Christmas Sugar Cookies

This is the recipe the Coakley sibs grew up making and eating every Christmas
It that chilled dough that gets rolled out and cut in so many shapes, then sprinkled with colored sugars and festooned with silver balls, M&M’s, red hots and other like goodies. You can even paint them up with a glaze of egg yolk and food dye before baking or confectionary sugar with food dye (and few drops of water) when warm from the oven.

Cream together:
¾ cup shortening (or butter)
1 cup sugar

then Mix in :
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

after sifting together blend in:
2 ½ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Shape in to log and Refrigerate at least 1 hour
Roll out about 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured surface.
Cut and decorate on pan. Bake 8 to 10 minutes till lightly brown on the bottoms. Oven temp 400 degrees F.

Note: I often make a double batch of this. A single batch yields me about 30 to 40 cookies, but this depends on thickness and size of cookies. I usually break this into 3 or 4 logs and only take one log out to work at a time. Its great to make this dough a day or 2 ahead of time before the “fun part”. You can gather up the scrapes after cutting and roll this “used” dough again. If it gets too soft, just put in back in the frig as you work another piece of dough. Baking parchment paper is great for reusing and reusing on the kind of project.

Ann

Pumpkin / Winter Squash Muffins

Hearty Winter food

Here's a favorite recipe of mine, a very hearty and heavy type of muffin that I have adapted so many times it barely resembles the recipe as I first saw it (originally from the Victory Garden Cookbook). These are NOT light muffins, in weight, density nor calories, but oh, are they yummy, and filling, and they are a great nutritious and handy snack food for a long car trip! :)

Pumpkin/Winter Squash Muffins

Sift together:
3 cups flour (whole wheat or white)
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup-3/4 cup sugar (depends on your taste)
1 tsp salt

Mix in a separate bowl:
2 cups finely grated RAW Pumpkin or Winter Squash
(this is great with acorn, buttercup, or any other sweet winter squash)
2 eggs
1 cup crushed canned pineapple, with juice
1 stick soft butter

Optional add-ins:
*golden or reg raisins, nuts, grated coconut, sunflower seeds, *sesame seeds (add whichever of these to the wet ingredients before mixing w the dry - I love to put golden raisins and sunflower or sesame seeds in particularly)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, sift together dry ingredients, then add the add the wet ingredients and cut with a pastry blender or fork until JUST blended, do not beat. Fill greased muffin tins 3/4 full, top with a smidge of sesame seeds, and
bake for 20 minutes, or until just golden on top. Makes about 18-24 muffins. They store well for a week if kept covered and are GREAT served warm! They also disappear fast around my house.

Enjoy!

Sadelle