Kathyk’s Brussels Sprouts
One of my favorite holiday veggies is ridiculously simple: Roasted brussel sprouts. Toss them in olive oil with salt and pepper, spread them on a cookie sheet and roast them for 20 minutes or so at around 400 deg. until the edges of the leaves start to char. Sometimes I think the simplest foods are the best.

Cindy’s Green Beans With Roasted Garlic

6 servings

The green beans can be prepped and steamed a day ahead, then tightly covered and refrigerated, so this side dish will take just 5 minutes on the Thanksgiving day stovetop. If you opt to add the lemon juice, the beans are likely to discolor if they stand around for a while. Adapted from a recipe mentioned on the Chow magazine Web site.

1 pound green beans, trimmed and cut in half lengthwise on a slight diagonal, or use haricots verts
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 to 2 teaspoons roasted garlic puree*
1 teaspoon toasted ground cumin*
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon (optional)

Working in batches, steam the green beans in a steamer basket set over a large pot of barely boiling water for 5 minutes or until they are just crisp-tender. (At this point, the beans can be cooled, covered and refrigerated for up to 1 day.) Set aside.

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the garlic puree and cumin, stirring to combine. Add the green beans and toss to coat evenly. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook for 2 minutes, until the beans are fragrant. Transfer to a warmed serving bowl and sprinkle with the lemon juice, if desired. Serve immediately.
*NOTES: Roasted garlic/puree is available in some grocers' produce sections. To roast garlic, slice the top off a head of garlic so that the tops of the cloves inside are exposed. Lightly drizzle with olive oil and wrap tightly in aluminum foil. Bake in a preheated 425-degree oven for about 45 minutes or until the garlic has softened and browned. Set aside until cool enough to handle, then squeeze the softened garlic cloves out of their skins. Cut off and discard the stem ends.

Toasting ground cumin releases the spice's natural aroma and oils. Place the ground cumin in a dry skillet over medium heat and cook for 2 minutes, until fragrant.

Per serving: 51 calories, 1 g protein, 6 g carbohydrates, 3 g fat, 8 mg cholesterol, 2 g saturated fat, 52 mg sodium, 3 g dietary fiber

Desserts

The recipe that started it all:

SAS’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups flour
1 cup Quick or Old Fashioned oats (uncooked)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 cup to 1 can (for moister cookies) Libby’s pumpkin (I use almost the entire can)
1 cup to 1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips (I used the whole bag because I like chocolate!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients, set aside. Cream butter and sugars, add egg and vanilla and mix well. Add pumpkin to the butter/sugar mixture and mix well. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture, mixing well. Stir in chocolate chips. For each cookie, drop 1 tblsp. cookie dough (in the shape of a piano) on a non-stick cookie sheet. The recipe says to bake for 20 minutes, but I only bake mine for 17 minutes.

Sharon’s FROSTED MAPLE PECAN WHITE CHIP COOKIES from Steve Miller

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup (one stick) butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon maple flavoring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups (12 oz. Package) Nestle Toll House premier white morsels
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Maple frosting (recipe follows)
About 60 pecan halves ( 3 1/2 - 4 oz.)

Combine flour and baking soda in a medium bowl. Beat brown sugar, shortening butter, eggs, maple flavoring and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and chopped pecans

Bake in a preheated 350F degree oven for 9 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Let stand for two minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Spread with maple frosting; top each cookie with pecan half. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

MAPLE FROSTING

Combine 4 cups powdered sugar, 4 to 6 tablespoons milk, 1/4 cup softened butter and , 1 teaspoon maple flavoring in a medium bowl. Stir until smooth.

Josephine’s Gingersnap Cookies from ChickGrand

What I liked about this recipe is that they are that perfect in between. Nice and crunchy on the very outer shell, but chewy just underneath, if you don't overbake them. I lean toward the shorter cooking time to ensure that.

Steve Miller’s Comment
Using butter in recipes that call for shortening makes the cookies spread out more. The reason is that butter melts at a lower temp than shortening.

You can offset this somewhat by chilling the dough before you bake the cookies.

(Hat tip: Shirley Corriher)

Plays88keys’ Comment
I'm going to bake the gingersnaps tonight. I even made a point of getting a bag of that "sugar in the raw" to roll the dough in for extra crunch.

When baking with butter instead of shortening (which I do exclusively) it's best to use a hand mixer and break up COLD butter, not softened, then blend into the flour and other stuff.

Plays88keys’ Chocolate Peppermint Bark

2 bags of semi sweet chocolate chips
a bunch of candy canes, crushed

Melt the chips over very low heat until smooth. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment or waxed paper. Spread crushed candy canes around, then pour the melted chocolate over it all. When it hardens, break into pieces.

