Christmas

Hi, and season's greetings. I'm Paula Deen. It's that time of the year again, and there's nothing like keeping it simple in the kitchen when there's so much fun to be had around the tree

So today I'm going to show you how we do it here at my house, starting with my mama's favorite eggnog

Then we'll get our rack of ribs roasting so we can get going on the most scrumptious, steamy shrimp stuffed potatoes. Yum

And next, it's melt-in-your-mouth mushrooms with just a little spike to set you right

And don't you worry. I'll have some tips for you to make your table look gorgeous and smell delicious

So spruce up your house and get out the family photos, because it's Christmas time

I started cooking when I was 18 years old as a new bride

I'm very lucky because I came from a family of wonderful Southern cooks

And at 42 years old, I was faced with having to support myself and my two sons, so I turned

to my first love, which is cooking, and so I started cooking for a living

I think food is such a big part of family, and I hope that y'all can watch me and learn to have fun with yours while building wonderful memories around the food that you're preparing

I can't believe it, y'all. Christmas is finally here. I'm so excited. I've gotten everything ready except my Christmas tree and a little of my mama's eggnog

So I'm off to perform one of my holiday rituals, choosing a tree from Tom and Julie Whalen's

tree farm. They're a sweet couple who really remind me of a real Mr. and Mrs. Claus

I'm so lucky to be standing here on your tree farm, you know, being able to get what I know

is a fresh, fresh tree. How will I know I'm getting a healthy tree

Take a twig like that and you see when you bend that over, it'll come right back again

Yeah, yeah. see if the needles slip in your hand. How about where it's been cut

Does it need to be re-trimmed? At the stump, it definitely does. The natural sap that's in it seals over

and it won't allow the tree to take water in. So you do want to cut another half inch off the bottom

Well, are you ready to help me find my perfect tree? Sure, let's do that. Okay, let's see what we've got

How about this one? How about this one right here? That's a pretty tree

If you pull it towards the road there, Julie, towards this down that way, it'll make it a little easier for me, and I'll get under it and cut it, okay

Timber! Tom and Julie, thank y'all so much

I think we got the prettiest one, don't you? Oh, that's nice. Tom, can you throw that up on the truck? Certainly

Oh, I can't hardly wait to get it decorated. So it's home to put up the tree where I like to decorate with old photos and family ornaments made by my boys when they were younger

When the tree is finally up, I really feel like it's the holidays

And that's when everybody in my family comes over to taste our wonderful eggnog

You know, when I was growing up, it just wasn't Christmas at our house without some of my mama's eggnog

It's a tradition that I couldn't help but continue myself. And it's really very, very simple

We're going to start by separating our eggs. And it seems as long as you have eggnog

you can always find some friends around that are willing to share it with you

It just gives a wonderful spirit of Christmas in your kitchen. I'm going to start our meringue

And while these are whipping up, I'm going to add sugar to our yolks

And I'm just going to whip those until they're kind of creamy. And we're going to add a little sugar just to firm those whites up a little

All we have to do to assemble our eggnog is fold in sweetened whipped cream

Look how luscious that cream is. And always remember to take your spatula to the bottom of your bowl up and over

because we want to disturb that whipped cream as little as possible

All right. Now the next thing we're going to do is fold in these beautiful egg whites that we've gotten

to the fluffiest of stage. See those egg whites, they're perfect. And I'm so thrilled about this because

actually it's raining outside today. So there's a lot of humidity and moisture in there

and I was really concerned that my whites might not do right for me

And we're gonna do the same thing with those that we did with the whipping cream

Now if we just got real impatient, just started stirring and beating madly

this would fall on us and we want it as fluffy and light and delectable as we can make it

When I was a teenager mother would let me taste it with the bourbon and I thought that was really something really special All right we there and now I going to add some vanilla to just regular milk

I'm going to add about a teaspoon, and I'm just going to pour this in

to all of those exquisite eggs. And one more time, we're going to fold

Your eggnog will have almost two different layers. because after we finish this we're going to put it in the freezer

and the top will just make this wonderful, crustally beaten cream. And the bottom will have your liquid

which will be our milk and our liquor. All right, we've saved the best for last

and that's the nog. And we're going to add about a half a cup

but if you're dead set on a little bit more, add it

And my mother's eggnog continues to live. I'm going to go ahead and slip this in the freezer now

and let it get ice-crystally cold, and I'm going to wait for somebody to come have a glass with me

Oh, it's beautiful, y'all. You know, I don't know about y'all, but by the time Christmas rolls around

I am purely de-dog-turkeyed and hammed out. Well, I'm just starving for a piece of succulent beef

by the time Christmas gets here. And this is one of the easiest ways

the most foolproof recipe that you can use. We're gonna start with a six-pound

standing rib roast bone-in because actually this is my favorite part. I love knolling around these wonderfully moist fatty bones

