This is one of my all-time favorite cookies for Christmas.  Actually a wonderful tea cookie as well.  This is a simple must make recipe that everyone will love!

• 2 sticks butter (salted), softened well
• 2 TBSP powdered sugar
• 2 cups Flour

Combine all ingredients and mix well.  We want the cookies small between the size of a quarter and a half dollar.  Roll into small balls and place on your cookie sheet and flatten with a fork twice at 90 degree angles to each other.  Bake in a 350 degree oven 6-10 minutes untill the bottoms are just turning lightly brown.  Cool

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 TBSP melted butter
• Maraschino cherry juice as needed

Combine above ingredients together into a thick frosting.  Use your frosting to glue two cookies together, allow them somtime to sit and your done

ENJOY!!!

 
The biggest thing I notice with recipes for NY style pizza is that crust has oil and sugar in it.  A pure Neapolitan style pizza is just flour,yeast, salt, and water.

  Two huge tips for baking this New York style pizza is using a pan with holes in it, or ideally a screen.  This will help it cook more evenly as this kind of pizza can be difficult to make with out being ” soggy” in the middle.  If your serious about pizza a pizza stone is a must to get the crust right.

• 2 Cups flour
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 TBSP Olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 package of yeast

Combine all ingredients until incorporated and let rest 30 min.  (This is called the autolayse period)  Now knead until smooth and elastic and place in a bowl with a little olive oil rolling it around to coat the dough.  Cover with plastic wrap and we are going to let it slowly rise in the refridgerator over night.

Remove the dough at least an hour before you want to roll it out so it can warm up.

  I like a simple tomato sauce, a little garlic is fine.  Add plenty of mozzarella and your favorite toppings.  Bake in your oven as hot as possible, commercial ovens are much hotter than anything you have at home.

  I chose deep dish to tackle first because in a lot of ways it’s the easiest to perfect.  Especially in a home oven, it is the fastest crust to make, but generally takes the longest to cook.  It is very yummy ( is there a pizza that isn’t? )

  The crust recipe I used is…

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup water
• packet yeast
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 4 TBSP olive oil
• 2 TBSP Cornmeal

Combine all ingredients just until incorporated and then let rest 30 min.

After the 30 min knead until smooth and elastic, cover and rest 2-4 and let rise.

Roll out dough and place in a deep dish pan or cast iron pan and let rise.

Finish with

• 2 cups mozzarella cheese, on the bottom
• 1/2 cup pepperoni
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 cup tomato sauce poured over the top of everything

Bake at 425 30-40 minutes until done.  Feel free to add any of your favorite toppings.  As far a sauce goes I find simple is best with a little bit of herbs.  No need to cook the sauce as it will cook in the oven.  Some good canned peeled Roma’s ground up with some fresh herbs does the trick!

So you have Thanksgiving leftovers?  Like many of us you need something to do with them. 

An easy way to get a great start to your Turkey soup is to get all of those leftover bones into your Crockpot cover with water and cook on low for 12-24 hours.  Forget the stock pot on the stove!  This method never burns.  Just keep them covered with water and the lid on and you can leave it all night or while you are out shopping on Black Friday!

When your ready to make your soup just strain the stock from the bones, add your other ingredients and you should have soup ready in less than an hour!

There are so many Yummy ways to use your left over turkey!

Try some of theses recipes…

Turkey Chowder

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/241/Creamy-Turkey-Chowder74805.shtml

Curried Turkey soup

http://www.eatturkey.com/recipe/recipe.cgi/1/11718

Enchilda Turkey soup

http://www.eatturkey.com/recipe/recipe.cgi/1/11268

This a delicious cornbread stuffing recipe.  If you like Cajun/Creole cuisine you must try this once!

• 2 TBSP Butter
• 1# Andouille Sausage, sliced
• 1 Lg Yellow Onion, diced small
• 1/2 bu Celery, diced small
• 1 Red Pepper, diced small
• 1 bu Green Onion chopped
• 1 package dry cornbread stuffing mix
• 1-2 cans Chicken Broth
• Season to taste with thyme, sage, black pepper, salt and hot sauce!

Melt butter in a saute pan and add sausage and cook until brown.  Add all your vegetables and cook over low-medium heat until soft and tender.  Add cornbread mix to a large bowl and pour sausage mix over it.  Mix together well moistening with chicken stock, add seasonings as you mix.  Continue until it’s the consistency you like and the seasonings are to your liking ( I prefer a lot myself)

Stuff your Turkey and enjoy a Happy Thanksgiving!  Works well chicken and pork also!