If only in my dreams ...

My family is big on tradition around Christmas time.

One of our favorites is the Christmas Eve dinner. Each year, my mother would spend Christmas Eve day in the kitchen: roasting a goose, baking bread, boiling red cabbage, making a seven-ingredient salad (apparently lore says seven ingredients are lucky) and homemade ice cream pie. Dad would spend the day hunting with the boys and then make escargot.

Kinda explains why I love to cook, huh?

Anyway, the feast was a standard for my family. We would top it off with fine wine, coffee and family presents Christmas Eve. Then fall asleep and fart our way into Christmas morning.

Today I was at the grocery store, checking out the exorbitant price of goose and feeling nostalgic. While I was doing that, the store musack decided to play Mariah Cary's version of "I'll be Home for Christmas." For the first time, it made me homesick for Iowa.

We're not making it to either Iowa or Illinois this year, so we're coming up with traditions on our own.

That said, in honor of home, I'm re-establishing a long-gone blog specialty: A recipe. One of my mother's specialities, as a matter of fact, and a favorite taste of the holidays for both Andy and me.

Incidentally, when my brother Kelsey was flying over Iraq, these were the only things he wanted sent. They all melted together, but the Navy boys didn't seem to mind.

White bark Christmas Cookies a la Sherry Foster

Ingredients:
* 2 pounds of white candy bark
* 2 C peanuts
* 2 C slivered almonds
* 2 C rice crispies
* 2 C miniature marshmallows.

Directions:
1) Melt bark in a double boiler over high heat.
Note: If you don't have a double boiler, put about 2 inches of water into a sauce pan and set it on the stove on high. Put the bark in a second sauce pan - slightly smaller than the first - and put it on top of the larger pan with the water. This will create the same effect.
2) Mix the melted bark, peanuts, almonds, rice crispies and marshmallows togethere in a large bowl.
3) Drop the mixture in roughly walnut-sized balls onto a greased cookie sheet.
4) Allow to sit up until firm.
5) That's it! Enjoy!