Christmas Basket Recipes Part II

2 ½ C flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ C sugar
½ C butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl-wisk to blend.

In an electric mixer, beat sugar, butter, eggs and almond extract until well blended. Mix in flour mixture.

Divide dough in half. Shape each piece of dough into a 2 ½ inch wide and 9 ½ inch long 1 inch thick log.

Bake in a 350 degree oven until brown. (approx 35 min).

Cool on rack, then cut into ½ inch thick slices (use a serrated knife like a bread knife). Arrange slices cut side down on cookie sheet.

Bake an additional 10 minutes, turn over, and bake another 5 minutes. Cool on a rack.

VARIATIONS: Use vanilla instead of almond extract and add 1 cup of mini chocolate chips. Or use anise flavoring instead of almond. Melt chocolate and paint the tops, drizzle over, or dip into.

If you have never had these, they are a soft, almost jellied consistency sweet pickle. They are more like a snack or desert item-although they are a good sweet treat to have on the side of your picnic plate. I had never had these until I actually made them-they were something that DH remembered loving from his Grandma Lila, so I just had to learn how to make them for him.

Since it is Grandma’s top secret family recipe, I cannot post it here, but I googled until I found a watermelon rind pickle recipe that is very similar. The family recipe (and the one I found) use Alum to make the pickles less mushy. There are plenty of other recipes that use lime or salt water to accomplish the same type of thing-just look around some if you don’t like using Alum.

Last year I left just a tiny bit of the pink on the rinds. I thought it made them look sort of pretty. I usually can these in the very small 4 oz jam jars, because they are the type of thing that you don’t eat a lot of at once. Plus I think that is a good size for gift giving when you aren’t sure if folks are familiar with the item.

I still have some of these left from last year, and with working and all I was quite busy this year, so I never made these. I will make them again next summer though to replenish my personal supply as well as gift the family.

Chili sauce is another more old fashioned condiment. It isn’t spicy like the food dish chili-although depending on the amount of hot pepper you use you can make it so. It is a tomato based relish, usually made with peppers and onions and spices added, as well as vinegar. It is very thick and has a bit of a sweet savory taste. I personally think it is the best thing ever invented for hamburgers and meatloaf-I’ll take it over boring old catsup any day!

Again, I use a recipe from DH’s side of the family. Since it is “top secret” I am sending you over to this very similar Chili Sauce recipe.

A note on tomatoes for this recipe-you don’t have to use perfect ones. As a matter of fact you don’t even have to use nice ones. You can use the ones with nasty black spots, the ones that are overripe and almost ready to go bad. Trust me, by the time they’ve had the heck boiled out of them and all of the spices added, not only won’t you be able to tell, they are perfectly fine healthwise.

My MIL has been the family torchbearer for this recipe, but last year I had her give me a copy so I could try it out. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t one of those family recipes that got lost. Although I haven’t made any this year, I still have a few jealously guarded jars from last year, and am hoping that I still might be the recipient of some end of year tomatoes.

~~~~Note~~~~
Just a reminder that the reason I am bringing all of this holiday cooking up so early is so that you can plan ahead, both for your time and your money. I noticed yesterday at Wally World that the holiday baking items are already on the shelves. Keep an eye on your local grocery store fliers. I’m willing to bet that flour, sugar and butter all go on sale sometime between now and Thanksgiving! Also, some of those hard to find baking items are only available this time of year.