Cookies!
Welcome, Winter! It's about 13 hours past Winter Solstice, and I'm making ritual cookies. So here it is, my favorite cookie recipie, swiped from The Joy of Cooking and modified by me.
In cookie making, I cannot stress enough the importance of real butter. Fake butter in any form ruins what should be good cookies. Forget your cholesterol level and use real butter. (note: real butter is rich in good fats)

Rich Roll Cookies
cream: 1 cup softened butter and 2/3 cup sugar
beat in: 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla or almond extract

combine and add: 2 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour and 1/2 tsp salt

That's it. There is your basic dough. You can roll it out or use a cookie press.
bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cookies.

For ritual cookies add 1 to 1 1/2 tblspns ground basil.
For espresso cookies add 3 or more tblspns finely ground coffee
Experiment and enjoy!