Christmas just would not be complete without certain items and I have been busy baking each of my days off. I thought I would take a minute and share some of my favorite Christmas goodies...

This first is Rugelach which is a traditional Jewish cookie. I love this because I am not a big "sweet" eater, I am not big on frosting etc. These are great no matter what you fill them with, they are flaky and delightful. This happens to be Dorie Greenspan's recipe. This year I have done 3 kinds with apricot preserves, cinnamon sugar and nuts and (oh boy) raspberry preserves and dark chocolate pieces.

For the Dough

4 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces

1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup chopped nuts (I prefer pecans, but you can use walnuts or almonds)

1/4 cup plump, moist dried currants

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or 2/3 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

For the Glaze

1 large egg

1 teaspoon cold water

2 tablespoons sugar, preferably decorating (coarse) sugar

For the Filling

2/3 cup raspberry jam, apricot jam or marmalade

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Makes 32 cookies

TO MAKE THE DOUGH: Let the cream cheese and butter rest on the counter for 10 minutes — you want them to be slightly softened but still cool.

Put the flour and salt in a food processor, scatter over the chunks of cream cheese and butter and pulse the machine 6 to 10 times. Then process, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, just until the dough forms large curds — don't work it so long that it forms a ball on the blade.

Turn the dough out, gather it into a ball and divide it in half. Shape each half into a disk, wrap the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 1 day. (Wrapped airtight, the dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.)

TO MAKE THE FILLING: Heat the jam in a saucepan over low heat, or do this in a microwave, until it liquefies. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together.

Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats. (Silicone baking mats are great for rugelach.)

TO SHAPE THE COOKIES: Pull one packet of dough from the refrigerator. If it is too firm to roll easily, either leave it on the counter for about 10 minutes or give it a few bashes with your rolling pin.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into an 11- to 12-inch circle. Spoon (or brush) a thin gloss of jam over the dough, and sprinkle over half of the cinnamon sugar. Scatter over half of the nuts, half of the currants and half of the chopped chocolate. Cover the filling with a piece of wax paper and gently press the filling into the dough, then remove the paper and save it for the next batch.

Using a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 wedges, or triangles. (The easiest way to do this is to cut the dough into quarters, then to cut each quarter into 4 triangles.) Starting at the base of each triangle, roll the dough up so that each cookie becomes a little crescent. Arrange the roll-ups on one baking sheet, making sure the points are tucked under the cookies, and refrigerate. Repeat with the second packet of dough, and refrigerate the cookies for at least 30 minutes before baking. (The cookies can be covered and refrigerated overnight or frozen for up to 2 months; don't defrost before baking, just add a couple of minutes to the baking time.)

GETTING READY TO BAKE: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

TO GLAZE: Stir the egg and water together, and brush a bit of this glaze over each rugelach. Sprinkle the cookies with the sugar.

Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until they are puffed and golden. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

A new one for this year which is beyond decadent is Paula Dean's Symphony Brownies. She really needs an award for these.

45 min | 5 min prep

1 11x7 inch pan

1 (19 7/8 ounce) box Betty Crocker fudge brownie mix
2 large eggs
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 (7 ounce) hershey symphony milk chocolate candy bars
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, or 325 degrees for glass baking dish.
Lightly grease the bottom only of an 11 x 7 inch baking pan; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl prepare brownie mix according to directions on the package, using 2 eggs, 1/4 cup water and 1/2 cup oil.
Stir until smooth.
Spread half the batter evenly into prepared pan.
Unwrap candy bars and place them on top of the batter.
Top with remaining brownie batter.
Bake 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out with only a few moist crumbs clinging to it.
Remove pan from oven and let cool on wire rack before cutting into squares or other shapes.

I have friends that beg for my fudge every year. I found this recipe back in the late '90s and have been making batch after batch ever since... Usually I am still making it after New Years and I even make it in place of a birthday cake for a young friend of mine. I believe he is an addict. :-) This is Skaarups Fantasia Fudge and I am giving you the link because there are dozens of awesome variations, trust me you need to try at least a few. Skaarup Fudge

1/2 cup Butter
2 1/2 cup Sugar (extra-fine granulated preferred)
5 oz. Evaporated Milk (one small can)
12 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (Hersheys or Nestle)
6-7 oz. Marshmallow Creme/Fluff (1 Jar)

(may substitute 2 cups mini-marshmallows)

1 cup Walnuts (chopped) -or- 4 oz. bag (optional item)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract


Directions:
Line a 9” x 9” pan with aluminum foil and set aside. Place
chocolate chips, vanilla, and marshmallow cream into a 3-quart
saucepan (or Pyrex bowl) and set aside. Chop walnuts and set
aside (optional). Heat milk at Medium setting until warm then add
sugar. Bring to a rolling boil (Medium-High), stirring constantly with
a wooden spoon. Continue to boil for [8] full minutes -or- if using a
candy thermometer continue boiling until the boiling temperature
reaches 235°F but do not exceed 9 minutes rolling boiling total.
Remove from heat and add butter. Stir until dissolved (but no more
than 30 seconds).

Pour hot mixture over chocolates, vanilla, and marshmallow cream
without scraping the sides of the hot saucepan. Mix until the
chocolates are melted. Add walnuts if desired. Mix thoroughly and
cast into prepared pan. Cool at room temperature. Chill in
refrigerator prior to cutting. Remove from pan, remove foil, cut into squares

OK< It is off to work for me. When I get home, I have dough in the fridge chilling so it is just right to work with! Ciao or should I say Chow???

This came in my email today.

You think English is easy???

Read to the end . . . A new twist

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce .

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row ...
13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and
that is 'UP.'

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP ! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP...
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP!