The holidays are a wonderful time for food. The Tribune staff decided to share their favorite holiday recipes with our readers. So grab your mixer, sugar and taste buds and get ready to whip up Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies, Hot Reuben Dip, Nutmeg Nuggets, Mint Brownie Trees, Sugar-free Apple Pie, Chocolate Sheet Cake, Yummy Minty Mousse Mini Pies and Grandma&8217;s Bread.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

These cookies were one of many holiday sweets my mother would make. She had started her own dessert catering business so she knew what she was doing, and I had to make sure everything was up to her high standards by volunteering to be the official taste tester.

They were always one of my favorite cookies and I would constantly sneak out to the back porch where all the goodies were being stored and grab some of these cookies.

With all these easy to obtain desserts it made the holiday season the favorite around our house. They are an easy cookie to make, and I rarely meet anyone who hasn&8217;t had them or doesn&8217;t like them.

2 2/3 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, melted

2/3 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

Cream together butter, peanut butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix well.

Roll into balls and roll into sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for eight minutes. Remove from oven, press chocolate kiss on top of each cookie. Return cookies to oven and bake for two minutes.

&8212; Jeff Budlong

Yummy Minty Mousse Mini Pies

I started making this dessert probably when I was in the seventh grade. I found the recipe in a magazine. The dessert looked delicious and easy to make. It was, and I have been making the dessert ever since. I never clipped out the recipe, so I&8217;m not sure if things got twisted along the way, but if so, then I&8217;ll call it my own! It is a great recipe for kids to make because it doesn&8217;t require baking, so they don&8217;t have to touch anything hot and there are no knives involved. Just fun!

Serves 6

1 3.9 ounce package of chocolate pudding/pie mix

1 3/4 cup milk

1 8 ounce tub of cool whip

1 container of 6 mini graham cracker crusts

6 round red and white mints

Whisk the milk and pudding mix in a large bowl until it is smooth, just like making pudding. Fold in half of the tub of cool whip into the pudding until mixed. Spoon pudding mixture into individual graham cracker crusts. There will be left over pudding mixture, but I&8217;m sure that won&8217;t disappoint anyone.

Refrigerate for about one hour. Spoon Cool Whip over the top of the pie.

Crunch up mints using whatever means necessary ( I usually use the back end of something heavy). Sprinkle mint choppings over the Cool Whip. Tada!

&8212; Brie Cohen

Mint Brownie Trees

This is a recipe I found a couple months ago out of a cooking magazine. (Unfortunately, I can&8217;t remember the name of the magazine it came from.)

While this recipe doesn&8217;t have a lot of personal significance for me yet, as a woman in my 20s, I&8217;m always looking for new recipes to build my own personal cookbook. I want to be able to have lots of fun things to make with and for my own family someday, and when I stumbled upon this recipe, I thought the brownies looked like fun!

You could use a homemade brownie recipe if you want, or for time&8217;s sake you could just use a brownie mix. This was an easy recipe that looked nice &8212; something a little different than traditional brownies.

Brownies:

1 (18.3 to 21-ounce) package brownie mix

1/2 cup of butter

1/4 cup of water

2 eggs

Frosting:

2 cup of powdered sugar

1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

3 Tbsp. of butter

1/2 tsp. peppermint extract

2 to 3 drops green food color

Decorator silver dragees, if desired

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 15x10x1-inch jelly-roll pan with aluminum foil, extending foil over edges. Spray with no-stick cooking spray; set aside.

Combine all brownie ingredients in medium bowl; mix well. Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake for 16 to 22 minutes or until brownie begins to pull away from sides of pan (do not over bake). Cool completely.

Carefully remove brownie from pan by lifting ends of foil; place onto large cutting board. Cut brownies lengthwise into three equal strips. Gently separate strips. Cut each strip into triangles, measuring 1 1/2 inches at the base.

Combine all the frosting ingredients except the silver dragees in a small bowl. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Place frosting in a resealable plastic food bag. Cut a small tip from corner of food bag. Pipe frosting diagonally onto triangles to decorate. Place one silver dragee at top of tree, if desired.

&8212; Sarah Light

Hot Reuben Dip

I normally bring desserts to holiday gatherings, but when most everyone else decided to bring a cookie or dessert, I opted for another favorite. I found this appetizer recipe in Taste of Home magazine. I have taken it to a number of events and it&8217;s been very well received.

I think I like it so much because I&8217;m of German ancestry and just love Reuben sandwiches. Spread the dip between two slices of cocktail rye bread and you&8217;ve got miniature Reuben sandwiches!

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons ketchup

1/2 pound deli corned beef, finely chopped

1 cup sauerkraut, chopped, rinsed and drained

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Swiss cheese

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sour cream and ketchup until smooth. Stir in the corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese until well blended.

