LET THE COOKIE BAKING BEGIN

Greetings from Carmela's Cucina,

In my cucina, we barely have the Thanksgiving Turkey out of the oven when our thoughts turn to cookie baking. And in fact we started a bit early this year, when I invited my two son's girlfriends over last weekend for an extra early start. We made 8 different cookies and packaged them up so that each of the girls could take some to their Thanksgiving feasts. And we even managed to stash a few for future holiday events. The following recipe for COCONUT JOYS was given to me years ago by my friend Jacki and we make it every year as it is a big hit in our family. One of the nicest things about this cookie, is that you do not have to bake it and therefore it frees your oven for other cookies that do need to be baked. I hope you like it as much as we do. It is a winner!

Buon appetito,

Carmela Tursi Hobbins

COCONUT JOYS

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 cups powdered sugar
3 cups coconut
4 ounces melted chocolate chips
Red Hots for decoration (optional)

Melt butter in a saucepan. Pour melted butter into a mixing bowl and add powdered sugar and coconut. Mix well. Shape rounded teaspoons of mixture into balls. Make an indent in center of each cookie. Melt chcocolate chips. Fill centers of cookies with melted chocolate and top with Red Hots. Makes about 3 dozen.