Peanut Butter Blossoms

     My guess is that many of you already possess a copy of some version of Peanut Butter Blossoms. These delightful cookies have been around for ages and almost always make an appearance at cookie swaps and holiday parties. I happen to think, though, that the specific recipe I inherited from my grandmother is the best version to be found which is why I am sharing it with you!

    Peanut Butter Blossoms have always been my mom's favorite Christmas cookie and I treasure the memories I have of her sneaking down to my grandmother's basement to retrieve some from the lid on the deep freezer in the "canning room." My grandparents never canned in the room but they did store all the jars of food they had put up from their garden. My grandmother also had deep chest freezers in the room which is where the stacks and stacks of Tupperware that held a dazzling array of Christmas cookies and candies could be found. I would give anything for a piece of her Peanut Butter Fluff during the holidays. I tried once to make it but failed miserably. It might be time, though, to try again!

    I did try years ago, however, to attempt making the Peanut Butter Blossoms and by now I think I have them pretty near perfected! My family and I made a batch tonight and had so much fun working together to get them done. My four-year-old loves to unwrap the Kisses which cuts my work down quite a bit. Seeing that my recipe card was growing quite faded, my ten-year-old offered to recopy it for me and so now I have a copy in her sweet handwriting. What a treasure! She even added her own line to the end: "Let cool and enjoy!"

   If you haven't finished your holiday baking this year and are looking for one more item to add to your own storehouse, I would encourage you to make a batch of these cookies! One thing to note, though, is that White Lily flour truly works best in these cookies. I would also caution you against overbaking them even by a minute as they are best when they are soft.

Peanut Butter Blossoms (click for printable version)

1 3/4 cups flour (White Lily is best)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

sugar for rolling

Hershey Kisses, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

Cream butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar together until well blended. Add egg and vanilla and beat until creamy.

Turn mixer to low and gradually add sifted flour mixture, beating just until blended.

Shape into walnut sized balls using a cookie scoop if available. Roll gently in sugar and place at least 1" apart on parchment lined baking sheets.

Bake for 5 minutes. Remove pans from oven and place one unwrapped Hershey Kiss in the middle of each cookie and press lightly just until cookies crack slightly. Be careful not to press too hard as cookies will fall apart if you do.

Return cookies to oven to bake for 2 minutes more.

Let cool and enjoy!

Ginger Snaps

     This past week I received a very thoughtful gift from my sweet friend Monica. Knowing how much I love regional cooking and the stories behind recipes, Monica gathered three Junior League cookbooks from her home state of Louisiana, specifically Lafayette. In my family we read cookbooks the way other people read novels so I couldn't wait to get home and start in on them! I am already in love and haven't made it past the cocktail section of Mardi Gras yet. The cookbooks date back to 1969 and I am devouring all of the extra comments found in the directions. My favorite thus far refers to the yield of the recipe depending upon whether the hostess is serving "four lusty drinkers," "eight bon vivants," or "sixteen party drinkers." I have spent all day wondering which category I fit in!

    Along with the cookbooks, Monica also gave me two smaller gifts and a glorious name and story for them. Apparently, coming from the Creole tradition when you give someone an extra little gift it is called a lagniappe or "a little extra." The term heralded from the days when merchants would add a little extra in the nap or the seam of the sack. The lagniappes Monica shared with me were a box of red beans and rice seasoning and a bag of her homemade ginger snaps.

   You are lucky readers for Monica has shared her recipe for the ginger snaps with me and has graciously allowed me to share it with you! She did, however, make me promise to tell you that she herself received the recipe from a friend. I already made a batch today so that I, too, could add lagniappes to some gifts I am delivering tomorrow. My kitchen smelled like the holidays when I opened the oven door to take them out!

    I am generally tempted to replace Crisco with butter in all my recipes, however, this time I made the cookies exactly as the recipe indicated I should since Monica's were so good and I advise you to do the same.  Monica also suggests doubling the recipe and I agree, especially if you plan to give some away.

  So if you find yourself wanting to add a lagniappe to a gift you are delivering, these cookies are the perfect choice!

Ginger Snaps (click for printable version)

3/4 cup Crisco
1/4 cup molasses
1 cup sugar
1 egg

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon (my favorite is King Arthur Vietnamese)
1/2 teaspoon cloves
 1/4 teaspoon salt

Whisk dry ingredients together and set aside.

Cream Crisco, molasses, and sugar together. Add egg and mix thoroughly.

Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add flour mixture just until combined.

Chill dough briefly (30 minutes).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using a cookie scoop, shape dough into balls and then roll into sugar.  Place on cookie sheets at least one inch apart.

