Chew on these stories...

Anyone with a decent food processor can process horseradish. But if you wanna bring the devil out in your horseradish, you truly gotta pay attention to the details. Surface area is key to great horseradish, but without the right amount of vinegar to lock in that pungency, all the heat in your horseradish will fizzle in just a few weeks' time. This video I did for The Hays Daily News is proof of just how good homemade horseradish can be. It's a lot easier to explain what you're doing when you're not in tears, so if you want to really know how it's done, then be sure to check to check out this…

It's just not Christmas at our house if we don't do a little cookie baking as a family. My kids wanted to decorate some gingerbread men, so I took the opportunity to kick the tires on a gingerbread cookie recipe from my modest collection of community cookbooks. This is a cookie carried by the aromas of ginger, cinnamon, and clove; bolstered with the sweetness of molasses and brown sugar. And, while I've not changed much in the way of proportions for this eggless gingerbread cookie recipe, I have taken the liberty of putting more of a Kansas spin on the whole deal by making this a 100% whole wheat gingerbread cookie, and spiking the dough with an apple cider made right here in the Sunflower State.

While some folks believe that the warming aroma of cinnamon best represents the Christmas season, there are just as many people that identify with the cool tingle of mint. Christmas cookies are best when made with a healthy dose of tradition; and ever since I began doing a holiday baking regiment, these Andes mint-topped chocolate cookies have been a must-bake. The hardest thing about making this mint chocolate cookie (other than unwrapping all those wafer-thin mints) is the waiting involved: Dough must be sufficiently chilled so as to prevent too much spreadage, and ensure that each cookie is ever so chewy on the outside while remaining rich and fudgy on the inside.
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I make no excuses where my lack of temperance is concerned. Sometimes, it's just nice to kick your feet up at the end of the day and sip on a nip of liquor and forget about all the crap you didn't get done (if there's one thing I've learned it that it'll still be there tomorrow).

Anyhow, during the holiday season I figure if you're gonna take a booze break that you might as well be seasonal and festive about the whole thing; and where that's concerned You can't do much better than homemade cinnamon schnapps. This schnapps recipe started out as one passed around by neighbors that ended up in my father-in-law's pocket. It was always good, but still needed just a little…