Holiday Cheer for an Admitted Grinch

I'm the first to admit it:  I'm the Christmas Grinch.

I do not like the holidays.  The stress, the arguments, the getting up at 7 a.m. to open presents because you had to do three Christmas celebrations in one day, the pop-music takes on Christmas carols that blare over loud speakers at every store.  And don't get me started on rude shoppers.

Even at the heart of my Grinchy-ness. I have to admit: there are actually things I like about the season.  Giving gifts, donating to charity—OK, I like that one year-round, but Toys for Tots gives me an excuse to browse the toy aisle—and holiday cookies or other sweet and yummy baked goods.

With the cookie baking already underway, at least at my parents' place, I'd like to propose a new take on the cookie swap and I want you to help.

Post your favorite recipes here—and any stories behind them or photos of the baking process. I'll compile the recipes and stories for a gallery that will go up Wednesday, Dec. 23.  It's a little close for baking purposes, I know, but cookies are good year -round—or that's what my monstrous sweet tooth tells me.

Not into the homemade, from-scratch baking thing?  Tell me the best places to buy cookies or baked goods in the area or the best ways to fake the baking.

You can either email me recipes Eileen.Oldfield@patch.com, or post them in the comments on this site. 

And you can enter for a chance at free Patch gear, too! 

To get you started, here's a recipe from me—my Grandma Burke's vanilla cookies, which I've seen at every Christmas I can remember.  You'll need a cookie press for the recipe, which you can get at most kitchen shops.

Grandma Burke's Cookie Press Cookies (makes about 9 dozen cookies):

• 1 pound (4 sticks) margarine or butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 5 cups flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract (note from Eileen: get the real stuff, not the imitation.)
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cream sugar and margarine, then add egg and vanilla, blending well.  Gradually add the flour until four cups have been used.  Then add the 5^th cup by hand, adding until it feels like Play-Doh.  If five cups isn't enough, add more flour, but sometimes you'll need less than five cups.
• Once the dough feels like Play-Doh, separate it into four more-or-less even portions, and let it rest 10 minutes.  You can add food color to color the dough if you'd like, or leave it plain.  When it's made at home, we usually go for food coloring, though I've been banned from adding it.  I overdo it, and end up with neon-nuclear-colored cookies.
• Load the dough into your cookie press according to the press directions and, also following the directions, press each form onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake for 10-15 minutes (depending on your oven.  I set for 10 and then check the timer.) until lightly brown on the bottom.  Cool on racks, and try to keep everyone from devouring them before Christmas.