Top Secret Family Recipes...

                                                       Top Secret Family Recipes...


   The recipes I am about to share with you are no longer top secret, as I just typed them out for someone from Chicago who wrote about one of my blog posts. So, I figure if I can share my two favorite Christmas cookie recipes with a total stranger, then I should share them with all of you.

    The cream cheese wreath recipe is at least 60 years old, and my mom made these cookies every year. I have made them every Christmas for the past 34 years, and without the aroma of these cookies in the house...well, it just isn't Christmas.


               Cream Cheese Wreaths


               2 1/2 cups butter
           
               1 1/4 cups sugar

               8 ounces cream cheese

               2 1/2 tsp. vanilla

               5 cups flour

  Cream butter and cream cheese together, add sugar and cream well. Add in vanilla. Slowly add the sifted flour. Mix well. Fill cookie press half full, and using star template, form cookies on ungreased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with red/green sugar crystals. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Makes 2-3 dozen cookies.


   These mincemeat cookies have been in my family for over 30 years. You either really love them (if you like mincemeat), or you really dislike them. At least half of my family members dislike them, but I still make them every Christmas season.


            Mincemeat Gems

          
           1 cup butter, softened

           1/2 cup sugar

          1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

          1 egg

          1 tsp. vanilla extract

          2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

          1 tsp. vanilla

          1 jar (1 #, 2 ounces) prepared mincemeat

          21 marachino cherries, drained and halved

   
     Cream together butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Blend in walnuts, egg and vanilla. Stir together flour and salt; gradually beat into creamed mixture. Drop dough by level tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheet. Flatten each cookie. Place rounded teaspoon of mincemeat in center of each cookie, and top with cherry halve. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, or until done. Makes 2-3 dozen cookies.

Baking Christmas Cookies!

                                    Baking Christmas Cookies!


  Yes, I am baking again! I actually got a jumpstart on my Christmas cookie baking this year, as I have a cookie exchange to go to this week. I also froze some of my holiday goodies, to discourage overeating. So far I have made sugar cutout cookies, peanut brittle and Santa's whiskers...or maybe they are called Rudolph's whiskers...not a very appealing title, but butterscotch chips melted with peanut butter and poured over chow mein noodles are always a favorite.

  It feels good to be baking again, and as I put on my apron and whisked out the flour, sugar, butter and eggs, I realized that this is how I relax. When I am in my kitchen, surrounded by recipes and ingredients, with a sink filling up with bowls and whisks and cookie sheets....that is when I am most me and most at home. Such a great feeling!! Even more appealing is the addition of rainy weather and cloudy days when I bake. That may sound dreary to some, but this is the weather that lures me into the kitchen in the first place! I am not a native Californian, rather I hail from Chicago, Illinois and Buffalo, New York. Having grown up in these two states, with loads of snow and "bad" weather, I am most creative in the kitchen, or knitting or sewing when the weather is less than perfect. So this is the weather that invites me to bake all day. Just don't tell my family members that most of it will be hidden in the freezer!

~Kathy~