Chicken & Cookies for Christmas: Recipes from Judith Whitmore

Please welcome author Judith Whitmore as she shares some Christmas memories and recipes you can enjoy this holiday season. She has a fabulous new cookbook and hey, it's something to keep in mind for that hard-to-buy-for person who just maybe loves to cook. The proceeds go to charity, so you'd actually be giving twice.

I used to keep my two grandmothers’ and my mother’s recipes in a kitchen drawer.  Year by year they became more faded and fragile, until one day I took out my Grandma Blanche’s recipe for Crisp Chicken and realized if I didn’t take some action, the recipe would be lost forever.   My cookbook began as a way to preserve these recipes for my children.  It took on a new life with the addition of recipes, personal photographs, and stories from my family and friends. Some of the recipes in the book have been handed down from great-grandmothers, while others are most likely from cookbooks long forgotten. 

This recipe for Crisp Chicken is one my favorites.  Whenever we had dinner at my grandmother’s house, we would always request that she make this.

Crisp Chicken

½ pint sour cream
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. Worcester Sauce
1 tsp.  celery salt
½ tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. paprika
Stir together the above ingredients.

Chicken pieces (breasts, thighs, legs)
Kellogg’s Corn Flake Crumbs

Image courtesy of Mister GC at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Dip chicken in sour cream mixture, then in corn flake crumbs. Put chicken in a casserole.  Drizzle a little melted butter over chicken.  Bake uncovered in 350̊ oven until done. 

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One of my favorite Christmas activities is hosting a cookie exchange.  In case you haven’t participated in one and would like to host one, here is how it works.
       
1. Invite 10-12 friends over who like to bake.
2. Before arriving, each guest will bake a dozen of one type of cookie for every attendee, plus an extra dozen for serving at the get-together.  3. All cookies should be baked from scratch...no store-bought slice and bake.
4. Make a pot of coffee and open some wine...enjoy your guests and the fact you will have dozens of fabulous homemade cookies.  And you only had to bake one type!

Here are two of my favorite holiday cookie recipes:

The Best Sugar Cookies - Ever!

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 eggs
1 cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla
4 1/4 cups unsifted flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar
½ tsp. salt
colored sugar crystals

In a large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed, cream butter and sugars.  Beat in eggs one at a time until mixture is light.  Add oil and vanilla.  Beat until well blended.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.  Gradually add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat until blended.  Wrap dough and chill for several hours.

Roll teaspoonfuls of dough into balls and place on a greased cookie sheet.  Flatten dough to 2" circles with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar crystals.  Sprinkle more on top if desired.
Bake at 325° for 8 to 10 minutes, just until set.  Let stand on the cookie sheet for 2 to 3 minutes before removing.  Makes about 7 dozen.

Granny’s Double Cookies

½ lb. salted butter (8 oz)
½ cup granulated sugar
1 ½ cup flour
1 tbsp. cream
powdered sugar
jelly (homemade raspberry jam)

Mix butter and sugar well.  Stir in flour.  Stir in cream (may need to add additional cream to make the dough workable).  Roll very thin.  Covering rolling pin with wax paper helps.   Cut out with a cookie cutter a little larger than a silver dollar.  Bake until light brown.
Place 2 cookies together with jam & sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Note: You can cut a shape out of the “top” cookie so that jam shows through when cookies are assembled.  I use an hors d’oeuvres cutter.

If you enjoy these recipes, please check out my cookbook, “All Time Favorite Recipes.” All proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to The Dream Street Foundation, http://www.dreamstreetfoundation.org/ a charity my brother and sister launched 25 years ago to raise money for summer camps for children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.

JUDITH WHITMORE has been a theater producer, a jet pilot, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and now a writer. While attending college, she sang background vocals for Capitol Records. For the last seven years she has been a makeup artist during the summer for the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach. She loves to cook and play the piano.

To learn more about Judith or her books visit www.judithwhitmore.com