Home for the Holiday

I missed Susie's cookie exchange this year, but I posted my favorite Christmas cookie recipe last year, so for those of you who missed it, here ya go.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Cookies: 1 C sugar; 1/2 C butter (or butter-flavor Crisco), softened; 1 tsp. vanilla; 1 egg; 2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate, melted & cooled; 1 C flour; 1/2 tsp. salt. (Yes, I know there's no baking powder or soda... it's not a typo, TRUST me on this.)

Peppermint Frosting: 2&1/2 C confectioner's powedered sugar; 3 Tbls. milk; 1/4 C butter; 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract.

Fudge Drizzle: 1/4 C Butter; 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips; 2 Tbls. corn syrup.

Directions: Heat oven to 375F degrees; mix sugar, butter, vanilla, egg and chocolate. Stir in flour and salt. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonful on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten each slightly with the bottom of a greased glass dipped in sugar. Bake 6-8 minutes -- DO NOT OVER-BAKE! Cool completely before spreading peppermint frosting evenly over each one. Heat ingredients for fudge drizzle gently over stovetop until melted and mixed smooth. Drizzle holly leaves, trees, stars or other design, or randomly, over each cookie. Let the fudge drizzle set and cool completely before covering or wrapping the cookies.

Yield: about 3 dozen.




And new for this year, I give you my recipe for the Blueberry Muffins I bake every single Christmas morning, in keeping with the childhood tradition of Mr. Eclectic's family:

1/2 C butter, softened
1 and 1/2 C sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 and 2/3 C flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 and 1/2 C sour cream
2 C fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400F degrees. Beat the butter and sugar in a medium bowl until they're light and fluffy, then beat in eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, soda and salt. Alternately fold the sour cream and the flour mixture by large spoonfuls into the batter. Fold in the blueberries, and distribute into muffin tins lined with paper muffin cups. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Yield: 24 perfect muffins, preferred by Santas everywhere:





Our tree this year looked like this:





In fact, our house is so bright and shiny that even the cat is lit up:




And there you have it, home with us for the holiday. Wishing you all a very merry, very love-, laughter-, and peace-filled Christmas.