Hello everybody.

December is a  festive month,many people celebrating Christmas like to try new recipes for dinner or lunch or as Christmas treats or cookies. I’ll try to make something new each day this month to give you some ideas, food websites have thousands of recipes but not all are feasible or easy to make so I’ll be picky and try them before publishing don’t worry.

Today I tried these cute cherry cookies since my husband bought a big jar of preserved cherries, very easy and quick to do,you can even use any kind of preserved fruit you like but cherries have this beautiful red happy color that’ll look great on your table .

Lunch today was eggplant tajeen or a more precise description  Arabic style Moussaka, it’s very similar but without white sauce , it contains baked or fried eggplants with cooked minced meat with onions ,with layers of green peppers and potatoes ( optional ) some people make it with only eggplants and meat . After layering them you add a pack of tomato paste with 2 cups of water then leave to cook in the oven or on very low heat (  I added a cube of chicken stock to enhance the flavor)

Ingredients and method of cookies ( makes 2 dozens)

* 1 cup butter.

* 1 cup sugar.

* 2 1/2 cups flour.

* 2 tablespoons milk.

* 1/2 cup crushed walnuts.

* 1 cup cherries.

* Beat butter and sugar very well till creamy then add salt and flour.

* add milk till you get a firm dough.

* roll dough to a long rectangle on  wax paper.

* arrange cherries in a line in the middle then close dough on them.

* roll the cylinder formed over crushed walnuts then wrap all in the wax paper and refrigerate for 1 hour till firm.

* cut the log to 1 cm pieces and arrange in an oven pan and bake in a medium heated oven for 15-20 minutes.

* cool then store in a well closed jar.

* NOTE: these cookies can be done a week ahead and will stay fresh if stored well.