As I was brainstorming topics for our 10 year anniversary post series, I thought about how many of the recipes we post show up at holiday or family gatherings. So I thought it would be fun to take a look at favorite Gravel & Dine recipes through a year of holidays – at least those holidays that we’ve made and posted recipes for. Sorry, Halloween – maybe as Ellie gets a little older Tory will decide to make and post some fun Halloween treats.
We will share one or more of our favorite recipes for each holiday or celebration and why the recipe is special to us. They won’t necessarily be complete meals but options to include for the day.
New Year’s Day
I know New Year’s is a time for setting resolutions for the coming year many around eating healthy. Well I’ve never been big about setting myself up for failure and setting resolutions. In fact, I find myself in one of two camps on New Year’s day – wanting to eat something fresh and healthy because of how much I indulged the night before or something super comforting and carby because of how little sleep I got the night before. We don’t do any crazy partying – skip ahead to New Year’s Eve at the end of the post to learn how we spend New Year’s Eve.
When I’m feeling like something fresh and healthy it’s going to be a big composed dinner salad like
An easy pantry staple dressing that will remind you of Italian with a little more oregano, and then all of my favorites from a Greek salad minus the olives. I don’t like olives but you’re welcome to add them. To me this is an “easy” yet composed dinner salad which makes it approachable for New Year’s Day.
or Southwest Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing
Southwest/Tex-Mex/Mexican flavors really are some of my favorites. This one adds some comfort over my other favorite Mexican Chopped Salad through with the creamy avocado dressing.
If I am feeling like carbs it might be something like Pizza Ranch Roll-Ups. These are a copy recipe from an appetizer menu that we ate a lot for dinner in college and our early careers and still pull out now and again for some pizza-y comfort. Pepperoni, ranch and mozzy cheese rolled up in crescent roll dough dipped in marinara. Total sleep deprived carb heaven.
or Pizza Mac – This is the kind of recipe you create when you don’t have any plans for a meal. You open the fridge and you think what could I pull together. Perfect for New Year’s Day when you might not have planned ahead. A fun mash-up of mac n cheese and pizza.
Valentine’s Day
We don’t go out for Valentine’s Day – to me it’s not worth it for the overpriced specials and long wait times (unless you are lucky enough to find a reservation). Instead we go one of two routes – order pizza and stream a movie or make ourselves a nice dinner.
If we go the dinner route, it’s likely to include a salad like Eloise’s Cesar Salad. Our dear friend and neighbor Eloise, who my niece Eloise was named after would always bring this when she came over for dinner. Tory & I loved taking the whole romaine leaves putting a bunch of feta along the rib, rolling it up and eating it with our hands.
And then the entree is likely to include a steak like Perfect Filet that we will reverse sear by starting it in the oven and then finishing with a hard sear at the end. The result is a perfect medium rare steak every time with no gray on the top/bottom.
Easter
I’ve never focused on posting a composed Easter Dinner but these recipes are either old favorites that showed up at our family Easter potlucks growing up or a new favorite I’ve created.
Strawberry Pretzel Jell-o is a family favorite that doubles as the quintessential Minnesota Jello’d salad required at every holiday or a dessert. Nicely salty and sweet.
Pudding’d Fruit is a recipe from my Auntie Moni. It uses canned fruit cocktail supplemented with some fresh fruit like bananas or even frozen blueberries (that all good Elyites have in their freezer) all coated in a pudding made from the canned fruit juices. It’s the perfect way to have a fruit side in Minnesota when not many things are in season.
This broccoli salad was a new recipe I made one year for an Easter feast when I was trying to stray from the “required” things and do something new. It was a nice fresh side that I loved!
Cinco de Mayo
Cinco de Mayo happens to be my birthday and if hard pressed to name a favorite would be my favorite cuisine. I love the freshness and variety of flavors you can make with a similar set of ingredients – especially salsas! I won’t pretend any of my recipes are authentic but they are delicious.
Sweet Corn Guacamole – Tory included my favorite guacamole in her last meal post and truly it is the last guac recipe you need. I have trouble ordering or eating guac elsewhere because it’s always lacking in what I want. In this riff on it, I just add some sweet corn kernels for a pop of sweetness.
Mexican Style Street Corn Off the Cob – Mexican Street Corn is one of my husband’s favorites either on or off the cob.
Carne Asada Burrito – I made this recipe because of my memories of the Baja style burritos at America’s Taco Shop in Phoenix. It’s not your stuffed “Chipotle” style burrito but a simple grilled skirt steak, guac, pico and cheese. It feels “light” for the typical “American” burrito.
4th of July / Summer Holiday
Burgers and hot dogs are quintessential staples at summer cookouts, gatherings, parties and holidays. I wanted to include a couple options for the grill as well as some sweets to finish the meal. Of course it would be easy to add some pasta or potato salads too!
