Baking from noonday till dark

Southern Living, Nov 2000 by Cook, Lynnmarie P, Heath, Peggy, Gray, Paulette, Jackson, Claudia, Et al

Friends team up to share casseroles, goodies, and holiday spirit.

One day each December in the tiny city of Noonday, Texas (near Tyler), the clatter and chatter coming from the home of Fred and Claudia Jackson rival the sounds of Santa's workshop.

It's the day of their holiday food exchange, a 14-year tradition among good friends. "The Christmas exchange came out of conversations with friends who wanted quick meals during the holidays," Claudia explains. "We also wanted to get together to cook, laugh, visit, and share our Christmas spirit."

Now there's a second generation of members who are ready to carry on the tradition. Tonja Eaton, married and working in Austin, drives home for the annual event. Her mother, Paulette Gray, was part of the original group. "Most of my friends are newly married and enjoy cooking and entertaining," Tonja says. "I'm thinking of starting an exchange in my town."

Initially, the women got together to bake favorite goodies that they could share. Each baked quantities of a single recipe and left with a dozen different snacks. "It worked so well that once word got out, the group grew from 8 to 12;' says Claudia. "And we said while we were at it, we'd exchange casseroles too."

For the casserole exchange, the 12 women work in teams of two. Each team selects a recipe for an entree casserole. The requirements are that it must serve at least eight people and freeze well. Claudia masterminds the cooking assignments, approving all the recipes to ensure there are no duplications.

The Saturday before the big day, each pair makes 12 casseroles. They put them in heavy-duty disposable pans and tape the recipes and instructions to the top.

For the third and final phase of the exchange, Claudia assigns each member a snack to bring to the party. Favorites include Beef Stuffed Mushrooms, Easy Chut-Nut Ball, Marinated Shrimp With Capers, Hot Peanuts, and Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta. That way, the bakers will have finger foods to nibble on throughout the day.

"It's a pretty intense two days," Peggy Heath says. "We spend all day Saturday preparing the casseroles to freeze and the snacks to take to the party." (They've shared a sampling of their favorites in the recipes to follow.)

Then on the big day-the first Sunday of December-the friends and their daughters converge at Claudia's, bearing munchies made the day before. Plus, each one brings a bag full of ingredients to prepare a Christmas neat.

Twelve cooks in one kitchen is a recipe for chaos-"There's usually flour flying everywhere," Gretta Davis says. But with its four sinks and two ovens, Claudia's kitchen is certainly equipped. "Sometimes we run next door to use my oven," Nan Bailey says. "But we don't stay there long, because no one wants to miss all the fun."

From around noon until after dark, the kitchen buzzes with the sounds of blenders, beaters, and the good-natured bantering of friends. "Remember the year we had puddles of pink fondant?" asks Judy Jordan Greene, ribbing her pal Polly Hitt. "I tried to make candy strawberries," explains Polly, "but the fondant never got hard."

Not everyone enjoys baking sweets, but a pretty presentation works wonders. "I'm an avid cook," Beverly Mason says, "and at Christmas I love to make things look pretty. So I might make hot buttered rum mix or hot chocolate mix and package it in pretty tins."

It helps that the women work well together; when one finishes, she offers to cook or clean for someone else. And despite the hard work, they know the effort will be worthwhile.

At the end of the day, each baker takes home 12 packages of holiday sweetsfrom chocolate chip cookies and toasted pecans to pumpkin cake rolls, strudels, and Buckeye Balls.

The evening always ends with the arrival of the previously banned husbands, who bring the frozen casseroles to exchange and to load up the treats made that day. "Sometimes they press their noses against the window until we let them in," Claudia says.

Finally, they all gather to offer champagne toasts and admire the fruit of their labor-dozens of festively decorated packages of homemade sweets. "It's such a picture-perfect ending to the day," Claudia says. "And every year, without fail, someone looks around and says, `Well, isn't this a Southern Living event! "' Lynnmarie P. Cook

BUCKEYE BALLS

1 (16-ounce) jar creamy peanut butter

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

12 (16-ounce) packages powdered sugar

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate morsels

2 tablespoons shortening

BEAT peanut butter and butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until blended.

SHAPE into 1-inch balls; chill 10 minutes or until firm.

MICROWAVE chocolate and shortening in a 2-quart glass bowl at HIGH 1 1/2 minutes or until melted, stirring twice.

DIP each ball in chocolate mixture until partially coated; place on wax paper to harden. Store in an airtight container. Yield: 7 dozen.

Prep: 1 hr., Chill: 10 min. Peggy Heath Tyler, Texas

MEXICAN CASSEROLE