By Chris Aldridge

Kentucky Ag News

FRANKFORT - Leaving out a plate of homemade cookies and a glass of milk for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve is a well-established tradition for many families. 

The roots of this holiday tradition go back to ancient Norse mythology when Odin, the most important Norse god, rode an eight-legged horse named Sleipner. This time of year, during the Yule season, children would leave food out for Sleipner in the hopes that Odin would stop by on his travels and leave gifts in return.

If you plan to entice Santa and his reindeer to stop at your home before settling down for that “long winter’s nap” on Christmas Eve, be sure to make the jolly ole elf’s trip through Kentucky as memorable as possible by using Kentucky Proud ingredients to make his cookies and food for his reindeer. Following are two recipes that kids can help make with their parents that are sure to satisfy.

We took America’s favorite homemade cookie, chocolate chip, and made it more festive by substituting the chips with red and green M&M’s. Not only are they more colorful, they are less messy for those helpful small hands.

Also below is a recipe for reindeer food. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and, of course, Rudolph need something to snack on while waiting outside for Santa to deliver his toys to all the good girls and boys.

There are four Kentucky Proud ingredients in both recipes that are widely available at nearly 200 locations across the state. The cookies contain flour, butter, and eggs, while the key ingredient in reindeer food is oats. And don’t forget Santa’s glass of Kentucky Proud milk!

There are 86 Kentucky Proud farms/businesses that sell eggs, 62 that offer oats, and 18 that have milk. Butter and flour are a little harder to find, so log onto the handy dandy Kentucky Proud website to find the nine farms/businesses that sell locally churned butter and eight that offer locally milled flour. Go to KyProud.com and click on the “filters” function under “product locator.” Select each ingredient from the pull-down menu under “product type,” and sort by “near me,” then click “see all results.” The search engine pulls up the farms/businesses nearest to you that sell those products, their addresses, directions, phone numbers, and if available, their websites.

You may find that you can source more than one Kentucky Proud ingredient at each farm/business. Tip: Many retailers of local milk also sell local butter, since it too is a dairy product.

Make finding as many Kentucky Proud ingredients as you can a fun activity for you and your kids, like a scavenger hunt. Happy hunting!