[Announcer] Smyth County, Virginia, located in the mountains of Southwest Virginia.

Offering outdoor adventures and small town charm.

Details online at visitsmythcountyva.com.

[uplifting music] [Chef Missy] "Show me your friends, and I will show you your future."

These words have spun around in the world since before we knew time.

It took me a while to get it, but it's basic.

You become who you hang out with.

My closest friends are three a.m. friends... truthful, reliable, willing to help at a moment's notice, and genuinely joyful when they participate.

Thomas and I have assisted new and experienced restaurant owners plan and get off the ground their food concepts.

One phrase we often hear from new wannabe restaurant owners is, "How hard could it be?"

And Thomas and I quickly chime in with, "It's incredibly hard."

It's not just the work itself, but the efforts outside of the work.

"Hors d'oeuvre" is a fancy French word that literally translates to "outside of the work," but it's real work.

"Hors d'oeuvre" is also code for a million tiny actions tediously repeated.

It's anything but insta-ready.

Entertaining is not for the faint of heart.

There's planning, shopping, budgeting, logistics, layout and design, decorating, cleaning, polishing, hours of prepping and cooking, while simultaneously running your business, communicating with calm, squeezing yourself into a holiday outfit that does not include stretchy soft clothes, and arriving front and center on time with a smile on your face.

With all this outside the work in mind, hors d'oeuvre represents celebration, where you publicly honor those with special rights.

It's the season of joy and peace.

Nibbles of food, schmeared with love, a dash of beverage, a smattering of new folks, and stir in your three a.m. friends.

Tie the whole thing up in a giant ribbon at the busiest time of the year, and put it on national television.

How hard could it be?

Hi, I'm Chef Missy, and I'm the French Magnolia, a true-blue Southern gal with French ancestry running through my veins.

My husband Thomas is a wine expert and hospitality veteran.

Throughout our careers, we've worked for some incredible restaurants and hotels, from Atlanta to New York City to Charleston, South Carolina, to the edge of a mountain at a 5-star Relais & Châteaux.

But pretty soon, the French Magnolia, a luxury, movable feast company, was born.

We pour into your home and set an elaborate stage for a multi-course culinary and wine experience.

We settled in Bristol, Virginia, a good place to live.

And when we're not working, we love connecting with local farms and Appalachian culture.

From farm, field, garden, and stream, to Chef and Somm, to the table, all in one day, this is the French Magnolia Cooks.

Thomas and I made the decision early in the year to celebrate our farmers and their spouses with a very special Christmas holiday party.

New friends and old are traveling from all over Southwest Virginia to celebrate the season.

Okay, we are back here in the French Magnolia Culinary Center.

We have been very hard at work all week.

We're super blessed to have our awesome sous chef, Amanda, with us.

Thank you so much.

So, we are making house-made candied pecans for 72 gift bags.

The first thing you're gonna wanna do, mise en place .

Mise en place , everything in its place.

So, the first thing we have is 12 pounds of raw shelled Georgia pecans.

See, I didn't say pecans.

Sometimes I do say pecans, and everybody gives me a lot of grief, but I'm from Georgia, I can't help it.

Anyway, we have 12 pounds of raw shelled Georgia pecans.

So, you really wanna keep your dry separate from your wet at the beginning, right?

And the reason you do that is so that all of your dried spices will get evenly mixed together before you pour it into something wet, right?

'Cause then it's sticky.

Three quarts organic sugar, one cup sea salt, and this is sea salt with iodine, isn't it?

-Mm-hmm.

-Yeah.

One cup coarse black pepper, one cup cumin, one cup ground cinnamon, one cup ground nutmeg, and half a cup of clove.

Okay, clean hands.

I'm gonna go ahead and make sure that I get out my little clumps.

Boy, it smells like Christmas in here.

All right, what do we have here?

-All right, so we've got the whites of 15 eggs and two cups of water.

So, my recommendation is that you would mix the cold water and the egg whites together.

-Okay, what's next?

-All right, so now we are going to take the pecans and-- -Oh!

Oh!

-Oh!

You did it too!

-You said it!

You heard it, you heard it.

[laughs] I love it.

-Maybe next time.

-One point for Chef Missy.

[laughs] -We're gonna take the pecans-- and mix them into our wet mixture.

[Chef Missy] This is a heck of a lot of pecans.

[Amanda] The best kitchen tools are clean hands.

-The egg whites act as a glue.

