Holiday Party with Andrew and Zoë

It's the holiday season.

Oh!

A time for family, friends...

How's it going? Good seeing you, man.

...and of course, lots of food.

Are you punching my dough?

I did by accident.

After 30 years of friendship,

Zoe Francois and I are finally joining forces

to throw an epic holiday party.

Happy holidays.

Sharing some of our most beloved Christmas

and Hanukkah family traditions.

You so chefed this up.

Learn our secrets

for giving favorite traditional recipes

some holiday flair.

Aah!

Tips and tricks for sharing the work...

And the fun.

Grab a plate, let's eat.

Whoa!

Pull up a chair and join the party.

It's the holidays.

It's my absolute favorite time of the year.

And I love to decorate and throw parties.

It's just the time of the year that you go over the top,

and it's all right.

In fact, it's expected.

And it occurred to me that I have never

thrown a party with my friend Andrew.

After three decades of friendship,

we've decided to host a mashup Christmas-Hanukkah party

for some of our friends.

So I'm gonna have him over for lunch,

and we're gonna talk about what we wanna do.

And so, I wanna make him something super tasty.

Ah, it smells so good.

This Spicy Spinach Artichoke Dip

is a quick and delicious recipe

that's so easy to throw together.

I'm gonna sauté the onions and garlic

and the jalapenos.

I'm gonna add my spinach,

and then my artichoke hearts.

Okay, so while that is sitting there,

I'm gonna mix up my cheese

and all the creamy bits.

Stir it all together,

put it right back into the pan,

a little bit of cheese on the top,

and then I'm using jalapeno.

Intersperse those with the Fresno.

One last one.

This looks great.

Andrew and I actually met over the phone.

He needed a pastry chef,

I needed a job.

I landed in Minneapolis

and I met him for the first time,

and I was like, "What have I gotten myself into?"

This man is crazy.

He's also brilliant.

I think it took about 20 minutes

for us to decide that we would be lifetime friends.

She was so talented.

I mean, I knew back then

she was gonna be a star in this business.

Through the years we've done a lot of the same things.

I've held her children as babies,

and she and her family

are part of my extended family.

Mmm!

Ah, just look at that.

That toasty cheese,

I love it.

All right.

I just need Andrew.

Hello!

Hi.

I'm in the kitchen.

You've gotta deal with that stoop, lady,

if you have a shovel.

No, I was fine coming straight in.

I'm cold.

If I had to describe

the relationship that Zoe and I have,

is that I am her very irritating older brother.

-I'm just gonna-- -Yeah, just hang it there, that's fine.

-Are you starving? -I am starving.

It just, just came out of the oven.

Like, your timing could not be better.

I love it.

All right, this is artichoke dip.

One of my favs.

I tried to burn your face off with this,

-and it's really not spicy at all. - It's so good.

I would rather eat this...

-Mmm. -...on a cold snowy day

than just about anything else.

-'Cause it warms you up. -I know.

The thing that I think I love the most...

-Mmm. -...about this time of year

is actually gathering family.

-Biological... -Yeah.

-...and chosen. -Chosen.

We haven't thrown a party like this together, so I'm really excited.

When you were little, did you do holiday stuff?

Depending on when Hanukkah landed,

we would do my mom's family,

and then we would do Christmas with my dad's family.

- Mmm-hmm. -And I loved it.

And I had thought that was totally normal.

And I brought the boys up

-doing both holidays too. -Me too.

When Noah was about five,

he'd just come from nursery school at the temple.

He looked at me one day,

and looked at his stocking and the tree,

and looked at me like,

"We're Jewish."

And I was like, "But we celebrate everything big."

The other great thing about it,

is like, all of the food mashups.

So, we have 48 hours.

We have 48 hours.

Should we, like, figure out

-food and... -Yeah.

I need a minute to think about it,

especially with baking.

-Mmm-hmm. -It's all a little bit of a timing issue.

So, give you a night to think about it?

Yeah.

So I'm gonna finish up my cookie house.

I think it'll make a really sweet centerpiece.

- Can I help? -Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Traditionally, people would make a gingerbread house,

but my house looks like a sugar cookie.

And every year I do this,

and every year it gets a little bit more ornate.

And I add more details.

Eventually, I'm hoping to make a life-size one,

so we can have the party in the house.

When we bought the house,

we found all the blueprints.

I was gonna do the cookie just...

-you know... -Yeah.

...eyeballing it.

But I have this.

So I can really get, you know, precise.

Your part may not be as precise,

-but-- -No, mine's gonna be precise.

I love Andrew just like a brother.

Do I have to do that thing where I, kind of, like...

Limber up?

-You're in your tracksuit. -No, I did. I stretch--

-You can do... -Oh...

before I came in, 'cause I knew that you would want me...

What do you need me to do?

If you could do some brick pattern on the sides like this.

-And then if you want to-- -But so, hold on...

Did I lose you already?

No, no, no, no. I just wanna do it right.

So this right here, we'll put...

- It's gonna be this. -Yeah, perfect.

And then we'll glue them all together.

-All right. -Yeah, we'll do-- Yeah, go.

You do your thing.

Man, are you precise.

I have to say, your piping skills are to be commended.

Yeah, we might need... a few more days.

Do you wanna get together tomorrow,

-and go over our menus? -Yes.

I like that we're doing the two different holidays.

100%.

-It's awesome. -I love that.

What do you actually have at the holidays?

What would you serve?

-What would I serve? -Yeah.

My grandmother's brisket,

which has kicked off Hanukkah

every year in the Zimmern family

since they could afford brisket,

which was probably right after the Depression.

You gotta have fried items 'cause it's Hanukkah.

Latkes?

I do Latkes.

Who doesn't love a nice fried potato pancake?

And I'd bring stuff and decorate them.

I was thinking some, like, rosemary buns

You have to.

I think green beans, you know,

I think it's an important part of balancing out the plate.

Right? Easy but elegant.

These are all very classic.

Can we lean into sweet potato, yam land a little bit?

Oh, yeah.

This is what I'm thinking for dessert.

A Buche de Noel.

'Cause I do it every single Christmas.