Russian Tea Cookies

My family also calls these snowball cookies, probably because they look like little snowballs and we always had them at Christmastime. But I guess the official name for the cookies are Russian tea cookies. My Aunt Marilyn gave me my Grandma's handwritten recipe while I was home for the holidays; it was like receiving a little heirloom.

Russian Tea Cookies:

INGREDIENTS:
1 C. butter or margarine
1/2 C. powdered sugar
2 1/2 C. flour
1 t. vanilla
3/4 C. chopped walnuts or pecans

DIRECTIONS:
Blend the ingredients together well. Form into 1" balls and bake at 350 degrees for 13-14 minutes. Remove from the oven and roll the cookies in powdered sugar. Let cool completely and roll in powdered sugar again.

***This can be vegan if made with the margarine or EarthBalance (I used EarthBalance in my last batch; tasted great!)

Becoming Vegetarian

A little over three weeks ago, I started eating a vegetarian diet. It seems a little weird to think that I have not had meat of any kind in over three weeks. I haven't missed it. I've been having so much fun cooking veggie dishes from my new vegetarian cookbook and my Indian cookbook.

Today was Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies. I've been craving PB cookies for a week or so. I was going to use a regular old recipe that I had but alas, once I got around to making the cookies, no butter. I googled and found a tasty recipe at 101 Cookbooks. I recommend it.

Valentine Cookies

According to Elizabeth, the Valentine cookies needed to have green frosting. Why? We're not sure. Green frosting or not, Mom's cookies always hit the spot.

Gone is gone

My gingerbread man Gone is officially gone. He has lived up to his name.