Cozy Treats by Staci Schwager

Christmas Eats A Cozy Treat

What is your favorite holiday treat? What takes you back to your childhood christmas memories? I can remember so many holiday traditions growing up as a child. All of my grandparents on my mom’s side and my mom included, loved the holidays. I can remember setting up the manger scene yearly and how special that was. We always had big family gatherings starting first at my Grandma and Grandpa Hall’s . Every place we went of course had food galore! Grandma would always sneak me- the favorite and only grandchild at the time - olives- one for each finger before placing the rest of the jar on the relish tray! Granndpa was a carpenter so young me always knew there was something grand awaiting under the tree! Would it be a new baby cradle for my doll, an ironing board or a microwave he would custom build for the fancy play kitchen I had? Later that night we’d pile in the car and over to the next set of grandparents. In the night sky we’d keep an eye out for Santa and his sleigh. Christmas Eve under what seemed like a 15 ft flocked Christmas tree, that was a tradition at Grandpa John’s and Grandma Kay’s! A fun grab bag game and chex mix galore as we sat around laughing and seeing what crazy gifts might be unwrapped. There are so many more memories that I can think of the smells, tastes, recipes that take me back to fond Christmas memories! I chose one recipe though that my mom and I always had fun making together and decorating- the classic Spritz Cookie from the old 70’s Betty Crocker cookie book my mom had. We used to double the batch to not only bring to our family gatherings but to give as special gifts to neighbors as well. We used to have fun with sprinkles, cherry embellishments, red hots, etc. The cookie is your canvas! Merry Christmas!~Staci Schwager

Photo by Jeremy Yap on Unsplash Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book Spritz Cookie

1 cup butter or margarine 2/3 cup sugar 3 egg yolks 1 tsp vanilla- can also add almond extract for flavor 2 1/2 cups flour

Heat oven to 400. Mix butter, sugar egg yolks and flavoring thoroughly. Work in flour 1 cup at a time. Once mixed if the dough is too sticky chill in refrigerator for 15- 30 min, Put part of dough through cookie press with desired shape- decorate and cook for 7-10 min. Makes about 6 dozen cookies