So simple. All we're gonna do is rub this boy down with salt, pepper, and garlic powder

And don't be shy because this seasoning is going to make like a crust on him

Now you can be creative when you're doing this roast, and you can actually use whatever you want to on it

We could actually make slits in him and put in some fresh garlic if you like

or stick in some fresh herbs. But I love the taste of just pure beef

I don't want any other flavors pouring in on my beef. I just associate rib roast with Christmas

and I've been cooking them for years. But when I was first married

we were doing good to buy hamburger meat. This is a little bit on the pricey side

but thank goodness now I can actually afford me a good standing rib. So we've got him all ready

and all we're going to do is put him on a pan with a rack

We're going to put him in a 375-degree oven, let him cook for one hour

and then I'm going to shut off the temperature and let him rest probably for about three hours

An hour before I need him, I'm going to turn the oven back on to 375

let him cook for about 45 minutes, take him out of the oven

let him sit up on the counter and rest for 10 minutes, and then we're ready to eat the most wonderful, scrumptious

prime rib roast you have ever wrapped your lips around. I'm going to find a little hidden spot to cut off off because I've got to taste it

I've got to make sure it's good enough for the family, don't I? It's out of this world

Well my family and friends are gonna be getting here in a few minutes, but before they get

here I just want to sample the eggnog. You know I always like to make sure everything's just perfect for them

And it should be nice and icy and frothy and cold, and I think it is

We can see the sweet milk and the bourbon just kinda floating around in the bottom

See that wonderful whipping cream that's almost to the frozen state. I'm going to just pour me just a little to make sure it's good enough for my family and

friends. And I got a feeling I'm fixing to have me a mustache in about a half a second

It's fantastic. Y'all stick around because coming up next, we're going to be cooking

some branded steakside mushrooms and shrimp stuffed baked potatoes. I'm so excited

We're moving on to probably my number one most favorite food in the world, which is a potato

My family teases me all the time. They say, Mama, you don't care what we have as long as we've got a potato

And they're just about right. And today we're going to do a wonderful shrimp stuffed twice baked potato to go along with that wonderful prime rib

And we've already got our potatoes ready here. And I'm just going to saw these little boys in half

I actually want to work with them while they're nice and hot. And you can see the steam just coming off of those beautiful soft potatoes

And while they cooling for a minute I going to come over here and I going to take some shrimp that I have just actually pulled in half I hadn even cut them And I going to throw them into this saute pan with just a little olive oil

and I'm just going to stir them around only for a second. If you want to ruin a shrimp, overcook it

They'll come out tough and flavorless. So we're going to just roll this around in the pan just for a second

And that's all we need right there. That simple. Just going to set those to the side

and we're ready now to start removing the meat from our potato. The potatoes are cool enough for us to handle now

because you do want to do these while they're warm. They're so much easier to work with

I'll never forget the first time that I made a twice-baked potato

I just skinned those babies out. There was no meat at all left in them

So about the only way that you can actually mess up a twice-baked potato is by removing too much meat from it

You want to leave enough that it has some body to the shell

because you don't want your potato just falling and running all over the place

People that really know me well realize that I'm not the most organized person around

The fact that you can actually make these potatoes, as far as a week in advance, is great

All right, I've cleared all of our potato shells out. We're going to start by whipping these

Now I'm going to add a stick of butter. You know, we can't go wrong with a potato and a stick of butter, girl

We're just going to whip these until the butter is melting and they're kind of fluffy

We're going to add some sour cream and salt and pepper. Depending on the size of your potatoes will depend on how much sour cream you want to use

These potatoes are not real, real large, so we're probably going to cut back on the moisture in the filling

So I'm going to put probably about a cup of sour cream. And I'm going to go ahead and add my salt and pepper

And you know, this is another one of those dishes that you can really have fun with and just play with

You could stuff these with bacon or sausage or crab, or you can just leave them plain

They don't have to have meat in them. But for Christmas time, since it's a very, very special occasion

I love the idea of some seafood being thrown in on the table

All right, we've got those mixed up now. And all I'm going to do at this point is throw in some blended cheese

Now, I've got cheddar cheese and mozzarella, but you can use any cheese that's your favorite

Looks yummy already. And I'm going to taste these and make sure I've got my seasonings right

Mmm. I think they're perfect just the way they are. And now I'm going to fold in the shrimp

And if you like, at this point, you could chop up some fresh parsley

and put in there if you want a little green color. All right, now I'm just going to simply stuff this back into our potato shell

My family's going to be so very happy. They're going to love the fact that Mama's not going to be stuck in the kitchen the whole day

that I'll be able to sit around with them and laugh and talk and tell old stories

