Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!

I'll be taking a break for the holidays, so I wanted to leave you with some favorite holiday treats that I guarantee you I'll be enjoying over the next couple of weeks.

LAURA BUSH COWBOY COOKIES



Makes about 36

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter (at room temperature)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1-1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups sweetened flake coconut
2 cups chopped pecans (8 ounces)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in bowl. In 8-quart bowl, beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy, 1 minute. Gradually beat in sugars; beat to combine, 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Beat in vanilla extract. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Add chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans. For each cookie, drop 1/4 cup dough onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart. Bake for 17 to 19 minutes, until edges are lightly browned; rotate sheets halfway through. Remove cookies from rack to cool. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

NOTE: For 6 dozen smaller cookies, use 2 tablespoons dough for each. Bake at 350 F for 15 to 18 minutes.

Note: As seen on "Good Morning America."


POTATO LATKES



yield: Makes 12 to 16 latkes
active time: 45 min
total time: 45 min

What is the secret to making great latkes? We found that the starchier the potato, the crisper the latke.

Ingredients
* 1 pound potatoes
* 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
* 1 large egg, lightly beaten
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 to 3/4 cup crisco

* Accompaniments: sour cream and applesauce

Preparation"

Preheat oven to 250°F.

Peel potatoes and coarsely grate by hand, transferring to a large bowl of cold water as grated. Soak potatoes 1 to 2 minutes after last batch is added to water, then drain well in a colander.

Spread grated potatoes and onion on a kitchen towel and roll up jelly-roll style. Twist towel tightly to wring out as much liquid as possible. Transfer potato mixture to a bowl and stir in egg and salt.

Heat 1/4 cup crisco oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Working in batches of 4 latkes, spoon 2 tablespoons potato mixture per latke into skillet, spreading into 3-inch rounds with a fork. Reduce heat to moderate and cook until undersides are browned, about 5 minutes. Turn latkes over and cook until undersides are browned, about 5 minutes more. Transfer to paper towels to drain and season with salt. Add more oil to skillet as needed. Keep latkes warm on a wire rack set in a shallow baking pan in oven.

Cooks' notes: ·Latkes may be made up to 8 hours ahead. Reheat on a rack set over a baking sheet in a 350°F oven, about 5 minutes.
·Grating the potatoes, soaking them briefly in water, and then squeezing out the liquid (as we've done here) keeps the batter from turning brown too quickly.

Alternative: Potato Kugel: Instead of frying latkes, put all latkes mix into a 2 qt rectangular pyrex dish, bake at 350 degrees until golden brown

Happy Holidays and thanks for reading!

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Pulsar Award

Every once in a while you come across an individual who is friendly, kind, supportive, witty, intelligent, humorous...pretty much just an all-around great person. In the blogosphere, people like that are harder to find because your interactions with him or her are usually completely online. Online it's even harder to be warm and friendly and to make a lasting impression. But that's not the case for Roxy of Roxiticus Desperate Housewives. I met Roxy, or Bree as she is affectionately known on her DH blog, after she was a little disheartened from a losing streak in Blog Explosion Battle of the blogs. I had a few words to cheer her up. After all, losing a round or two or three in Battle of the Blogs is NOT the end of the world. From the day we first exchanged comments and emails she's been warm, friendly, caring, helpful, and a bit of a mentor in new blog promotion tools and networks and overall the kind of person just in general that this world needs more of.

Every day we hear about so much negativity in the world, in our nation, in our neighborhoods. Negativity is amplified on the internet as news instantly travels the globe. That being said, it's so important to find the beauty and the brightness and the lights of hope that are out there.

A pulsar is a brilliant flashing star in the sky. The Pulsar Award honors those who add a bit of brightness to life. If bloggers everywhere can find pulsars, other beacons of hope and friendship and display them on their blogs, then we all can make this world a better place together.

There are beacons of light out there to guide us in the darkness. Pulsar Honorees are one more beacon of light.

Thank you, Roxy, for being a pulsar!

Thanks for reading.

Wordless Wednesday: The City of Detroit

Thanks for reading.

Dedicated to Jena Isle

Back around Thanksgiving I had a Battle of the Boys Band Contest inspired by a post made by Ken Armstrong. I never got around to announcing a winner due to the things that happen in life. So anyway, I wanted to make good. Jena, of The Clamor of Kalinga, and a host of other blogs, is the winner.

The race was close between Backstreet Boys and Westlife, but ultimately, the overall favorite was determined to be Westlife. Jena had the best reasons why the Westlife video was the best.

So Jena, this one is for you.

Thanks for reading.

Sarah Palin Just Gets No Respect

Today is our company holiday party. In honor, here's a political cartoon that I find hysterical.

Thanks for reading.