t get to show you, but the recipe is in there. I’m telling you, roasted garlic goes right into those potatoes. Awesome. You don’t need a gravy for them. They’re good by themselves. And then over here we have our dessert bar. And right in the middle is our — the chocolate truffle dessert that we made. You can make that the day before. That’s the best to do. We have our cookies that we made during our cookie program. You want to bring a platter — platter out like that so people can just nibble on those. And then, as always, there’s our Happy Birthday, Jesus, Christmas birthday cake. And we always remember that. It keeps everybody focused — adults and children alike. We added a punch back here. And I’m telling you, here’s the whole table. And also, I wanted to mention, we had our peaches and cream salad. This is refreshing. It goes great when you have any kind of pork or chicken. That’s good all year long. Doesn’t just have to be at this particular time. So I hope that you are going to spend this time, as I said before, with your family. And I hope that you remember the goodness of God and remember what this is all about. You know, we live in the most wonderful country in all the world. God has blessed America. And God has done that because we put him first. Sometimes we get distracted, but let’s — let’s endeavor this next year like never before to put Christ first, not just at Christmas but all year long. Remember — he is the reason for the season. He really, really is. We love you. We’re so thankful you’re part of our family. And, please, can I say to you — Very Merry Christmas, family. Be sure to join us the next time because it just wouldn’t be the same without you. We’ll see you then. Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas!
Furnishings provided by Levin Furniture, featuring Lane’s Country Living collection. Food provided by Jordan Banana Company, wholesalers of fresh fruit and vegetables in Dravosburg, Pennsylvania.
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