The Pioneer Woman's Christmas Punch Recipe Uses Only 3 Ingredients

The Pioneer Woman (aka Ree Drummond) gets a lot of flak from her detractors for the fact that she's obviously not a trained chef, and her recipes certainly show it. She's no stranger to shortcuts, some of which are, well, interesting to say the least (eggs with mustard, seven-can soup, etc.). Still, the one thing that most of her recipes have in common is that they're not too complicated, and they're the kind of thing most of us could probably follow without too much difficulty.

Plus, there's no denying that Drummond's cooking show is pretty fun to watch, and she does have some recipes that are worth borrowing (if not replicating and tweaking a tiny bit). One such recipe is for her super easy Christmas punch recipe, which, in case you're expecting something along the lines of wassail, you'll be disappointed to know is family-friendly and booze-free (though nothing's stopping you from spiking your own version).

This punch recipe was meant to feed a horde of kids or teetotaling ranch hands — 20 people in all. It won't take much time to throw together: five minutes tops, since all you're doing is mixing together three simple ingredients. You may need a few extra minutes (hours, weeks) to come up with a sufficiently large bowl in which to do so, however, at least if you're not in the habit of entertaining large crowds. (Martha Stewart would suggest a watermelon, but these tend to be hard to come by in December.)

In terms of ingredients, you'll need a gallon of raspberry sherbet, 16 cups (one gallon) of cranberry or cran/pomegranate juice, and two 2-liter bottles of ginger ale, according to the recipe on Food Network. Make sure all of the above are well-chilled (especially the sherbet, since otherwise it will be a sloppy mess), then scoop the sherbet into the enormous bowl you've begged for, borrowed, or broken down and bought. Pour the juice and the ginger ale in and stir them gently together.

No thirsty masses yearning for a cup of holiday cheer? You could always cut the recipe down to size by using a quart of sherbet, a quart of juice, and one liter (half a 2-liter bottle) of soda. In fact, you could even switch up the sherbet, juice, and soda flavors to make something more to your taste. Drummond might not approve, but it can be our little holiday secret.