So, you really wanna make sure that all of the pecans are nice and coated.

All right, coming in with the dry.

We have the oven preheated to 250 degrees, is that right?

[Amanda] Yes.

[Chef Missy] And these pecans are going to bake low and slow for an hour to an hour and a half.

When you pull them out of the oven at the very end, you'll scrape them around with your metal spatula and then let them cool for about 45 minutes.

Now when you first pull them out of the oven, they may not be totally hard and crispy at that time.

That's okay because as they cool over the next 45 minutes, they're gonna harden and get crunchy and get super delicious and yummy.

Would you like me to walk over to the other kitchen with you?

-Yeah.

-Okay.

[laughs] Okay.

I'll be back to cook some beautiful beef tenderloin.

[♪♪♪♪♪] Sliced roast beef is a beautiful gift for your party.

First, pat your roast beef dry with paper towels.

And I like to work on parchment paper.

It makes cleanup so easy.

For a large group, I like using eye of round.

It's less expensive than beef tenderloin and just as delicious when cooked properly.

With a boning knife, trim off all the fat.

Be sure to remove all the fat from the beef.

Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and massage the olive oil into the beef.

Generously salt the beef and remember, beef needs more salt than you think.

Liberally pepper with coarse black pepper, and I want each slice to be encrusted with black pepper, so be generous.

For 40 people, you'll need to cook at least two eye of rounds at about four and a half pounds each.

Place the beef on a cooking sheet or roasting pan.

You're gonna cook these tenderloins for 15 minutes at 450 degrees.

Then turn down the oven to 350 and cook them for around 90 minutes.

For rare, pull them at 125 and let them rest for about 30 minutes at room temperature.

Then, chill them overnight and slice right before the party.

And, the easy cleanup, just throw away your parchment paper.

I'm gonna serve the crudité platter with this beautiful green herbal dip.

It's very similar to a green goddess dip, although green goddess dip has anchovies in it.

That's the classic recipe.

And so, I've chosen to leave those out.

I think this is delicious.

It will serve a lot of people, and it's a crowd pleaser.

The first thing you're gonna wanna do, get your food processor out.

I've got two cups of fresh cilantro, de-stemmed, and two cups of fresh curly parsley.

You can use flat-leaf Italian parsley as well, also de-stemmed.

Put your fresh herbs in the food processor.

Pour in one cup of good quality, organic extra virgin olive oil.

Add six cloves of garlic.

Then add the juice of two lemons.

Two pinches of salt... one, two.

Two pinches of coarse cracked pepper.

Then you're gonna put it on high for about a minute and let it do its thing.

After about 30 seconds, just give it a little check.

Another 30 seconds.

Take the contents from the food processor, put 'em in a bowl.

The reason why you don't wanna put the sour cream and the Greek yogurt in the food processor is that it will turn into a milky mess.

One cup of yummy mayonnaise.

One cup full fat sour cream... and one cup full fat Greek yogurt.

You really wanna use the full fat of everything, not only for flavor, but things that are fat-free have more hidden sugars in them.

Okay, and then just fold it together .

This is one of the first salad dressings and crudité dips that I did when I was first starting to cook around the age 22.

Let's give it a taste.

Mm.

Perfect.

Right on the money.

Put part of the dip right into the serving bowl that I'm gonna use on my platter for tomorrow.

Okay, I'm gonna wrap this dip and get it in the refrigerator overnight to chill.

And if you don't have overnight, at least two hours works.

Okay, here it is.

Homemade fresh herb dip.

So easy, delicious, and elegant.

Plan ahead and prep your veggies the day before your party.

Save a step by choosing veggies that don't have to be blanched and are still delicious raw.

Party guests won't eat complicated things.

Everyone loves celery, but be sure to de-stem it.

You don't want your guests dealing with strings.

Then, cut them lengthwise three ways.

Bag up your celery, but don't put water in them.

It will make them curl and bend.

Sweet peppers are wonderful, especially red, orange, and yellow.

Green peppers are too strong for a cocktail party.

Radishes are also a favorite and easy to eat.

Asparagus is always easy and elegant, and your guests will enjoy them.

Be sure to peel the bottom of the asparagus.

Again, no one wants to chew on fibrous skin at a cocktail party.

And cut the asparagus into manageable lengths.

Pack your veggies in airtight bags and don't add water.

They will be just fine for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Planning and prepping ahead is the key to making your party day less chaotic.

