Ginger Spice Cookies (Rice Free)

Let the Christmas baking begin!  Shortly after moving into our new house, one of our new neighbors invited me to the annual Christmas cookie swap and then comes the bake sale at school.  Fantastic, except, I haven't made Christmas cookies, per se, for years.  So I began going through old recipes and thinking.  As I was growing up, my family always made lots and lots of cookies at Christmas: ginger snaps, molasses crinkles, lemon bars, cherry pinwheels, raspberry turnovers, sugar cookies, etc.  What to make... and how much tweaking do I want to do?

Ginger Spice cookies

Apple Butter

This is one of those posts that was put on the back burner due to life.  Fall in New England is apple time.  And we do love apples in this house.  The kids eat apples sliced with their favorite butter (peanut or sunflower depending on the kid), we make pies, crumbles and more.   But the apple butter is a family favorite and I thought I'd share it with you.  Not only is it great on biscuits, or, simply, on a spoon... but stir 1/2 cup into spice cake or chocolate brownies and up the "Yum"!
  

Apples ready to be made into apples butter

Vanilla Pear Jam

My friend, Tree, brought this to my attention several months ago.  She had made it and was enjoying it with a biscuit and Irish cheddar.  *sigh*  How I wish she lived closer!!

She found the recipe on the Food in Jars website.  It is a great website to check out especially if you are into canning.  I found recipes for pear lavender jam, pear with brown sugar and cardamom, and strawberry vanilla as well as the vanilla pear made here.

Vanilla Pear Jam- flecks of vanilla bean.  Yum!