We could have actually used cream cheese in place of sour cream

but, you know, I just love potatoes and sour cream together. And look at this

Our potatoes have turned out perfect. As you can see now, those six potatoes yielded us 12 servings

But before these little delicacies go in the oven, I'm going to sprinkle them with a little paprika just for color

You could actually just let them go like this, and when you pull them out of the oven, sprinkle them with a little fresh parsley then

But I'm gonna go ahead and stick these in, let them get good and hot. The insides are hot, we'll pull them out of the oven

sprinkle a little cheese on top, and they're ready to eat. How delicious does that look

As y'all can see, I didn't remove too much meat, leaving a nice shell

to hold the whipped potatoes and shrimp. You'll wanna do this with a little care

because they're very, very hot. And when we come back, I'm going to show you the last dish

to complete this heavenly meal. I've got everything ready now

and I'm going to pull our Christmas meal together by taking some plain button mushrooms

Now, if you like shiitake or oyster, whatever, but I find that these little button mushrooms

work very, very nicely, and everybody loves them. I'm going to start with a stick of butter, and I'm just going to toss our mushrooms into

the pan, give them a stir. We don't want to burn our butter, and then I'm going to take a crazy salt and just sprinkle

a little of that on them, and we're just going to keep stirring them around in that wonderful

sweet butter until they've soaked almost all of it up. This dish is only gonna take us just a few minutes As I said everything else is ready Okay we gonna move on now I got another pot Since my family is such big mushroom lovers I got two pots going here These

mushrooms I've had back here simmering for about eight or ten minutes, and they're ready to be

liquored up. But first, before we liquor them, we're gonna put just a little Worcestershire sauce

maybe about a fourth of a cup. We're just going to stir those around

and let that flavor get into them. And then last but not least, our brandy

And I'm going to go with probably about a half of a cup

Oh, the aroma is unbelievable. We're going to let these sit in that brandy until most of it has absorbed

Our mushrooms are all ready now, and when we come back, I want to show you how I put together a fresh apple tree for the centerpiece of my table

and I want to share with you some of my most treasured Christmas ornaments

Mmm. And before we leave today, I want to show you just a few quick tips

A few months before Christmas, instead of throwing your grapefruit, your orange, your lemon peels into the trash

just peel the skin off of them, throw them into a Ziploc bag, and into the freezer

And when Christmas comes, pull them out, throw them in a pot of apple cider, and throw in all your favorite spices

And I throw in cinnamon, I throw in cloves, I throw in nutmeg, just all of my favorite aromas

and set that on the back of your stove on low heat and just let it simmer away

And it will just exude the most holiday festive flavor. And the last thing I want to show you is a wonderful apple tree

And this is what I put on my dining room table every year. You can possibly find these forms at a good hardware store

And all you do is stick your apples onto the nails so they won't fall off

I have adjusted my nails to suit my apples. We're going to top our tree with a fresh pineapple

I like using boxwood. It's a nice, hearty evergreen. And I slip them in between the apples

You'll love the sweet aroma that fills your house as these apples are drying

I'm putting the final touch of fresh nutmeg on the eggnog. And I've gotten everything ready

I've got my brandy mushrooms. and look at that succulent prime rib

and our twice-baked potatoes loaded with fresh shrimp. And over on the sideboard, I can't resist every Christmas

pulling out old photographs of my children. We've all taken our kids to the department stores

and had their picture made with Santa. And Jamie and Bobby would probably never admit

but they really get a kick out of me putting these out and them looking at them and reminiscing

This is my boys with their great-grandmother Paul. And this is my boys now

As a child, I remember going to the county fair and picking up the ducks

And whatever number was on the bottom of the duck would match the prize

And one of my prizes would be a glass necklace that I thought was just the most gorgeous thing that I'd ever seen

Well, one day I was out yard sailing, and I picked up a box and opened it

and inside were those extraordinary glass necklaces that I remembered as a child

And I grabbed up every one that they had because they brought back so many wonderful memories

And when Christmas rolled around, instead of doing icicles, I'm going to pull out my glass beads and hang them on the tree

And they've been hanging on my tree for the last 18 years now. I have different ornaments of my children

This is probably one of my favorites. It's of Jamie and Bobby on Christmas Eve

Bobby was probably eight or nine months old, and Jamie was three years old

And Bobby actually looks like he had been in the eggnog. He looks half-snockered

So that's awfully fun for me. And that way, that helps me keep these big old boys

young in my memories. I think I hear all my kids coming in. They're gonna be hungry and want to eat in a minute

so I'm gonna have to say goodbye. And until next time, America

Merry Christmas and best dishes from my table to yours. Thank you