Christmas Treats! ~ MMSC32

Merry Christmas everyone! This week we are sharing Treat Holders at the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge. I've been trying to reuse and recycle things I come across lately as well. So for this weeks project I altered an empty can of Spam. (I know... How weird is that?!) How many of you eat Spam? We haven't had it in years, but my youngest son wanted to know what spam was. So I bought some and fried it up for him to try. I'm pretty sure it's not the healthiest food around but needless to say, he loves it! And when you pop the top of the can, the inside is lined with a bright white plastic that cleans up very easily. The little frosted berries I embellished this tin with are leftovers that fell off of some Christmas stems I was using to decorate wreaths and Christmas trees with. They would have just been thrown away, so I decided to add them to my stash of crafting goodies. :)

Living in New Mexico, we have many, many traditional foods. The holidays are filled with so many delicious dishes to enjoy!!! An important ingredient in many of our dishes is Green Chile. The aroma of roasting Green Chile fills the air here in the Fall. Mmmm!!! So many people I know that have moved away from New Mexico always tell me how much they miss the foods that you can only find here. :) So I wanted to share a favorite traditional New Mexican cookie we love to make at our house for Christmas. Biscochitos are the official New Mexico State Cookie. I love them! I haven't had a chance to bake any yet this year, as my MIL has been in the hospital but, I just know you'll love these if you decide to give them at try. :)

Biscochitos
(A New Mexican Shortbread Cookie)

6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 pound of LARD not shortening (VERY IMPORTANT no substitutions)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp. ANISE SEED (this is what makes these SO GOOD!)
2 eggs
1/2 cup of sweet table wine or orange juice (I use orange juice)
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*1/4 cup sugar
*1 tablespoon cinnamon

Directions

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Cream the lard with sugar and anise seed on medium speed. In a separate bowl. beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add beaten eggs to creamed mixture. Mix together well, adding wine to form a stiff-like dough, add more wine, if necessary.

Refrigerate dough overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove dough from refrigerator and let stand for a while, until dough is soft enough to roll. Divide dough in quarters and roll to about 1/16 to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutter and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until bottom of cookie is golden brown. Remove from oven. In a bowl mix together sugar and cinnamon. Drop baked cookies into sugar and cinnamon mixture and set aside to cool.\