I originally found this recipe in a little Canadian cookbook called "I've Got to Have THAT Recipe Too!"  This is a tried and true recipe that I've made and given away as a simple little gift:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup pecans, chopped
• 1 10-oz jar maraschino cherries, drained (reserve liquid), chopped*
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Glaze:  1 cup powdered sugar and 1 - 2 tablespoons milk or reserved cherry juice (one tablespoon of each)
• In a large bowl, cream together sugar, butter and eggs until light and fluffy.
• Combine dry ingredients and add to butter mixture along with the buttermilk.  Beat until well blended.  Stir in pecans, cherries and vanilla.
• Pour batter into greased loaf pan.  Bake at 350 (F) for 55 - 60 minutes.
• Remove from pan, cool and glaze.  Makes one loaf.
• For the glaze...combine the powdered sugar and milk or reserved cherry juice until smooth.  Drizzle over warm pecan bread.
• *the reserved cherry juice can be refrigerated and used for batches of Kenny Lysdahl Brandy Manhattans!

Do you like horseradish?  I do.  I can also say that the stronger that it is the better it is...you know that point when you have a touch too much and you can feel the heat searing your sinuses?!?  Well, here is a recipe to temper the heat...yet it goes deliciously with pork, beef, and as a sandwich spread.  It is also far far better than any type of horseradish sauce you can find at the store:

Ok, I am going to try to put my recipe into writing.  Each year it is different yet always good (I think):

• 20 - oz fresh cranberries
• 2 MacIntosh apples, peeled, cored, cut into small cubes (or your favorite apple)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup orange juice
• 2/3 cup apple juice
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (or allspice)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 to1 teaspoon of orange zest
• 4 to 5 pieces of crystallized ginger...cut each into 4 pieces or so
• Combine all the ingredients in large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat.  When boiling, reduce head to medium and continue to cook 20 to 25 minutes, stirring frequently, until thickened.
• Cool, however, before removing from heat, tasted, and add another tablespoon of sugar or so if needed.
• Enjoy the smell of it cooking...and sit back and be thankful for all the blessings in your life, small and big.

Ok, it's the Holidays...more specifically it is Christmas Eve and you feel your life is out of control because of all the things you have to do.  Well, here is a little secret "make ahead" recipe that you can do for Christmas morning.  As people "oooh" and "aaaah" over your delicious breakfast...you can simply sit back and have another Mimosa (Egg Nog?):

• 12 eggs
• 10 slices of bread (whole wheat, French, Sourdough)
• 2 cups shredded cheese
• 2 lbs meat (sausage, ham, or perhaps crabmeat)
• 1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
• milk
• salt, pepper, mustard (powder)
• Butter a 9 x 12 pan.  Cut up the 10 slices of of bread and layer on the bottom of the buttered pan.
• In a bowl crack the 12 eggs & 1 cup milk, whisk.  Add 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 3/4 tsp mustard.  Stir.
• Cook the 2 pounds of sausage in frying pan and drain (or prepare ham or crabmeat as needed).
• Then on top of the layer of bread already in the pan, layer meat, layer cheese and then pour the egg mix over all.
• Cover and refrigerate over night.
• The next morning (Christmas morning?) take the soup and mix with 1/2 cup of milk.  Pour over the pan of egg mix.
• Bake about 60 to 80 minutes at 325 (F).  Maryann says:  "I just check by sticking knife in, making sure its not real wet and eggs have cooked properly."
• Done.  Makes lots.

I do not know about you, but although I find Christmas cookies to be very very good...I find Christmas bars to be fabulous...especially those that combine the magical ingredients of peanut butter, chocolate, coconut, peanuts.  Here is another of those very simple recipes that are so very good.  I bet you cannot eat just one!

• 1 21-5-oz pkg fudge brownie mix
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 1/2 of a 20-oz package of refrigerated peanut butter cookies
• 6 oz (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 6 oz (1 cup) peanut butter chips
• Heat oven to 350 (F).  Grease bottom only of 15x10x1-inch baking pan.  In large bowl, combine brownie mix, water, oil and eggs; beat 50 strokes with spoon.  Spread in greased pan.  Sprinkle with coconut.  Set aside.
• Randomly spoon cookie dough by teaspoonfuls onto brownie mixture, pressing in slightly.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.
• Bake at 350 (F) for 23 to 33 minutes or until cookie dough is golden brown and center is set.  DO NOT OVERBAKE.  Cool completely.
• Makes 36 bars

Once gain here is a holiday oriented recipe...perhaps because I serve it most during the holidays...but it is also good for any time of the year.  Simple.  Delicious.

