Here's the recipe I use 1/2 cup shortening ( crisco) 1/3 cup brown sugar 1 egg 1/2 cup molasses ( I like dark...but light works) 1/4 cup cold coffee 2 1/2 cups AP flour 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp ground ginger 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon Cream shortening and sugar, add eggs and liquids and mix. Sift 1 cup of the flour with the salt and spices (or stir together) and add that to the shortening/ sugar egg mix....and add as much of the remaining flour as needed to make a stiff dough capable of being rolled out. Chill, roll and cut out and bake on parchment at 375 about 8 to 10 minutes. Notice there is no leavening....and there is crisco instead of butter. The cookies bake up very crisp....good for dunking....and great for gingerbread men....and small houses. This is not a tender "melt in your mouth cookie"...but delicious! You may also want to add more spices, if you like a spicy gingerbread man!...don't take me wrong here! LOL! Linda C

Yep, I overdo on the baking. I love it. Here's the list I posted on Cooking forum. I have been baking for the last few days, hope I can get it all done. Have to do the party for employees on the 16th and our Open House on the 18th. My cookbook group will be having our cookie exchange on the 15th and need 6 dozen for that. Have to send cookies to my bachelor brothers and the fancy ones to my mom as well. Then there's the grandchildren, my sister, BIL, and nieces here, and the in laws. 1. Cream Wafers, Pariserwaifer. Everyone one who knows me wants these. Got 12 dozen in the freezer this a.m. (Baked last night.) That's 288 wafers to make 144 cookies and I'm not sure it's enough! They are so boring and tedious to make. At least I don't fill them. Make Norm do that or sometimes give cookies and filling to the recipiant! But it isn't Xmas in my family without them and I'm the only one who still makes em. 2. Swedish Almond cookies. My favorite. They really are the most tedious even if they are slice and bake. Then they have to be filled with currant jam while hot and iced when cooled. And I confess to putting 2 holly leaves and a berry on each one to make them really cute! My mother always put a slice of candied cherry on which is quicker. Only have 5 dozen of them. They will be doled out carefully. Don't put them out at either party and would never make for an exchange! Didn't get any made last year and I missed them. 3. Grandma Catherine's Carrot-Orange Cookies She never made them at Xmas. They were one of her tea party specialties. I started making them at Xmas about 5 years ago. They use baby food carrots or sweet potatoes in the dough and have an orange frosting. 6 dozen in freezer. 4. Coconut Fig Cookies Moist and spicy, nothing like a fig newton! Mixed but not baked. 5. Chocolate Biscotti Trying a new recipe this year. In process. 6. Peanut Butter Rocky Roads A friend needs a non bake cookie recipe so made a pan to check if I still like this recipe. I do! 7. Stareos Chocolate shortbread filled with marscapone. Yum 8. Meringue Stars Meringues with ground baking chocolate. Cuts the sweetness of the meringues and is much more intense chocolate flavor than adding cocoa powder to the meringue. 9. Mexican Wedding Cakes. (Cookie of a 1000 names!)I use pecans and slice and bake. 10. Applesauce Cookies. Another one from Grandma but I may have to try a raw apple bar instead this year. The easy ones! 11. Oatmeal Carmelitas. My employees want lots of these. 12. Peppermint Brownies A family favorite made with a recipe I stole from a woman I baby sat for! She wouldn't give the recipe even to her mother! Early on I didn't believe in NOT sharing recipes. 13. Nanimio Bars Got custard powder for this year! 14. Fudge, 15. Toffee and 16. Peanut Brittle. Then there are the cookies that need to be cut out and or decorated! I'm not going to get out all the cutters and sugar until after the parties! I'll still have a week and that's enough time and I won't have get all that mess put away before the parties. We now do Xmas Eve at my sisters and I fly to MN on Xmas Day to be with the grandkids. So who cares if there are dirty cookie cutters and sugar all over the place? 17. Pepperkaker Swedish Gingerbread 18. Sugar cookies 19. Spritz 20. Stained Glass Cookies First made these 10 years ago for my grandson. They are his favorite. Does anyone have an easy way to break up the candies and keep them from sticking together? And then there are the ones I just want to try or make occasionally. Doubt if there will be any of these this year.

