Need something to bring to Christmas dinner? We’re updating this popular post from last year:

Make a beautiful red-and-green Christmas salad by adding “red” greens to your vegetable mix. Or make a colorful and delicious beet salad.

CHRISTMAS SALAD RECIPE

If you can’t find the more exotic red lettuces—red endive, red leaf lettuce, red mustard greens, red oak lettuce, red romaine and the new red watercress—most stores carry the naturally red-veined chard, baby kale and radicchio. If you like, you can mix them with regular green leaf lettuces; but we prefer to keep our Christmas salad in holiday colors.

If you don’t want to make a Christmas salad
with greens, a beet salad has the same
holiday colors. Photo by Sarsmis | IST.

 
BEET SALAD

Lacking the time to make pickled beets from scratch, we used Aunt Nellie’s Pickled Beets & Onions to make this quick salad:

Ingredients

 
PreparationIngredients

1. Empty beets into a large bowl.

2. We used the liquid in the pickled beets for the salad dressing. If you want you can add a small amount of olive oil to taste.

3. Mix in the spinach/chard and basil leaves.

4. Place into serving dish. Top with goat cheese and sprinkle on walnuts.
  

One reason to buy fresh blueberries now is to make this easy and delicious Blueberry Cranberry Relish, delicious with Christmas turkey and ham.

RECIPE: FRESH BLUEBERRY & CRANBERRY RELISH

This recipe is best made a day or two in advance to let flavors blend. It makes 12 quarter-cup servings.

Ingredients

1. COMBINE all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat.

2. COOK until the sugar dissolves and the berries soften, for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and chill.

Nutrients per serving: calories 76, fat 0, cholesterol 0, sodium 0, dietary fiber 0, protein 0.
 
SERVING SUGGESTIONS

 
Also see our recipe for Cranberry Relish With Port.

While you’re at it, make a Frozen Cranberry Margarita, Cranberry Mojito or Crantini (cranberry martini).
  

Here’s something sweet and better-for-you: honey is lower on the glycemic index than sugar.

These superior flavored honeys from Honey Ridge Farms are blended with fruits or spices. Luscious, yet light on the palate, these honey crèmes are delicious on just about anything.

Flavors include Apricot, Blackberry, Cranberry, Lemon, Raspberry and Spiced (Cinnamon). The line is certified kosher by Oregon Kosher.

You can purchase individual jars or a lovely gift crate with three 5.5-ounce jars:

 
Learn all about honey, how to pair honey and food, and find recipes in our Honey Section.

Discover the fascinating history of honey.

A gift box of Honey Ridge Farms Honey
Crème is a sweet, better-for-you gift.
Photo by River Soma | THE NIBBLE.

Tillamook’s standard Cheddar slice is cut
into four mini-squares. Photo courtesy
Tillamook County Creamery Association.

Oregon’s Tillamook County Creamery Association, formerly one of the best Cheddar producers in the country, is now the best in the world.

Tillamook’s Medium Cheddar was voted “World’s Best Medium Cheddar Cheese” at the 2010 World Championship Cheese Contest—besting 58 other Medium Cheddar contestants.

An international panel of Cheddar experts gave Tillamook a near-perfect score of 99.6 points out of 100.

And now, the World’s Best Medium Cheddar Cheese is available in mini slices—the standard four-inch slice divided into four 2″x2″ slices, 48 mini-slices to a pack.

They’re an easy solution for:

• Sliders
• Mini-sandwiches
• Cheddar dogs
• Eating less cheese on your burger (try two quarter slices, placed for maximum coverage)
• And they’re the perfect size to fit on a cracker

For entertaining, set out a cheese board of mini-slices, crackers, and garnishes (gherkins, pickle chips, olives, pepperoncini, Peppadew, cubed ham and turkey, sliced sausage, honey mustard and Dijon mustard) so guests can customize their snacks.

Why else is this a great cheese?

It’s all natural, made from milk that is rBST/rBGH free (no artificial growth hormones).

Gingerbread may be the best known Christmas “bread” in the U.S. Hopefully you’ll enjoy a few bites before the season ends (and send someone an adorable Gingerista gingerbread family that mirrors his or her household).

But don’t let the holidays pass you by without trying pandoro, panettone, panforte and/or stollen.

All are delicious with spiced tea like Constant Comment, which is also available in decaf and green tea versions. You can substitute an unflavored black tea.

If you want to put some spirit into your snack, dessert or tea time, serve the Christmas bread with mulled wine (warm spiced wine) or with a sweet dessert wine, such as Spumante or Moscato.

Gather the goods and invite friends to a special Christmas tea party.
 
 
CLASSIC SWEET CHRISTMAS BREADS

Think of these sweet breads as cake.

Stollen, the traditional German christmas
cake or “bread.” Photo courtesy The London
Hotel, New York City.

 
 
ENJOY THEM!

 
If you’re in New York City for the holidays, you can stop by The London Bar by Gordon Ramsay at The London Hotel, 151 West 54th Street, not far from Carnegie Hall, Tiffany’s, the Time Warner Center/Columbus Circle and Times Square. Through the holidays, you can enjoy a slice of fresh-made stollen with spiced wine and a side of rum. It’s served daily from 3 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. If you prefer tea, they’ll gladly oblige. (Editor’s Note 2020: Alas, now closed.)