Holiday Recipe Ideas | Easy + Festive Party Food

It's officially the holiday season, and today we're going to whip up a few easy and festive recipes, perfect for a holiday party. First, we'll make the most requested holiday recipe at my house for the last 20 years and counting, my classic pumpkin roll. And then we'll put together two beautiful and easy charcuterie boards, both guaranteed to be crowd favorites at your next holiday get-together. So, let's get started. First, we're making my family's favorite holiday recipe, a classic pumpkin roll. This dessert is as beautiful as it is delicious, and it's by far the most requested recipe I get all year. We're going to start out by buttering a 10-inch by 15-inch jelly roll pan, lining it with parchment paper, then buttering and flouring the parchment paper. Go ahead and preheat your oven to 375 degrees, and then combine these ingredients in a bowl. 3 1⁄4 cup of all-purpose flour, 1⁄2 teaspoon of baking powder, 1⁄2 teaspoon of baking soda, 1⁄2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1⁄2 teaspoon of ground cloves, and 1⁄4 teaspoon of salt. Now, set that aside and beat three eggs and one cup of sugar in your mixer until thick. Stir in 2⁄3 cup of 100% pure pumpkin puree, and then mix in the flour mixture until it's all combined. Grab your prepared pan and pour the mixture into the pan, making sure it's level and smooth. I like to do this by shaking the pan a little bit until the surface of the batter is even. Sprinkle the top with a cup of chopped pecans and bake for 13 to 15 minutes until the cake springs back to the touch. Now, while that's baking, we're going to prepare our kitchen towel for rolling. You'll want to use a flat-weave towel that's slightly larger than your jelly roll pan. Lay it out on the countertop and sprinkle it generously with powdered sugar. Once the timer goes off, take your pumpkin pan out of the oven, lift the cake out of the pan, and flip it over onto your prepared towel, leaving some of the towel exposed on the top and the bottom of your cake. Now, fold the towel back over the cake and tightly roll it up. Place the roll on a cooling rack for at least 45 minutes or so. While the roll is cooling, let's prepare the filling. We'll combine a block of softened cream cheese, one cup of sifted powdered sugar, six tablespoons of softened margarine, and one teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix that all together thoroughly. Now, here's the fun part. Once the roll is cooled, we'll unroll it and spread the filling over the entire thing, making sure that it's evenly distributed. Next, roll it back up, cover it in cling wrap, and put it in the refrigerator for at least two hours. Once it's chilled, slice the roll into 1 1⁄2-inch thick pieces and arrange on your cake stand or platter. Sprinkle the whole thing with powdered sugar and garnish with a few sprigs of rosemary, and voila, a holiday classic destined to become your new family favorite. If you want to print out this recipe or get a jumpstart on all your Christmas shopping, be sure to click the links below after the video. Now, we're going to make two easy and impressive holiday charcuterie boards. We'll do a turkey design first, and then I'll show you how to make a Christmas tree board. Both are absolute showstoppers for any holiday party and so much fun to put together. For this appetizer, you'll need a large cutting board, a red pear, a couple of cloves, two to three persimmons, a selection of meats and cheeses. I'm using prosciutto and salami, and two to three cheeses. I've got pecorino and cheddar. Green olives, blueberries, red grapes, two to three different types of crackers, a pomegranate, and a handful of mixed nuts. Now, for these charcuterie boards, I like to use big cutting boards, and for the turkey design, I'm going with a round one. Now, we'll begin with a red pear sliced in half for our turkey body and head. Add cloves for his eyes and an almond for his beak and some little persimmon slices for his legs. Then, we're going to start creating his layers of feathers by arranging a row of rolled up prosciutto and savory salami, leaving some space in between of the rows so we can add in the other items. Next, we'll do slices of cheese cut into elongated triangles. I'm using cheddar and pecorino, but you could use whatever cheeses you like best. After that, we'll layer in crackers and a few more pieces of salami to create the fan of feathers, and then lastly, we'll garnish the entire thing with more crackers, slices of persimmon, blueberries, olives, and grapes. We'll finish the whole thing off with accents of pistachios, pomegranate berries, and mixed nuts. The finished product is a legendary turkey charcuterie that will be a party favorite. For our Christmas tree charcuterie, we'll start out with an elongated board. Mine is an Italian olive wood. We're going to place a few sugar snap peas to set the shape of our tree. Then we'll add in a few triangles of cheese to build out the tree shape a little bit more, and then create a few small sections of grapes. Next, we'll add in a few handfuls of green olives, and then start filling in our tree with rosettes of prosciutto and little fans of salami, then a few crackers at the bottom for our tree trunk. We'll keep filling in the edges of the tree with more salami, cheese, and a few more sugar snap peas until we're happy with the shape. Now, garnish with blueberries, a star of sliced persimmon, and a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds. Finish everything off with some pistachios and mixed nuts for some texture, and a few sprigs of sage to add to the festive look. I hope these recipes inspire you to create something magical in your kitchen this holiday season. Now that we've got your party recipes taken care of, it's time to check everyone's gift off your list, so watch this video next.