This time of the year with the three holidays:  Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years...all within weeks of each other...we are busy entertaining or being entertained.  Sometimes we need a simple recipe for dinner on a quiet night at home...or for a gathering of a couple of very close friends (on a cold snowy or cold rainy evening):

• Glaze:
• 1/2 cup peach preserves
• 2 tablespoons red wine vingegar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• Stuffing:
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3 cups herb seasoned stuffing
• 3/4 cup pecan halves, toasted
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 1/4 cups chicken broth
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Combine preserves, vinegar and butter in small saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium heat; boil 1 minutes or until glaze thickens.  Cool slightly.
• Heat oven to 375 (F).  Cook celery and onion in butter in small skillet.  Combine onion mixture with stuffing, pecans, cranberries and chicken broth.  Stir gently until broth is absorbed.  Place in lightly greased 3 qt casserole.  Place chicken over stuffing.  Brush with glaze.  Cover.  Bake 20 minutes.  Remove cover; brush chicken generously with glaze.  Bake 15 to 20 minutes longer or until juices run clear, basting once or twice.
• Makes 4 servings.
• *To toast pecans, place on baking sheet.  Bake at 375 (F) about 8 minutes or until slightly browned, stirring once.  Let cool.

In my frustration today with the flooding from last night and the ensuing disruption of home life...and finally the cleaning people never showing up today...I turned to cooking and baking to relieve my frustration.  Well, ok, a glass or two of wine also helped.  Anyhow, this recipe is a definite keeper to be be used any time of the year...but I am going to categorize it as a Christmas recipe:

• 1 pkg Pillsbury Plus (or like) yellow cake mix
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup cornflakes cereal
• 1 cup (6-oz) butterscotch chips (I used 1 1/2 cups)
• 3/4 cup quick-cooking rolled oats

Heat oven to 350 degrees (F).  Grease 13 x 9-inch pan.  In large bowl combine cake mix, brown sugar, butter and eggs; stir by hand until well blended.  Add cereal, butterscotch chips and oats; mix well.  Spread in greased pan (I found coating my hands with butter was the best way to press the mixture evenly down into the baking dish/pan.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool completely.  Cut into bars.  Depending on the size of the bars, it can make 48 bars.

This recipe came from my Aunt Ruth via a cutout from a magazine...my guess would be from the late 1940s or early 1950s.  In her handwriting she says to double the amount of chips for the frosting...so when you make this recipe, please remember to do so.

Chocolate Scotheroos

• 1 cup light corn syrup
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 6 cups Rice Krispies cereal
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup butterscotch chips

Prepare a 13 x 9 inch pan with cooking spray or butter and set aside.
In a large pot, over medium heat, cook syrup and sugar together until sugar is dissolved and the combined mixture begins to boil.  Stir frequently.
Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, mixing well.
Add cereal and stir until coated evenly with peanut butter mixture.  Press mixture into prepared 13 x 9 pan and set aside.
In a small pan, over low heat, melt all the chips together, stirring constantly.  Spread melted chip mixture over cereal mixture and let sit until firm.
Cool and cut into bars
~makes 48 bars

In the 1990's I was at a Christmas party and this was the punch that was served:  "Moose Milk."  All I can remember from that evening was that it was wickedly good tasting and packed a whollop!  Enjoy your making of Moose Milk:

• 6 cups of vodka
• 3 cups chocolate mint liqueur
• 12 cups 2% milk
• Splash of soda water/seltzer water on top of each glass (optional)
• Mix all ingredients together.  Refrigerate.  Serve chilled.
• Makes 21 cups!

My best friend in high school was Troy Clark.  Literally we came "of age" together and the phone lines between our two homes burned up with our conversations about our fears, achievements, things to do, things to not to do, the latest top hits on WLS (Chicago), and on and on.

We, Troy and I, also plotted what seemed to be innocent excursions that somehow turned infamous such as the camping trip to one of the islands on Island lake:  it rained and rained, the boat leaked and nearly sank, and we lost a friends 10 1/2 HP Evinrude motor which abruptly fell off the back of the boat and disappeared into the water never to be seen again!

Or the night we sneaked out of my parent's house through a window to go "gigging" frogs!  We laid out this perfect plan to cover our ulterior plan and ate pizza and watched TV with my parents.  Then once we were sure my parents were sound asleep, we were on the move.  We took the family boat across the bay we lived on and into the next bay of Amacoy Lake.  In our wisdom we decided to row quietly up the inlet to the lake...pitch black sky, ghostly trees illuminated by our flashlights, quiet except for the sound of oars in the water.  Suddenly a bobcat on the shore screamed!  It scared us so much that we were each rowing so hard the boat was going in circles!

Wonderful memories, eh?

Troy's mother Daphne was like a second mother to me.  She would make these as a special treats especially around Christmas.  The simplicity of this recipe belies its deliciousness:

1 stick real butter
1 box (1 lb) confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Mix and roll out like pie dough.  Spread with plain creamy peanut butter and roll.  Cool and slice thinly