Secret Recipe Toffee Squares: Now you know!

This is THE recipe to contribute to the bake sale; first to sell out, and always popular. And now, you know the secret. For years, my friend C. helped me stock the green room for our performing artists at the Roots on the River Music Festival. It was a great deal of fun, and our…

Barb’s Grandmother’s Hungarian Christmas Cookies

Known as “Kolaches,” these delightful apricot-filled cookies are a favorite holiday treat from my past, and now part of a virtual cookie exchange in the present. Barb and I have been friends since we were in our early 20s. Two young newspaper reporters (at first working for different newspapers), we didn’t have two nickels to…

Filled Holiday Mincemeat Cookies

Mom’s recipe started in October when we stripped the garden of its green tomatoes and made our own micemeat. I still make this (now and then) when I want the house to smell like my childhood home.

Snow Day Ginger Spice Cookies

My cookie-baking ritual begins with brewing my little pot of stove-top espresso. I’ll use just a little for my ginger cookie recipe, and the rest is my own little treat. I need a treat too because my confession is that unless I am making them with a kid, I really don’t like baking cookies.