Crafting Your Holiday Dinner Party: Local Ingredients + Health Conscious Holiday Planning
- Abigail Schmitt
- Nov 15, 2024
- 14 min read
Today's gratitude for me begins with a good strong coffee with cinnamon, and reflection on the importance of community and for creating events like this that bring people together.
I’ve always loved hosting, and now I get to plan and cook for dinner parties for a living - what a dream. I wanted to share my meal planning flow and ideas for planning, cooking and hosting a Holiday Dinner Party. I've laid out the details of how to create your own perfect dinner party, with all of the following:
Healthy holiday recipes and guidelines for both beverages and a full dinner menu
How to plan your holiday meal, down to the table setting and asking guests to contribute
Set-up Tips and interactive food entertainment
Steps for planning your dinner Party:
Invites: who are you serving? Is it a Friendsgiving, with some new faces or are you hosting your family? It speaks to your thoughtfulness when you remember someone’s allergy, or special diet needs, everyone should be welcome!
Decide your role: How much food are you making? The host often provides the heavier parts the meal, like the protein and gravy, bread stuffing and mashed potatoes (big pots taking up space on the stove are easier to account for ahead of time).
Ask your guests to bring things like dinner rolls or bread, cranberry sauce, a dessert, wine or beverages. Salads can be easy to bring as a guest if you make an interesting one, but it can get lost on the table if it’s boring. As a guest, bring your offering in a serving dish, ready with utensils too. A power move as a guest is to bring snacks pre-dinner.
Write your grocery list and Prep List(I use a task app for all my shopping for efficient reference) double check your recipes, not all online recipes are correct.
Prepare ahead of time: grocery shop for dry goods a week or so before, and fresh foods two days before your celebration. Order your turkey or duck well ahead of time to make sure you don't get stuck!
Do a little preparation the week before, a bit more the day before, and finish your preparation on the day of. Have your cleaning done the day before if possible, and use the day of to go for a nature walk, collect sprigs of winterberries or giant pinecones for table decor.
Day of set up: my inner Martha Stewart comes out here with table decor: candles in votives for candlesticks, amaranth or eucalyptus to fill in the space, little gourds, or edible pieces like pomegranate or mandarins. Place wooden trivets on the table to give space for the food, and set the table with placemats and dinner plates, at least 3pc silverware and napkins. Design your menu with Canva if you want to print it out, or hand write one for the ambitious artist. Ideally you would provide water and wine glasses both, but that doesn’t always happen.
Dinner Party Table Setting
Set Up Tips:
If you have the space, make a drink station and put some snacks nearby. A bowl of nuts, herby popcorn or a sampling of cheeses that won’t ruin everyone’s appetite. Smoked salmon, pate or tinned fish is popular in my house, as are LOTS of different pickles. Pickled beets, pickled herring, sweet gherkins, dill pickles, pickled peppers and a jar of pickled onions for a dirty martini. Olives are my favorite snack for while I’m cooking, alongside a glass of wine.
Leave easy tasks for eager hands: guests always want to know how they can help, so unless you’re finished cooking and you’re sitting with everyone, have some tasks ready like setting the table or mashing the potatoes.
Interactive entertainment: Nuts in their shells and a nutcracker: If you anticipate you’ll be cooking while guests are present, give them something to do and interact with the food. Chestnuts, scored and roasted with salt are one of my favorites, but around this time grocery stores usually stock bags of nixed nuts in their shells for this very purpose. It makes for an interactive learning experience, learning which are the shells of almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts and how much force it takes to crack them.
Roasted Chestnuts and Sea Salt
Welcoming Guests and Dinner Conversation:
Start your dinner with a toast: to each other, for health, for the food at the table and the hands that created it.
Celebrate your harvest dinner, and practice vocalizing your gratitude.
Take a moment to explain the food each person made, and maybe why they chose that recipe or why the ingredients are special. Bonus points for low-waste recipes like making caramelized squash seeds, or roasting the whole cauliflower head, stems, leaves and all.
Creating Your Menu
Pick which things you're covering and jump to...
Bread - dinner rolls, sourdough, baguette, honey-cornbread
Get Started with a Signature Beverage
While I usually ask folks to bring their own drinks to a party, I often make a signature drink that is easily prepared and loved by all. I like to call this a "welcome drink" for when guests first arrive and settle in, catching up on latests news is usually the first thing on everyone's minds...along with a drink in hand. Wine is always going to be my go-to dinner pairing, starting with a chilled lambrusco or a white wine from France or Austria. Light reds are easy to pair for the variety of a holiday meal, but a full bodied red has it's place with acidity and tanic properties. Choose a Spanish or Italian Rioja or Barolo, or a Barbaresco for a less tanic feel. While wine is always a classic and favorite of mine, cocktails are more popular as a starter, as are low-ABV or non-alcoholic drinks.
