The Catholic Post test kitchen is open and it’s time to start preparing the cookies, candies, cakes and breads — as well as main dishes and beverages — that will be featured in the newspaper’s 2011 edition of “A Taste of Christmas.”

This special section not only features the foods that make the holidays so special, but the Christmas memories that go along with them.

Tell us who passed down the recipe to you, what meaning the dish has, and how it adds to your celebration of Christ’s birth. Both the recipe and the Christmas memory that accompanies it will be considered in determining what will be included in the Dec. 25 section.

No recipes? No problem. Those who don’t bake are also invited to share your favorite Christmas memory with the other readers of The Catholic Post.

In order to test the recipes and photograph them in time for publication, recipes must be received by Friday, Nov. 18. Send them to Christmas Recipes, The Catholic Post, P.O. Box 1722, Peoria, IL 61656. E-mail submissions may be sent to jwillems@cdop.org. Please include your name, town, telephone number and parish.

For more information, call Jennifer Willems at (309) 671-1550, ext. 7306.