Recipes of Christmas

KM's Christmas Baking

• Peppermint Bark (So easy. A great office treat.)
• Sugar Mint Cookies (I made this up last year because I made too much Peppermint Bark and left over sugar cookie ingredients. It's especially good for those that don't like chocolate but love mint.)
• Peppermint Patty Cookies (Credited to RA)
• Easy Turtle Candies (Credited to ex-Director who first brought them in to the office)
• Oatmeal Scotchies
• Baked French Toast
• Brown Sugar Bacon (The recipe request that inspired this post.)

Friends & Family Christmas Baking

• My aunt makes Swedish Toast every year along with Jifta (Great for the Scandahoovians!) She swears Swedish Toast is easier than biscotti, but I think it's just as time consuming to prep and bake. It's great for dunking, though!
• D's aunt long ago started bringing Tequilaberry's Salad to Christmas and Easter, now holiday meals just aren't the same without it.
• SIL made a pretty batch of Holiday Wreaths for others; I just asked for a huge blob of the stuff since these are some of my favorites and four wreaths just won't do.
• Another aunt of mine makes Russian Tea for all of the families each year. Although it's not really tea, it's a tasty hot drink. She would not give me her secret recipe, but said that the link is close.

KM's New Year's Baking

• Two years ago I started making homemade caramels to add to my goody baskets; this year however, the multiple snow storms and bad driving conditions did not allow me to buy the necessary ingredients. My dad made a little pouty face after opening the caramel-free tin so I promised to make them for NYE.
• Biscotti is the last on my list but the first in my heart, saving the best for last, if you will. My love of biscotti started at a young age when I would accompany my mom to the Grand Ave Dunn Bros as she held volunteer meetings and interviews. When I took my current job with the ever so convenient tunnel to Sbux, my love of biscotti hurt my checkbook. After learning to make Swedish Toast, I decided I could handle biscotti and set out to find my favorite twice baked cookie recipe. Along with a variation of Vanilla Almond Biscotti that lives only in my kitchen cupboard and not on my computer, this Vanilla Bean Biscotti is a treat that my mom and I both treasure. It is such a pity that D's family had never even heard of biscotti until I first made it, and even then did not delight in the crunchy, crumbly cookie that longed to be dipped and dunked in latte. Oh well, more for me.