Just TRY to stay away from it.

Jodi’s Comment

You know, I shorten this process a LOT. I break up those little candy canes into a few pieces and throw them into a dish along with a bunch of chocolate chips and eat them at the same time. (I'm serious!) It's completely addicting.

Bernard’s Lemon Bark
Here's the Lemon Bark recipe, ultra-easy and yummy yum yum...

1 12-oz. bag white chocolate chips or equal amount of bar white chocolate
1/2 cup lemon drop candies, broken into smallish pieces

If you melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, the recipe can be whipped up in 5 minutes. Line a pan with parchment paper. Melt the chocolate chips, add the crushed lemon drops, pour into prepared pan. Use pan size to achieve about 1/4" deep bark. Put in fridge until hardened. Break into pieces. Addictive.

To crush the lemon drops, I put a bunch of them in a plastic bag and whack them with a hammer. Actual recipe calls for 1/4 to 1/2 cup. I used 1/2 cup plus.

Lilylady’s Walnut or Pecan Dreams
A bag or two of whole walnuts, depending on how much you want to make

A half box or bag of light brown sugar

one stick of butter (or two, depending)

cinnamon to taste

Melt butter and add sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl - it should be crunchy stage not wet. Add walnuts or pecans. Toss.

Put on a cookie sheet and into low oven for 10-15 min. When you take out, keep tossing making sure that all the butter/sugar is coated onto the nuts. Let harden while you are still tossing. When harden they should kinda be in a clumped up candy stage. Gift in a tin or glass jar. Always a hit. Good for the Postman or Aunt or Cindysphinx's MIL!

Cathys’s Candy

Here's my contribution and the only one I made after getting home. I always get comments when I send out a mixed box on these in particular. Very simple and melt in your mouth. My kids say when you put them in the fridge they turn into ice cream.

3 8oz Hershey Bars (no nuts)
1 13 oz cool whip frozen
Chopped nuts (if you like)
Crushed vanilla wafers (1/2-2/3 box)

Melt chocolate over water. While that's melting beat the air out of the cool whip, then pour in the melted chocolate and mix together with the nuts (if you like nuts). Scoop into balls and roll in vanilla wafer crumbs.

Refrigerate

Makes about 60+ balls.

MaryRose’s "FROSTYPAWS"

32 oz plain lowfat yogurt
3-4 tablespoons peanut butter
1 banana

Whirl in a food processor. Pour into 3 oz paper cups. Freeze.

Makes about 12 servings.

Squeeze out of the cup and into a bowl to serve. Be imaginative with other flavorings.

They are a big hit with both dogs and humans, especially on hot summer days.

Beverages

BeeLady presents Leaner Egg Nog, Sunset Magazine circa 1990

Whisk 4 egg yolks in a sauce pan, add 1/2 cup sugar, mix, then add one quart low fat milk, a 3 inch cinnamon stick, tbsp vanilla and a dash of nutmeg.

Cook over a double boiler, stirring frequently, till the mixture coats a spoon, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat, remove cinnamon stick, put pot in the fridge for 24 hours or up to two days.

To serve, whip 7 egg whites (I use powdered) to a meringue with an additional 1/4 cup sugar, set aside.

In a punch bowl add 1 quart of milk to the chilled custard, fold in egg whites, reserve some dollops for the top, sprinkle with nutmeg.

This has become a signature in our house, I have made it a hundred times. It is light, but still has the egg nog taste.

QuirtEvans’ Girlfriend’s Friend’s Eggnog

My girlfriend finally got her friend to cough up the eggnog recipe. It has Doug written all over it.

1 quart eggnog
6 shots cheap brandy (Christian Brothers will do)
1 shot cheap rum

Chill in the refrigerator overnight.

Matt's stolen from a famous restaurant's Perfect Margarita

Per glass:
Juice of two limes (or 3 Key limes)
½ tsp superfine sugar
2 oz Patron Reposado Tequila
½ oz Triple Sec
Shake vigorously then pour over broken ice cubes in a salted-rim saucer.
Pure, unadulterated pleasure.

"Frozen" margaritas are for people who don't like tequila. Margarita mix is usually nothing but corn syrup and artificial flavoring. Blecch!

Phylkell’s Smoothies

Smoothies for me - loads of frozen fruit whizzed up fruit juice and fresh bananas and sometimes some sweetened soya milk. Also like iced coffees too - so easy to make as well.

Pianojuggler’s Smoothies

Throw some ice (somewhat crushed is helpful, some fruit of your choice (strawberry, kiwi, and banana is a good combination) in a blender and whiz it until smooth. You can add some milk, but if you use a high-acid fruit, drink it right away or it will curdle.