Set up your crudité platter on the day of your party.

Because I help people entertain for a living, I have collected many silver platters over the years, but I also love using all-white platters.

Using all-white will always be a classic.

Try to alternate your green veggies and disperse the color.

I love decorating my platters with fresh herbs.

It gives them that little country-fresh splash.

And I love the aromatic herbal smell.

Delicious and elegant.

Ready for the table.

In my opinion, it's just not a cocktail party without tiny cucumber sandwiches, my personal favorite.

For both smoked salmon canapés and tiny cucumber sandwiches, I love a cracked pepper and fresh dill cream cheese schmear.

First, de-stem about three cups of fresh dill.

Second, you'll need to peel eight English seedless cucumber.

Try to find eight that are similar in size and straight.

Set your mandoline to a pretty small opening, allowing for thin slices.

Make sure you're getting the perfect slice.

I don't like to make them paper thin.

You want a little crunch.

Then, you're off to the races.

It helps to keep turning the cucumber every so often, maintaining a good circular shape.

Next, you'll need your bread circles.

If you don't have a set of circle cutters, I recommend you purchase some.

You will use them for so many things.

You should be able to get two to three circles out of each slice of bread.

I like one side thin whole wheat and one side thin rye.

Keep damp, cold paper towels over your bread circles until you're ready to use them.

This keeps them from drying out.

Now for your mise en place.

Four sticks of room temperature butter.

You have your rye bread circles.

You have your thin whole wheat bread circles.

Your big bowl of cucumbers.

Your fresh dill.

And your good old all-American cream cheese, four eight-ounce packages.

And of course, black pepper.

For 40 people, we're gonna make 80 smoked salmon canapes and 80 tiny cucumber sandwiches.

Let's make our schmear.

Add four eight-ounce packages of cream cheese to the food processor.

Add two cups de-stemmed fresh dill.

And three tablespoons of coarse cracked pepper.

And pulse on high until creamy smooth.

You might wanna stop halfway and help it along.

If you have any dill schmear left over, it's wonderful in a veggie omelet the morning after a big party.

Your butter has been sitting out, so it's good and schmeary.

I like to get a generous amount of butter on my knife.

This keeps the bread from tearing.

Liberally butter one side of the bread and be sure to mash it down smoothly.

Then, on the other side, schmear the cold dill and cracked pepper cream cheese.

Place three slices of cucumbers down.

I like to do things in threes.

Put his little hat on and give it a firm press and mash down.

One down, 79 to go.

-Hey guys, this is Thomas.

And today, I'm gonna show you how to set up a home bar for your next holiday party.

So, the first thing you're gonna need is a table, right?

So, this is simply a folding table you can get anywhere.

Just make sure it's sturdy enough to carry the weight of what we're going to put on it.

This is a coverlet we purchased online, very inexpensive.

And you wanna just make sure that it's big enough to cover to the floor.

So, the next thing you're gonna need is a tablecloth.

I just like a good, ironed tablecloth.

When it's on the table, it just looks better.

I like to take the point and flip that around to my side.

You see the point there?

And have it up I'm gonna point that straight down the middle to the other point on the other side, okay?

And I'm gonna take this, since we're doing the Harlequin design, and I wanna take it over the table.

And then when I flip it, there you have it.

I'm gonna do a quick sweep over this with the iron just to get those wrinkles out.

This corner, what do you do with this?

It always looks kind of sloppy, but I found a little trick.

And if you just take these two sides like this, bring the center into the middle, and then you fold it over this way, then you have a nice-- this and you can tuck it under, right?

Much better, right?

All right, so we have our front bar table ready.

And in advance, I've already set up our back bar.

Back bar is very important for extra glassware.

Now we're ready to start setting up your bar.

You wanna start with the larger items first, and then we'll just fill in around them.

Okay, so we're gonna start first with a champagne globe.

You can't have a party without a champagne globe.

The next large item would be the punch bowl.

And we'll just set this on this side near the water so it kind of balances out the table.

Missy and I love using these battery-operated wax candles.

They look great, and they stay lit all night.

And always save room for some flowers.

And then we're gonna finish off with four small votives.

So, one of the biggest challenges of throwing a holiday party, or any event for that matter is, what do you serve?

And Missy and I, we like to keep it simple.

So, for tonight, I've chosen some of my favorites.

Non-alcoholic punch, for one; you will be surprised at how easy this is and how much people are going to love it.