Nanny wrote: "So, when Natal, or I, or someone else added those cranberries or nuts to their recipes, it was not to disobey your request, but to show others how their recipes were prepared. It's very easy to omit ingredients from any recipe, which is what I presume these women expect you to do." Thank you for replying, I wasn't going to come back into the topic but it's been bothering me all day because all I did was jokingly say "Ick" to a food I don't like. What I notice here is that others have made rude comments about Miracle Whip, a food *I* use, but were they called out on their "rudeness" to me? No. Why is it ALWAYS me, especially when I go out of my way to let you all know I'm laughing, just as I would if you were sitting before me. I'm not laughig AT you, I'm laughing at an ingredient in food! I have to disagree with you about people adding the ingredients that I specifically asked NOT to be added. Just as everyone goes into other's topics and apologizes for "hijacking" it, this was MY topic, and MY question. I'm not saying this to be mean, but I was the one who wanted some recipes which do not use fruits and nuts. Unless it was a fruit salad. :) So yes, when I get a reply I expect it to be for ME, and others are more than welcome to chime in. It's no different than if you did a topic on the other forum asking for painting advice on any color EXCEPT black, and everyone replied showing you their black rooms. lol. So I don't see how it was wrong for me to RME when I got the recipes with fruits and nuts. When we do a topic asking a specific question, should others reply for the sake of themselves, or to answer the OP's question? Lastly, I cannot believe how the word "Ick" offended others when no offense was meant at ALL. You all don't know me, but I'm known as the "Peace maker". Sure, I get my feelings hurt just like everyone else does, and I hate arguments especially if they're so trivial as me laughing and saying "Ick." I find it extremely rude to correct people on something so minor especially when it's obvious there was no intent on insulting anyone. I said it good heartedly. Just as I said the word "Yankee." Others have been calling themselves Yankees on this board all the time, but when I say it, it's considered offensive? I just get the feeling that some people here, but not all and just a minority, love to nitpick and bicker with others ad nauseum. We were having a fun and fascinating conversation about sandwiches and Miracle Whip vs. Mayonaise, until... I even found a place that sells the Mayo the "southerners" here like that I can order it online. Now, as far as being southern, I think I said this before. Both of my parents were born and raised in southern Virginia, and moved here to Oklahoma after they married. My father is a graduate of VA. Tech. Every single person in my family except my brother and myself are from Virginia. My uncle had a tobacco farm. I grew up with parents dipping cornbread in Buttermilk. ICK!!!! lol. See? I'm laughing about it, I still laugh at it to my mom when she does it! It's not a derogatory term because it's FOOD. But if you were to serve it to me, I'd be polite and eat it and if I didn't like it, you'd never know. Talking about food tastes is one thing and to turn it into nasty, nasty personal insults is another. Which I know you didn't do. I do however take offense because you are insinuating I am not "sophisticated" because I don't like fruit and nuts in my sandwiches. What? You have no idea what I eat. BTW, if anyone even cares at this point, I decided to make some Vegetable Bars and Tuna Salad finger sandwiches. :)

I'm attending a family get together today and I'm supposed to bring a couple appetizers. 3 weeks ago I broke my ankle so grocery shopping has been on hold as I'm not overly coordinated with crutches. Hence I scoured my pantry and freezers to find ingredients for appys. I managed to come up with homemade hummus and homemade flatbread and this ad lib mini quiche recipe I threw together. I just tried one and am very pleased with the results. I'm glad I kept notes as I went along. I just typed this out so I thought I'd share. Beet Green & Spinach Mini Quiches Makes 24 Mini Quiches 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tbs. finely minced salt pork 1 medium onion, chopped 1 leek, white & light green part chopped 3 garlic cloves, minced ¼ tsp. ground pepper 2 cups chopped blanched beet greens & spinach or use frozen, thawed and squeezed dry (This is 2 cups after cooking or thawing and sqeezing dry) 1/2 cup freshly grated mild cheese such as white American 1/2 cup freshly grated Asiago cheese ¼ cup freshly grated parmesan 1/2 cup dried parmesan breadcrumbs 4 large eggs, lightly beaten 1 package Pillsbury Pie Crust or two crust recipe Directions 1. Preheat oven to 375. 2. Make the filling: In a skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat. Add salt pork and cook until salt pork starts to turn golden brown. Add onions, garlic and leeks, and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. 3. Transfer mixture to a large bowl; stir in spinach, cheese, Parmesan breadcrumbs, 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Fold in eggs until combined. 4. Roll out piecrust and cut 24 3" rounds with a fluted cookie cutter. 5. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray and wipe out excess. Press piecrust rounds into muffin tin. 6. Fill crusts to top of crust keeping filling inside crust edge with about 1 tbs. of spinach mixture. 7. Bake about 25 minutes until crust is light brown. 8. Remove muffins tine from oven and coo on wrack about 10 minutes. Use a sharp knife to remove quiches from muffin tine. 9. Serve immediately or cool quiches on wire rack and store in fridge or freezer for later use.