Espresso Martini - Classic
Serves 2
4 oz Soto Sake Junmai
1 oz gin or vodka
2 oz coffee liqueur - Mr. Black (or Kahlua)
2 oz Espresso (decaf, anyone?)
.5 oz simple syrup
ice for shaking
Espresso beans or Whole Nutmeg for garnish
To make: Shake it up for at least 2 minutes to create a foamy topping! Garnish with an espresso bean or grating of nutmeg (grate with the perforated part of a cheese grater, or a microplane.
Pomegranate Fizz
(Serves 2)
4 oz Gin
4 oz Ginger Beer
2 oz Pomegranate-Cranberry syrup
1 oz Fresh lemon juice
1.5 oz egg white or aquafaba
ice for shaking
To make:
Add gin, syrup, egg whites, and lemon juice to a Boston Shaker and dry shake (no ice) to build foam. Add ice and shake again.
Strain into a Coupe or Champagne Flute
Top with ginger beer or champagne
Garnish with fresh pomegranate seeds and a lemon peel
Hot Apple Cider
Serves 6
48 oz / 2 Lt fresh apple cider
2 stick of cinnamon
2 star anise
4 whole cloves
1 ts cardamom pods
Slowly bring all the ingredients to a simmer, and then cover and lower the heat to steep for at least 30 minutes. Serve in a glass or ceramic mug, garnished with a cinnamon stick or grating of nutmeg.
Mulled Wine
Serves 6
1 bottle red wine (Malbec or Tempranillo, choose something inexpensive but not so inexpensive it will give you a headache)
6 oz brandy or tawny port
6oz maple syrup or honey
1 stick of cinnamon
2 star anise
4 whole cloves
5 whole cardamom pods
6 Orange Slices, halved
1/2 C fresh Cranberries
Optional: 8 oz pomegranate juice (my dad's secret ingredient...shh)
To make: Slowly bring the wine + spices to simmer in a 4-6 QT sauce pot, then add in brandy and orange slices. Let steep for at least 30 minutes before serving. Keep warm on the stove with a lid on. Serve in a glass or ceramic mug. Strain to avoid spices or keep a cinnamon stick or orange slice for garnish.
Other must-haves in the kitchen for beverages is sparkling water, and ice of course. Make some beautiful ice cubes frozen with cranberries and rosemary or twisted mandarin slices for an easy non-alcoholic option.
Onto the Dinner Menu...
The Market Salad: Use this guide to make a perfect salad with just a few ingredients. Tip for a no-waste salad: Keep the salad dressing on the side if you're serving greens that will wilt after dressing. This way, if the salad doesn't all get eaten, you can save it for later. Salads that love to be dressed ahead of time: kale, fennel, broccoli and other grains-type salad.
A balanced salad should have 60% leafy greens, and 40% other ingredients:
Extra Color and Variety: grated carrots, shaved beets, watermelon radishes, sweet peppers.
Sweetness and Acidity, salt and pepper: lemon or vinegar + olive oil (1:4 ratio) add a spoonful of honey and a ts of Dijon to emulsify. Tahini is always a star, emulsifying and rounding out with nuttiness. Go a step further and use the immersion blender: blend in a forkful of anchovies, pickled peppers or capers. Sweetness should come from fresh or dried fruit, lime segments of orange, sliced pear, cranberries or golden raisins.
Something Crunchy: candied pepitas or pecans, chunks of apple, shaved fennel or julienned pepper
Bonus points for:
Something Creamy: goat cheese, violife cheese, nut creams, steamed or roasted sweet potato, or a half can of chickpeas or butter beans (the marinated gigante beans in the salad bar at Whole Foods…my demise
Grains: a cupful of cooked quinoa, red rice, wild rice or brown rice is a great way to add in your serving of whole grains to the plate.
Edible Flowers or Chopped Herbs like dill, parsley, or chervil, sorrel, sprouts…edible flowers like nasturtium, marigold, sweet pea or cornflowers
Go easy with Side Dishes:
Roast veg with smashed garlic, woody herbs, olive oil and maybe a splash of maple syrup or miso paste. Don’t sleep on parsnips, rutabaga and turnips in your medley, along with rainbow carrots, fingerling potatoes, cauliflower, or that cruciferous beauty romanesco. Roast them on a sheet tray below your other oven things on high heat (375-425 will work) until caramelized. I don't have an air fryer, but I know that brassicas cook very well in one.
My absolute favorite side dishes:
Garlic Mashed Potatoes...this deserved a whole post
Sweet potatoes and Harissa
Carrots roasted with Honey + Zaatar and served with crumbled feta or ricotta
Roasted Green Beans topped with fried shallots (not a green bean casserole fan here)
Fried Brussel Sprouts with bacon bits and balsamic
Marinated beet salad
Baked acorn or delicata squash with parmesan
Cranberry Sauce:
Not going to lie, I grew up eating both canned and homemade and they are both fierce moves. Give your canned cranberry a pop opening in the bottom so it isn't suctioned into the can, and slide it out. Half the fun is the sauce being in the shape of the tin can. Healthier option: If you opt to make your own, try using monk fruit sugar to lower sugar intake for the season. Add orange juice and orange zest for flavor, and a touch of salt. Simmer until tender and juicy, adding water as needed.
Stuffing or Dressing:
Seasoned stale bread cubes with poultry broth, made more delicious with a sofrito (diced and cooked onion, garlic, fennel) and a sweet italian sausage. Bake it in the cavity of your roasted bird to help conduct the heat and soak up juices, or make it in a separate pan. This is a good opportunity to make vegetarian, if needed.
Breads:
Easiest to buy if you're not a Martha Stewart, but if you're a guest and this is all you're bringing, make sure it's fresh. I have a recipe for parkerhouse rolls, but honey cornbread can be popular, as is a rosemary french bread or my personal favorite, an olive loaf.
The Main Course: Sustainable Protein Options
When thinking about the main dish, consider alternatives to the usual turkey. Locally raised poultry, such as ham or chicken, or even game birds like grouse or duck, can make a big difference. Using local proteins not only means you're getting better flavor but also supports your local economy. The biggest reasons we stress local foods is to support your neighbors, keep the local economy running, and to lower carbon emissions from food transportation. There are numerous other meat-free options, pescatarian options or ready made-options out there, but roasting a whole bird just feels so festive to me.
My process for roasting whole poultry:
2-3 Days before the event: Thaw in the fridge on the bottom shelf with a pan underneath to catch any dripping. 24 hours prior to preparation should be enough for most, but for anything larger than whole frozen turkey or goose, 48 hours to be safe. You can also thaw in the sink under cold running water for a bit faster thawing but this process is wasteful (of water) in my opinion.
1 day before event: wet brine in 3% salt and aromatics like garlic, onion, bay leaf. For a 3% brine of the water weight should be salt: 1000g water is a full quart, to 30 grams of salt). General rules for brine time is: Whole poultry for 4-6 hours, red meat (lamb, pork, beef) for 8 hours/overnight and fish for 1 hour of less. If you don't have space to fill a giant tub of water for your bird, you might be able to put it outside in a cooler for more fridge space. Alternatively, you can dry brine by heavily salting - though this doesn't work as well when you don't have a flat surface because the salt will fall off, and the amount of salt may be too much or too little to properly work. Always rinse and pat dry after dry brining.
On a scientific level, protein strands typically exist in tight coils, but introducing them to salt causes them to unwind. Once unwound, the proteins take up more space and end up overlapping with neighboring strands, creating a net-like structure that traps water inside the meat. This prevents the moisture loss and tighter surface area for creating flavor and caramelization by way of the maillard reaction. Poultry skin is also essential in retaining moisture, and for the crispiest most delicious bites, the skin should be rendered of fat and roasted til golden brown. This will happen during your roasting time.
Day of event: (4-6 hours before dinner time) Cooking: Situate your bird in a roasting pan with at least 2" sides and (ideally) a lid for the first hour of cooking. Add in aromatics and vegetables to the inside of the cavity: onion, garlic, carrot and celery. Fennel and potatoes can be a great addition too. if you're eating the vegetables! If you're cooking the roast for 1 hour, you should eat the veggies you bake with it. If you cook for 2+ hours, the vegetables will be mushy and serve only as flavoring for your roast. Make a glaze of oil, miso, honey or maple to brush the outside to help the browning of the skin. When your glaze is gone, use the pan juices to reglaze. Don't forget to season with salt and pepper before cooking.
Salt Brining any meat helps the muscle tissue to retain moisture, giving your final dish a juicier texture and flavor.
Roast: Always start the cooking process low - 325 or 350 for larger roasts, 350-375 for smaller. Use the oven, smoker or grill to cook! Cook poultry to an internal temperature of 165 F (taken with a probe thermometer stuck in the thigh to the bone). It will take about 1-2 hours for chicken, 2-3 hours for a duck, and 4-6 hours for goose or turkey. The last 20-30 minutes turn the oven to 400 F or 435 F to get the skin brown and crispy!
