to get depressed! I don’t know about you but as much as I am happy around the holidays, I get a little depressed too.  Soooo there’s nothing like a cookie to cure that depression! Matter of fact these recipes may have come from the depression era! Most likely they’ve been around well before that, but my Great Grandma was definitely apart of the depression era and she introduced them to me.

Now I’m introducing them to the LA Times Cookie Bake off Contest and to you bloggers!!

Click here to vote for me!!>>>>

http://upickem.net/3VNBcA1H4bZ?r=37960

I’m entered in the LA Times  Cookie Bake Off with my families cookie recipe called Aunt Goldie’s Date Filled Nuggets.

Every year my Great Grandma Jessie Olson would make this family recipe and  I was always the first to finish them.  Grandma Jessie was an amazing baker. Every Christmas she’d bring over huge tupperware containers filled with different cookies as well as several of her famous pies. My two favorite cookies of hers were her Molasses Iced Cookies and her Date cookies.

Little did I know a lot of the recipes were handed down or were altered by other people in our family. I found all of this out when my Grandma Pearl died and left me all of the family recipes. The books are priceless and contain years and years of recipes by my family. A lot of them quickly written down with no complete instructions!!  I guess they cooked and baked so much they just needed the ingredients. Although I noticed that some of the recipes are clearly missing some ingredients. Luckily I learned from the best so it was pretty much common sense that you can’t make a cookie without flour.

And now to set the mood here is one of my favorite Christmas songs.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zMhSjDqvRs&fs=1&hl=en_US]

My entry into the LA Times contest is the following recipe for Aunt Goldies Date Filled Nuggets which Grandma Olson perfected every Christmas.

Aunt Goldie’s Date Filled Nuggets

4 1/2 C. All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 C. Sugar
1 C. Butter (Soft)
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 Eggs
1/2 C. Sour Cream
1 Tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp. Baking Powder

Date Filling
1 lb. Dates diced (or in food processor)
1 C. Sugar
1 1/2 C. Water
Boil all until soft & in paste form. Let cool in the refrigerator.

Cream Butter & Sugar then add eggs one at a time. Mix Soda into Sour Cream and add. Stir flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl and add little by little to wet ingredients.
You may chill dough or roll out on a floured surface immediately.
Use a 2 inch round cookie cutter to cut out rounds or a round juice glass floured. Cut an even number of rounds and place a dollop of date filling on half. Cover those with the other half of cut outs and pinch all sides by hand or fork. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 f. until golden brown (about 10-15 mins.) Continue until all the dough and/or filling is used.

AND!! To get plenty of good cheer I eat Aunt Goldie’s Minted Nuts!!

Here’s a recipe for Aunt Goldie’s nuts exactly like my Grandma Pearl wrote it down.  I love that my Grandma instructs to stir in a circular motion! Wait until you see some of the other recipes she wrote down. Grandma Pearl often wrote in phonetics like her recipe for Chile Con Queso she writes Chilly Con Kay-so…