Bake for 8 -10 minutes depending on size of cookie. Take care not to overbake these as they are best served soft.

Party Snack

At our house you know we are getting serious about celebrating the holidays when the boxes of Chex cereal come home from the grocery store! Party snack, as my family has called it since before I was born, is definitely one of my favorite treats to have around this time of year and I love sharing it with friends. A friend of mine has a slightly different version that her family has always called Buttons and Bows which I think is a delightful name for it!

My grandmother was the master Party Snack maker in our family and for as long as I can remember would spend a day in early December making a huge batch. She would store it on top of one of her many deep freezers in the basement along with stacks of Tupperware containers filled with holiday cookies and candies. Looking back, I have no idea how she managed to get everything made. I just know that it was important to her that she always had these things to share with the numerous friends and family members who stopped by during the holidays. We all made many, many trips to the basement to retrieve the goodies!

The Christmas after my grandmother died, I decided I would try making Party Snack. When I started asking for the recipe, though, no one in my family could find it. I was devastated to think that one of her treasured recipes was gone. I thought, however, that I could surely find her version online since there was no way it could be that different. I searched on the internet for quite awhile but to no avail. Sure, I found plenty of recipes for Chex Mix, but none of them seemed to have the right ingredients. Almost all of them called for butter which I really don't care for in this recipe. Just as I was about to give up, I looked in my own recipe box and discovered that years ago I must have copied my grandmother's recipe! I was so excited to find it and have made it every year since. Hopefully by putting it on my blog, I won't lose it again!

The only change I made to my grandmother's technique was to use the blender to combine the oil mixture. I feel like this helps distribute the seasonings better and that you get an overall better flavor. I also make a little more of the seasoned oil mixture than her recipe calls for, but I am pretty sure she might have done that, too.

While the recipe is in no way complicated, do make sure you allow for the full 2 hours it needs to bake and be sure you have lots of containers ready for storage as it makes a huge quantity! I always line my dining room table with newspapers and cover them with paper towels so that I can spread it out to cool. This helps keep the mix from getting soggy.

Party Snack (click for printable link)

12 oz. can of mixed nuts
12 oz. can of salted peanuts
1 box Cheerios
1 box Rice Chex
1 box Corn Chex
1 box Wheat Chex
1 pkg. small pretzel sticks

Seasoning:
2 1/2 cups of vegetable oil (original recipe calls for Wesson so that is what I use)
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 teaspoons garlic salt
1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

Evenly distribute the nuts, cereals, and pretzels between two large roasting pans. Toss gently to combine.

Blend or stir by hand the seasoning ingredients. Pour evenly over the cereal and stir to thoroughly coat.

Bake uncovered for 2 hours, stirring gently every 15 minutes. Be sure to stir from the bottom to evenly coat all pieces.

Spread out on paper towels to cool completely.

Rudolph Pretzels

'Tis a gift to be simple. I love this Shaker tune and, in fact, both of our mothers came down to the aisle at our wedding to a hammered dulcimer version of it. I love the sentiment of this single phrase. In my every day life I often struggle hard to live this way.

Lately, though, our family has slowed down considerably during this holiday season thanks to the generosity of our village. My father-in-law passed away last week and we have been so humbled by the number of individuals who have taken care of us and who are planning on providing dinners for us over the next couple of weeks. The week leading up to his death left our family on the road most days and feeling very scattered, so the gift of time together in the evenings has been such a blessing to us all. Not having to cook dinner has freed us up for quiet, simple activities that we rarely make time for. What a gift our friends have given us!

One of these activities was to make some very simple treats that my youngest daughter, Emory, is quite good at helping with. I know many of my recipes may seem more complicated than some of my readers want to tackle but I promise that this one is not! It really only requires three simple ingredients and the hardest step is unwrapping the Hershey Kisses, a job that is GREAT for little hands!

 After placing the Kisses on the pretzels, they only have to go into the oven for 6 minutes before you are ready to put the M&Ms on the top. Emory is great about making sure that all of the Ms are facing down! Work quickly and just be careful to place the M&Ms gently on the top of the slightly melted Kiss and press lightly down.

Once we finished making these tonight, Emory asked her sister if she wanted a Rudolph pretzel or "all the other reindeer kind" meaning the green ones!

Rudolph Pretzels (click for printable version)

1 bag of small pretzel twists
1 bag of milk chocolate Hershey kisses
red and green M&Ms (I use one of the plastic candy cane shaped tubes for this)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Place pretzels on baking sheet and top with one kiss per pretzel.

Bake for 6 minutes. Remove from oven and lightly press one M&M in the center of each kiss.

Cool completely, refrigerating until firm if necessary.