* Grab a leddel of pan juices as soon as you have extra, which will help to make your gravy!
Carving and Serving: The most impressive part of cooking whole is pulling it out of the oven with it's delicious aromas and showing your guests the caramelized skin. Let it cool for 10-15 minutes before carving: Use a long, sturdy and flexible knife and a fork or tongs to stabilize, or use a gloved hand and get in there. Think about where the bones and joints are, and slice accordingly.
Cut off the thighs from the body with the legs attached (it may be very tender and fall apart, this is amazing) then slice the legs at the joint at an angle.
Cut off the wings at the shoulder joint. Keep the wing tips attached if they look tasty.
Slice off the breasts: thinking about the breast bone and rib cage, slice just to the side of the breast bone, cutting down and along the ribcage. Place the breast on the cutting board and slice in 1/2-1" slices or big bigger portions.
Place the breasts on a platter and serve with the legs, thighs and wings around the breasts. Pour extra pan juices over the top, and if you would like a garnish, rosemary or thyme fresh or from roasting is a good option.
NO-WASTE Tips: Let the bones cool off before picking off the rest of the meat for sandwiches or soup. Roast the bones again or just fill up the roasting pan or crock pot with water and make a stock for soup in the following days. Add veggies scraps like carrot tops, onion buts and skins, extra garlic from roasting etc. Anything goes!
PRO TIP: If you still don't have space in the fridge for stock, consider reducing your stock after straining off the bones to save space in the freezer or fridge. Don't forget to label your stock as "condensed poultry stock" and add a date. You can keep stock in the fridge for 5 days or in the freezer up to 3 months.
Gravy: The Cure-All
Even if you brined and cooked your roast perfectly, gravy is still a mush-have topping for most roasts. You can make gravy with corn starch slurry and pan juices for a gluten free option, but using a roux is the most traditional way to make gravy.
Guidelines: Use 1.5 TB of fat and 1.5 TB flour for every cup of liquid. For each guest, make at least 1/2 cup of gravy. SO: for 6 people, make 3 cups of gravy (doesn't seem like enough? Just make more. But here is the recipe for 3 cups of gravy.) It is essential to first separate the fat and liquid before cooking. Take a leddel or pour the pan juices into one of these fat separators for best results. If you don't, your gravy will probably end up being a loosey-goosey "broken" sauce: a greasy separated liquid fat and clumpy liquid.
Measure out 6 TB of poultry fat and 6 TB of flour into a 2 qt sauce pot. Using a whisk or spatula, cook for 4-5 minutes on medium-low heat until toasty and brown. If you don't cook it long enough, it will taste like raw flour.
Pour over 1 QT / 4 cups of (fat free) pan juices/stock, whisking to prevent lumps from forming. Bring to a boil while whisking, and you will see the mixture thicken. Turn off heat and season with salt and pepper.
Desserts:
Have guests bring dessert, buy a pie or make your own. You have plenty of options! Make a pie crust for most flakey results, or buy a ready made crust in the shell. Pumpkin pie is my favorite, but one time a friend brought this beautiful perfect cranberry tart with a pecan crust that was killer. Have some ice cream or whipped cream ready for pies whether you made them or not! Other favorite ideas:
Classic Apple or Pecan Pie
Chocolate-Ginger Spice Cake
Strawberry White Chocolate Cookies
Classic Sticky Toffee Pudding
Trifles - back in style these days!
Mini basque cheesecakes
Ginger-Pineapple Cake with Mulled Wine Caramel
Reflection:
When I first started doing private dining experiences back in 2022, one of my first dinners was for a family in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. They wanted the spirit of an “American Thanksgiving” but with local ingredients, which I was honored to create for them:
Market Salad with Plums and Chile-Candied Pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and garnished with edible flowers (cempasuchil/marigold and squash blossoms (still in season in Mexico, but not as much in the rest of the world)
Chicken brined in salted pulque (a sweet fermented agave beverage) and chicken drippings gravy
Rosemary-Potatoes roasted with the chicken
Carrots glazed in miso and honey, with a hoja santa furikake (hoja santa is an aromatic flavor, dried and pulverized with salt, dried chiles and and sesame as a “furikake” or Japanese seasoning
As you prepare to host, remember why you're doing this: to bring people together, over good food and good times. Your holiday feast doesn't have to follow strict guidelines—creativity is what makes cooking enjoyable. Dole out tasks and prepare ahead of time for a stress-less time. Remember to savor the time spent together because that’s what this time is truly about.
Happy cooking, and may your holiday feast be as warm and vibrant as the season itself!
Cheers,
Abigail
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