4 cups flour (don"t sift pack it down in the cup when you

measure it)

cup white (granulated) sugar in a small bowl for coating dough b.a.l.l.s Melt the b.u.t.ter in large microwave-safe bowl. Add the sugar and orange juice concentrate, and stir it all up. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Add the beaten eggs, baking soda, salt, and orange zest, stirring after each addition.

Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing thoroughly after each increment.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough at least 2 hours (overnight"s even better).

When you"re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

Roll the chilled dough into walnut-sized b.a.l.l.s with your impeccably clean hands. Put cup white sugar in a small bowl and roll the b.a.l.l.s in it to coat them. Place them on a greased cookie sheet (or a cookie sheet you"ve sprayed with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray), 12 dough b.a.l.l.s to a standard-sized sheet. Press the dough b.a.l.l.s down just a little so they won"t roll off on the floor when you put them in the oven.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 350 degrees F. The dough b.a.l.l.s will flatten out, all by themselves. Let the cookies cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet and then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Yield: Approximately 7 to 8 dozen cookies, depending on cookie size.

PARTY COOKIES.

DO NOT preheat the oven this cookie dough must chill before baking.

2 cups melted b.u.t.ter (4 sticks, 16 ounces, 1 pound)

2 cups powdered sugar (not sifted pack it down in the cup

when you measure it)

1 cup white (granulated) sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or any other flavoring you wish)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar (critical!)

1 teaspoon salt

4 and cups flour (not sifted pack it down in the cup

when you measure it)

food coloring (at least 3 different colors)

cup white sugar in a bowl for coating the dough b.a.l.l.s Melt the b.u.t.ter in a microwave-safe bowl or in a saucepan on the stovetop. Add the sugars and mix well. Set the bowl on the counter and let the mixture cool to room temperature.

When the mixture is not so hot it"ll cook the eggs, add them, one at a time, mixing after each egg. Then add the vanilla extract, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Mix well.

Add the flour in half-cup increments, mixing after each addition.

Divide the cookie dough into fourths and place each fourth on a piece of wax paper. (You"ll work with one fourth at a time.) Place one fourth in a bowl and stir in drops of food coloring until the dough is slightly darker than the color you want. (The cookies will be a shade lighter after they"re baked.) Place the colored dough back on the waxed paper and color the other three parts. (You can leave one part uncolored, if you like.) Let the dough firm up for a few moments. Then divide each different COLOR into four parts so you have sixteen lumps of dough in all. Place a sheet of plastic wrap on your counter and roll each lump into a dough rope with your hands (just as if you were making bread sticks). The sixteen dough ropes should each be about 12 inches long.

To a.s.semble, stack four dough ropes of different colors, two on the bottom, two on the top, near the edge of the plastic wrap. Squeeze them together a bit and push in the ends so they"re even. Flip the bottom edge of the plastic wrap over the top and roll them up together tightly in one multi-colored roll. Twist the ends of the plastic wrap, fold them over on top of the roll, and refrigerate the rolls as you make them. When you"re all finished, you"ll should have four rolls of multi-colored cookie dough, wrapped and chilling in your refrigerator.

Let the dough chill for at least an hour (overnight is fine, too). When you"re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

Grease (or spray with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray) a standard-sized cookie sheet. Place the bowl with the half cup white sugar next to your cookie sheets.

Take out one dough roll, unwrap it, and slice it into half inch thick rounds. (Each dough roll should make about 24 cookies.) Place each round into the bowl of sugar and flip it over so it coats both sides. Position the sugar-coated rounds on the baking sheet. Don"t place more than 12 cookies on each sheet. Return the unused dough to the refrigerator until you"re ready to slice more cookies.

Bake the cookies at 325 degrees F. for 12 to 15 minutes, just until they begin to turn slightly golden around the edges. Cool them on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes, and then transfer them to a wire rack to complete cooling.

These cookies freeze very well if you stack them in a roll, wrap them in foil, and place the foil rolls in a freezer bag that you put in the freezer. You can also freeze the multi-colored unbaked dough rolls by leaving them in the plastic wrap and placing them in a freezer bag in the freezer.

Yield: Approximately 8 dozen pretty party cookies.

PEANUT b.u.t.tER & JAM COOKIES (PBJS).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

1 cup melted b.u.t.ter (2 sticks, 8 ounces, pound)

2 cups brown sugar (firmly packed)

cup white (granulated) sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 and teaspoons baking soda

teaspoon salt

1 cup peanut b.u.t.ter

2 beaten eggs (just whip them up in a gla.s.s with a fork)

cup chopped salted peanuts (measure AFTER chopping)

3 cups flour (don"t sift pack it down when you measure it)

approximately cup fruit jam (your choice of fruit)