I had a wonderful bit of clean-out-the-fridge kismet yesterday.  I dragged myself away from sitting by the fire because I knew that lurking in the back was some delectable eggnog left over from Christmas.  I knew it was still good because it was bursting with bourbon, andI know it's intended to "age" anyway, so what th'....? Plus I had some remnants of the Christmas pudding sauce--Umma's plum pudding sauce (the recipe for which is on TimesDispatch.com)still biding its time.  Ditto with the high alcohol content I figured.  I'd also secured a panettone when they'd gone on jaw-dropping sale after Christmas, so I realized I was ready to go with a stupendously easy dessert. To the probably four cups of eggnog, I added four eggs and beat well.  I removed the crust from the panettone and chopped it into about 1 " cubes and put them in a buttered oval baker.  I poured the by now double-eggy-eggnog on top and let it sit in the fridge for about an hour after squashing the panettone down into the liquid with a fork.  Just before popping it into a 375 degree oven, I poured the remaining Umma's sauce over it, covered it with foil and put it in a roasting pan. I then poured boiling water into the roasting pan about half-way up the sides of the dish. Voila bain marie!

Happy New Year! 

Okay, this is the last thing I’m going to say on the subject of cookies for the immediate future, and I wouldn’t even be discussing this, except I just ate two lemon pecan cookies and, even though they are a twelfth night old, my goodness they are DELICIOUS!  In fact, I have to say I can’t imagine anything more perfect than a tumble of these gems and a good cup of tea. Unprepossessing in appearance perhaps, but so fresh and lemony, so explosively good….well, suffice it to say, I may survive January just knowing where these darlings are stowed.  Honestly, if you have it in you to bake one more cookie, or if it snows, or if you just want to make something, anything--make these.  And a touch of Jane Austen wouldn’t hurt either, now that I think about it.

I realize that as I’m making each one of my Christmas cookies, I proclaim it to be THE BEST ONE OF ALL!  Okay, so here’s today’s BEST ONE OF ALL…..I have to say, it was originally Martha’s recipe, but, as you can imagine, it was WAY too fussy for my taste, so here it is, easy as can be, Christmas on a plate.  And FYI, I think Santa is particularly fond of these too.