Do you have leftover Christmas ham and not sure what to do with it?  This Northern Beans & Ham soup is super easy and even more delicious – and a great way to use up that leftover ham.  This is my go-to recipe after Christmas every year.  It is so flavorful, and uses very few ingredients.   This is definitely one of my favorite & easiest comfort food dishes.

You will need:

• 1 lb bag of dried northern beans
• Cut up chunks of ham (I also had a frozen ham bone in the freezer and added that)
• 6 cups of water
• 2 Tablespoons of onion powder
• salt/pepper to taste

Some recipes will tell you to always soak Northern Beans before you cook them, but you do not need to soak the beans beforehand if you use the slow cooker.  Just give them a good rinse and then throw all the ingredients in your slow cooker, give it a stir, and let it cook on low for 8 hours.  That is seriously all there is to it.   By the end of the day, you’ll have a delicious, hearty soup, and your house will smell like you’ve been cooking a delicious meal all day.

Yes, you read that right!  Chocolate pepper cookies!  My Italian grandma used to make these and I found her recipe for them not that long ago and I was SO excited to find it after all these years!  In our house we just called them “pepper cookies”.  I think they were named pepper cookies because ground black pepper is the most unusual ingredient in them, but you can’t even taste the pepper.  You can, however, taste the cloves and cinnamon in them though.  They are an unusual sounding cookie, but oh-so-delicious!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup Crisco shortening
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 Cups milk (can add a little more if needed)

Directions:

Mix the dry ingredients well (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, cocoa powder).   Then add your Crisco and milk.  Mix until blended.  If the mixture is very dry, add a little more milk.

Roll into small balls, and place on parchment paper lined cookie sheets.  Bake at 350º for 20 minutes.

Once they are cooled, make your icing.  I just use about 1.5 cups of powdered sugar with about 2 tablespoons of water for my icing.

Drop a spoonful of icing on the cookies and let the icing drizzle down the sides.  If you’d like to add sprinkles, add them right after you put the icing on.  Otherwise, the icing will harden and the sprinkles will not stick.

Once the icing hardens, enjoy!

Biscotti cookies are typically crispy, twice-baked Italian cookies.  But I grew up enjoying my grandma’s soft Italian Biscotti cookies, which are definitely not crispy or twice-baked.   So these are definitely not your average Biscotti cookies, but try them once, and they will definitely become a family favorite.

My grandma used to slightly twist them into “S” shaped cookies, but you can twist them or make them into any shape you want.  Either way, they will be delicious.  And they are very easy to make.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 8 tablespoons shortening (Crisco)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions:

Combine your dry ingredients in a bowl and sift (flour, salt, baking powder, sugar).  In a separate bowl, mi your shortening, eggs, milk and vanilla.   Then add your dry ingredient mixture.  The dough mixture will be VERY sticky.  Flour your workspace and hands well so you can handle the dough.  Take small pieces of the dough and shape into any shape you want – curls, twists, crescents, etc.   Place on greased cookie sheet or parchment paper (I prefer parchment paper).

Bake in preheated 400º oven for about 15 minutes.

Let the cookies cool, and then add icing.  For the icing, just mix about 1.5 cups of powdered (confectioner’s) sugar and 1-2 tablespoons of water.  You want the icing to be thinner and easily spreadable, not thick.   Pour the icing over the cookies, add sprinkles if you’d like, and set them aside until the icing hardens, about 15 minutes.   If making these for a specific holiday or occasion, add a few drops of food coloring to the icing!

Enjoy!

Christmas Crackle Cookies

I haven’t made these in a while, and I always get requests for the same ol’ same ol’ cookies at the holidays, and it just gets so boring!  So, I decided this year, I’m making some new recipes, and trying out a few new ones.   This one isn’t new, but it’s a great recipe, and these cookies are always a big hit.  As they bake, they crack open, which is why they are called crackles.

To make these, you will need: