Let the baking begin!

Those of you that know me well are aware that I normally don't do my holiday baking until Christmas eve. I am a freshness freak and like to have everything "out of the oven" fresh for Christmas day.....which also makes me just a plain old freak because that means that I am baking for six or seven hours and never get to really enjoy the day. This year, however, I am changing things up a bit. Our daughter and son-in-law are coming in next week from California and we haven't seen them since their wedding in August, our son will also be here from Iowa City for a couple of days, plus we have the whole family coming here, to our tiny little house, for Christmas dinner, so I have a lot to do and I don't want to spend all of my time chained to the oven. It hurts me to say this, but I am baking some things ahead of time and putting them into the <gasp> freezer! I know, I know, it's hard to believe that word is even in my vocabulary....I must be mellowing with age.

I make a variety of scrumptious desserts for the holidays, some new, some tried and true, but there are a few 'must haves' that we absolutely can not do without. One favorite is a coveted recipe that my mother got from one of my aunts before I was even born. My mother guarded this recipe with her life. Over the years, she would make it for friends and neighbors, but when they would ask for the recipe....well, let's just say things got ugly! After my sisters and I were grown mom passed the recipe on to us...this old family recipe, which I, in turn, guarded with my life and passed on to my daughter. You can only imagine my horror and dismay when, one day as I was flipping through an old Betty Crocker cookbook, I saw a photo and description that bore a striking similarity to our secret family recipe. I studied the page, went down the ingredient list line by line, measure by measure...OMG, it was the exact same freakin recipe! Unless we are somehow related to Miss Betty Crocker we have been living a lie for some 50 years....we stole our family recipe from Betty Crocker.....does it count as stealing if she is a fictional character??

In an attempt to redeem our good name and share the deliciousness, I will pass this recipe on to you.


Nut Cups (or as Betty likes to call them-Pecan Tassies, call them whatever you want Betty, you're not real so who is going to listen to you? Whatever).

Crust:

1 Cup softened butter ( if you use margarine don't tell me about it)

6 oz. softened cream cheese (2 small packages-please don't use fat free...I don't even know what that means)

2 Cups flour

Cream together butter and cream cheese, gradually add flour until well combined. Mold dough into mini muffin tins to form the crust. Bring the dough all the way up the sides of each tin making sure not to get it too thin along the sides or bottom.
Filling:

1 Tablespoon softened butter

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg slightly beaten

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

Mix all filling ingredients together and fill crusts with mixture to about 3/4 full. I know, this doesn't look very appetizing, but trust me you will like it. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes.

Be careful not to do this when you fill the crusts...

Any little bit of filling that goes over the edge of the crust does this (below) and makes it really hard to get the little buggers out of the pan.......and then they fall apart...
Like this (below). When they fall apart you have to eat them to hide the evidence...it's the law....OK, not really, but it isn't really an old family recipe either now is it?????

Enjoy!