And on the wine side, we're gonna keep it all simple also.

We serve one Spanish red, one French white, and one French bubbly.

Okay, so we have all our ingredients here, and I'm gonna walk you through the three simple ingredients.

One, we have a blood orange soda.

So, it's slightly sparkling, not overly sweet, but it does have a nice fizz to it.

So, the next ingredient we have is a cranberry juice cocktail.

So, my secret weapon is actually Fresca.

I love Fresca.

It is a grapefruit-flavored sparkling soda.

It's gonna make my punch fizzy.

Just so you know, I've never shared this recipe with anyone.

I know it's a very simple recipe, three simple ingredients, but you notice I didn't add any ice during this process.

I chilled down the ingredients first instead.

So, it's already cold.

Then right before the event, I will add a little bit of ice to keep it cold but not too much, so it doesn't water it down.

One final ingredient.

With any mixed beverage, typically you're gonna want to have a garnish.

And with this, because of what we're using, I'm gonna use the simple orange.

And the way I like to do it is the peels only.

It already has juice.

So, I'm just gonna take a peeler, and I am going to peel nice big peels like that.

Give it a little twist 'cause you activate the oils and just drop it in there.

And I'll do this a few more times just to have something floating in the punch 'cause it's pretty.

But then, what I'm gonna do is, I'm going to have some of these ready peeled also, and I will just use one of these punch glasses to hold those in.

And I'll just make a few of these so they're handy to be used as a garnish for every glass.

And don't forget your ladle for the punch.

Tonight, we're throwing a holiday party for our farmers and their spouses.

This is a very special evening, and we wanna pour some special wines for them.

These are some of our favorites, and I'll tell you why we chose these.

So, for the red, we chose a Rioja from Spain.

It is a reserve Rioja.

It's spectacular.

We love this.

People who love Cabernet are gonna love this.

People who love Pinot Noir will love this.

Now for the white, I did this Chenin Blanc from Vouvray.

It is easier drinking, I think, than a lot of Chardonnays.

It is a little less on the acidic side.

It is more balanced, whether you're eating with it or you're just having a glass of wine and having a conversation.

This is why we chose this wine.

I love this Chenin Blanc.

The sparkling wine we chose tonight is very special.

It is from a place in France called Montrachet.

Montrachet grows the best Chardonnay grapes in the world.

This is from Puligny-Montrachet.

It's been aged in French oak for seven months.

Now that we've added your bottles, now you can just add your ice in and let it settle in between the bottles.

[♪♪♪♪♪] I hope you guys learned a lot.

Happy holidays.

[festive music] -This project, French Magnolia Cooks , the television series, has been a prayer on my heart for 30 years.

But I just wanna testify right now that our Heavenly Father is so faithful.

He never forgets the desires of your heart.

God is up to something big in Southwest Virginia.

I believe there are tremendous blessings coming for this region and this land.

I would like to just raise my glass to all the farmers, their spouses, and their families.

Thomas Fraley, John Gurley, and I, and everybody at PBS, we love you so much.

Thank you.

Here's to you.

We just raise our glasses to you.

Cheers!

-I'm encouraged at the amount of faith that's in this room.

So Father, we come before you right now, and God, first off, we thank you for your goodness.

And God, we thank you that everything that we are gonna be seeing-- [♪♪♪♪♪] And I just release that blessing over you in the name of Jesus Christ.

[♪♪♪♪♪] [Chef Missy] Hors d'oeuvre is synonymous with celebrations.

It marks a deviation from routine to observe the notable, always under the auspices of love and gratitude.

It's a refrain from ordinary business done in an extraordinary manner.

Curated hors d'oeuvre, mixed with French bubbly, sparkling punch, and lots of candles says, "I love and appreciate you."

It expresses my desire to keep company with you and give you my very best.

This year's path recognizes the birth of a creative project, and it's been real work.

Even outside of the work was real work.

But the fruits are full of wisdom, knowledge, compassion, laughter, a keener ear, and a new set of true friends, too extraordinary for my company.

I might not be calling them at three a.m., but if the company we keep determines our path, I'm inspired and heartened.

So be encouraged, for in this season, there are new blessings of peace and joy.

[♪♪♪♪♪] [Announcer] Smyth County, Virginia, offering a business-friendly environment with partnerships like Smyth Strong, fostering entrepreneurship and growth.

Details at smythcounty economicdevelopment.com.