Have you started your Holiday baking and cooking?  Special cookies and candies are always fun to make with family and friends and are frequently steeped in tradition.  We have always liked to decorate sugar and gingerbread cookies--making lots of different shapes and colors with decorative sugars and candies.  

So you don't get too tired, making the dough a day or two ahead and refrigerating  it is a great idea.  And then the dough is alot easier to work with., especially for cut-out cookies.  As an example, I made the Bizcochito  dough Sunday afternoon, for baking  an evening this week.  

Also, I have  loved Jingle Bell cookies since the first bite when given to me by my Aunt.   I am attaching this recipe because it is somewhat difficult to find. You can substitue  different candied fruits and nuts if you can't find the candied pineapple and cherries.  Also the nuts can be varied.

Remember our Great Gift Certificates.  They make Christmas shopping very easy.  And you get a 20% bonus for each cooking class certificate.  In other words you pay 80% for a 100% value of a certificate.  They are good for everything except the Oaxaca tour.

Also our gift baskets are all on special until the 14th.  They have a vaiety of themes and always contain recipes--except forthe Holiday in New Mexico, they contain an authographed cookbook.

We still have a very few spaces left in our Holiday cooking class set for tomorrow night.  The class is on a 20% off special of only $92.00 instead of $115.00 and features Southwestern specialties such as tamales, Posole with toppings, Bizcocnitos, Margaritas and more.

Here is the Jingle Bell cookie recipe--

JINGLE BELL COOKIES

This recipe came from my Aunt Virginia who always made them for the holidays.

Yield: 10 dozen cookies

1 cup butter

2 eggs, well beaten

1 ½ cup brown sugar

2 ½ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

Pinch of salt

4 slices candied green pineapple, cut in pieces

1 pound red candied cherries, cut in half

1 pound dates, cut into pieces

1 cup pecan halves

1 cup whole filberts

1 cup almond halves

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Cream butter and add sugar, beaten eggs, vanilla and salt.

2. Add cinnamon and baking soda to flour and mix well. Add fruits and nuts. Add sugar and butter mixture and mix well.

3. Drop by teaspoons on greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until firm.