Transfer to a greased 1-quart baking dish. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 5 minutes longer or until bubbly. Serve warm with cocktail rye bread. Serves 24.

&8212; Geri McShane

Sugar-free Apple Pie

5 cups apples, sliced thin and peeled

2 tsp. lemon juice

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tbs. corn starch

1/2 cup Splenda

Mix all above ingredients together and place into a prepared crust. Top with a second crust. Pinch edges of crusts together. Cook in oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Cover edges with foil. After 30 minutes remove foil and bake for another 20 to 30 minutes.

Crust:

Use Jiffy pie mix and follow directions, or refrigerated pre-made Pillsbury pie crust.

Note: The only sugar in this particular recipe is the natural sweetener found in apples. For a regular apple pie, substitute the Splenda with 3/4 cup of sugar.

&8212; Ed Shannon

Nutmeg Nuggets

Nutmeg nuggets were my favorite Christmas cookie growing up. As the holiday season approached each year my mom would weed through her baking recipes to decide which desserts to make. I would always chime in with my choice: &8220;Nutmeg nuggets!&8221; I&8217;ve never really figured out what it is about that certain cookie that I love so much. Now that my mom is starting to pass on the baking traditions, I have demanded the recipe. When it comes time to start my own holiday baking traditions, I believe this cookie will always be on the tray at my family gatherings.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 6 to 10 minutes, depending on the oven

Makes roughly three dozen cookies

1 cup shortening

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup sour cream or milk soured with 1 to 2 tablespoons vinegar or buttermilk

3 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

about 2 teaspoons lemon extract

nutmeg

In a large bowl, cream the shortening, sugar, eggs and sour cream. Add the flour, vanilla, soda and lemon extract. Drop onto cookie sheets in 1 tablespoon-sized balls. Sprinkle each liberally with nutmeg. Bake at 400 degrees for 6 to 10 minutes, depending on the oven.

&8212; Sarah Kirchner

Chocolate Sheet Cake

Chocolate sheet cake is one of my favorite cakes my mom would make growing up. I started helping make desserts when I was very little and ever since have loved to make things. This recipe is one of my favorites. I am a chocolate freak so this is just perfect. In my family we like to make this for birthdays most of the time, but on this occasion I turned it into a holiday treat. I added mint swirl chips to the top to give that Christmas feel.

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 20-25 minutes

1 stick butter or margarine

1 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

1/4 cup cocoa

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup buttermilk

In a small saucepan bring to boil butter or margarine, water and oil. Then set that aside. In a large bowl mix together sugar, flour, cocoa. Gradually the hot mixture while mixing. Then add eggs and vanilla. Mix soda in the buttermilk separately, then add to above mixture. Use a nonstick sheet cake pan or spray one if necessary. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

Frosting:

1 stick butter or margarine

4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

1/3 cup butter milk

1 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter then in a medium bowl mix all ingredients together. Spread frosting onto cake after the cake has cooled for at least 15 minutes. Nuts or chopped mint chips are optional to sprinkle on top.

&8212; Danielle Boss

Grandma&8217;s Bread

This is a recipe from Naomi Engstrom, my grandmother. All the grandchildren love her bread, which is round because she makes it in cans. I possess a copy of the much-coveted 75th Anniversary Pilgrim Lutheran Church Cookbook (of Lake City, Iowa), in which the recipe appears as &8220;Whole Wheat Bread&8221; along with words from my Grandma about it:

&8220;This recipe was originally Winnie Kruse&8217;s. After the &8216;new&8217; church was built in 1956, the Ladies&8217; Aid would serve dinners for groups from town. Winnie always made this bread. The recipe is in our old cookbook. I have changed it somewhat, but I still use the cans to bake it in. My grandchildren love it, and although I make other kinds of bread, they call this recipe &8216;Grandma&8217;s Bread.&8217;&8221;

2 cups of milk, scalded

1/2 cup of Crisco, melted in hot milk

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1 tsp. of salt

1 pkg. of dry yeast dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water

1 egg

2 cups of whole wheat flour

4 cups of white flour

Scald milk (heat to just short of boiling). Add Crisco; pour mixture over brown sugar and salt in large bowl. Allow to cool (115 degrees). Dissolve yeast in warm water and add to first mixture when it is cool. Beat egg slightly and add to mixture. Add whole wheat flour and as much white flour as needed for easy handling. Put mixture into greased bowl and allow to rise until doubled in bulk. Punch down, divide into 5 equal portions. Place into greased tin cans (size 2 1/2); let rise until dough fills about 3/4 of can. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Yield: 5 small loaves.

&8212; Tim Engstrom