I started helping my grandmother and brother make holiday cookie trays when I was 5 years old. We introduced peanut butter reindeer cookies when I was in high school, after the snow balls and snickerdoodles my grandmother used to make with her children lost their popularity. But some holiday goodies remain: There will always be a batch of sugar cookies, party mix and peanut brittle -- staples of our homemade holiday snack stockpile.

Cookie baking was a three-day commitment. My grandmother made the peanut brittle and party mix and prepared the sugar cookie dough on Friday. After a Saturday afternoon with rolling pins, cookie cutters, and a myriad of frostings, gels and sprinkles, the sugar cookies my brother and I made were stored in shirt and pant boxes and secured with layers of waxed paper. At the end of Sunday afternoon, our heavy, overflowing trays were carefully loaded into my grandmother’s car, and we began distributing them to friends and neighbors.

Below is my grandmother’s recipe for peanut brittle. You can try it and comment on it, or post your favorite recipes and share your holiday traditions.

Gilberdean Hammond’s peanut brittle recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

½ cup light corn syrup

½ cup water

1/8 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. baking soda

2 ½ tbsp. butter

2 cups Spanish peanuts (salted)

OR

2 cups shelled pistachios

Mix together salt, baking soda and butter, and set aside for later.

Spread peanuts or pistachios onto a buttered cookie tray.

Put sugar, syrup and water in saucepan.

Cook, stirring only until the sugar dissolves.

Continue cooking until liquid turns light brown.

Remove from heat

Add salt, baking soda and butter, stirring as little as possible.

Pour mixture over peanuts or pistachios and spread with knife.

Allow brittle to cool completely before breaking with knife-- do not scrape brittle from the cookie tray.