10,000 Lakes Burger – A riff on the infamous secret sauce that McDonald’s uses in their big make this is our version of a thousand island sauce.
A fun way to change up your hot dog game from just ketchup, mustard, onions and relish is to include a few different topics and let people change it up a bit. I saw on some social media site recently using cornbread crumbs to simulate a corn dog! I’ve sharing two fun versions that would be easy to make just by putting a few different topping options out. First the Sweet & Spicy Hot Dogs add chipotle mayo and bacon and a copycat of our favorite from Biker Jim’s in Denver the toppings are cream cheese and caramelized onions. Get creative and let your guests make what they want!
Apple Pie Oatmeal Cookie – What’s more American and summer than apple pie? I put it into a cookie to make it easy to pick up and eat at a summer party.
Blueberry Cobbler Bars – These are perfect for a summer gathering in Northern Minnesota because you either have fresh blueberries or you are using up the last few from your freezer.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday that Tory and I have focused on blogging “all the things” for to have a composed and complete Thanksgiving dinner. Probably because growing up major holidays were potlucks and everybody in the family had their “thing” they brought. So while we can make everything in the traditional Thanksgiving feast we didn’t grow up ever doing it or seeing/helping our Mom do it. Below are a few of the highlights of the recipes we have posted.
Smoked Turkey – My favorite way to make a Thanksgiving turkey, cripsy skin and smoky flavor – what could be better?
Blueberry Muffins – My mom’s standard when she wasn’t hosting was to bring muffins. Sometimes they would be cranberry or banana when the blueberries in the freezer were running low, but mostly it was blueberry.
Pumpkin Pie – From Derek’s Grandmother and using real pumpkin – I’m such a convert now that I always grow my own pie pumpkins.
Lemon Meringue Pie – Grandma Forsman’s recipe, besides her peanut butter and chocolate pies (Two Really Easy Pies that Tory blogs about in her peanut butter pie recipe.) this is the pie recipe I remember most that she used to make and one of my favorites!
Christmas
Christmas Day for us usually starts with a brunch of some sort that can be made ahead like a french toast bake or cinnamon rolls, lunch is often skipped because for many years our neighbors hosted a Christmas Day Open house with lots of snacks (and we usually showed up with some apps too) and amazing Whiskey Slushes (that one day I will get the recipe for) and of course has to include Christmas Cookies! The recipes below I included are some of my favorites.
Cranberry Salsa & Cream Cheese Dip – This is a holiday party appetizer that Tory has made many times and received rave reviews for. Sweet tart cranberries as the base of a salsa on top of cream cheese.
Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts – One of my all-time favorite appetizers, often made during holiday gatherings but also a blue ribbon winner during a work appetizer contest.
Christmas Mule – My favorite of all of our Christmas Cocktails. Although with my love of Ginger Beer it wasn’t much of a contest.
Holly Wreaths – Think Christmas rice-krispie treats but with cornflakes and red hot cinnamon candies!
Peanut Blossoms – A classic Christmas cookie, but please make sure you make it with the chocolate stars not kisses. Just trust me, it’s how Aunt ‘Thann did it and the cookie queen can’t be wrong.
Grandpa’s Christmas Fudge – A lesson in why we can’t trust the measurements in old recipes, lol! Learning to make this from Derek’s grandpa’s verbal directions didn’t work – we had to go up to Ely and have him show us what he meant by the measurements.
New Year’s Eve
Our New Year’s Eve Tradition for the past 10 years or so has been to deep dry chicken strips my father-in-law and his family. It’s a deep fried feast that always includes homemade french fries and we’ve experimented with onion tangles, fried pickles, mozzy sticks, apple fritters and other random things over the years. We usually have a coleslaw – because you need at least something fresh. And then we play games. On the best years, we are so intently into our games that we miss the New Year’s Countdown, lol! Below is the chicken strip recipe and some of our favorite sauces.
Southern Style Fried Chicken Strips – This really doesn’t need much for an explanation. The key is to make sure your generously season the flour.
Chik-Fil-A Sauce – This is probably one of my favorite copycat recipes, it super simple to make and I think tastes like the real deal.
Sweet ‘n Sour Sweet Tea Sauce – This is my sister-in-law Dani’s favorite sauce that I make. It’s a sweet and sour sauce that includes very strong steeped tea for an extra depth of flavor.
Butcher’s Sauce is a “fry sauce” that was served with Steak Frites at one of our favorite restaurants in Denver. This is our copycat version of it.
Tangy Vinegar Coleslaw My favorite coleslaw recipe that came to me from a good friend, this is the coleslaw recipe that got me to like coleslaw.
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