4 posts tagged “cookies”

What's one family recipe that you wish you knew how to cook?

My grandmother's sugar cookies.  I've been trying to get the recipe from my aunt since she got it from her mom... and this has been going on for years.  Each time I ask I'm told, "You know, it's a really hard recipe... it took me this long to get it right... but I'll send it to you."  And each year all I get is a bag of cookies (roughly a dozen and they last about a day around me) but still no recipe.  And it's usually only around Christmas time they get made by my aunt while my grandmother would have them on hand every time I came to visit (she knew how much I loved them).  Now, granted, I only visited my grandparents (on average) 3-4 times a year and I know I shouldn't expect that of my aunt whom I visit (again on average) at least double that amount... but is a recipe really that hard to give out?  Maybe she wants the glory to herself... taking that long to get the recipe right... but all I have is time on my hands and I'll still go ape when she makes them.  These cookies are that good.  They're Monkey crack.

Plus... it's really about the memories.  I can't even smell these things without thinking of mornings visiting at my grandparent's house.  The immediate memory of breakfast.  Shredded wheat, coffee and juice for my grandfather, while my grandmother would have only coffee and either donut holes or sugar cookies to dunk in it.  The memory of how when I found out where the cookies were kept, the goal of every visit would be to sneak out as many as I could without getting caught.  I can still smell the smoke from his pipe and the harsh tone of her voice as she would yell at me to get away from the furnace.  The figurines I couldn't touch and the chair I couldn't sit in (well... couldn't sit in without spinning, which was forbidden).  Playing Chinese Checkers with whoever would play with me and by myself if no one had the time or energy.  Walking down to the general store by myself to get a piece or two of candy.  The trees.  The deer.  The caterpillars and butterflies.  The chipmunks.  The spiders.  The bathroom.  The ants.  The trees.

I'm going to get that recipe this year if it takes a pair of pliers and some stealth.

What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?
Submitted by sami711.

Best one ever - Christmas cookies.

It started way back when I was just a little girl.  My mother got the recipe for sugar cookies from her grandmother and decided that she would make them that year.  What followed that day was nothing like any holiday spirit at all as she spent most of the afternoon cursing (worse than a sailor) at the dough.  We look back at that day every year since, both of us laughing about it.  She quickly (well, it took a few years and some experience) found the "secret" to working with the cookie dough and every year since, decorating the cookies has become the one thing about the season that I can't live without.  Once I move to the southwest, I'll still be coming home to decorate Christmas cookies.

I used to put the lights on the tree every year (the one time I didn't mind being called anal retentive or OCD) ... but that stopped this year.  It kind of makes me sad because it drives the point across that soon I won't be around for these "little" traditions.

I know it's Christmas time.  I know it's all peace on earth and goodwill to men.  But shouldn't that be if they deserve it?

This is a horrible mood to be in before heading up north to ice and decorate cookies.

Any one know where I can find my sense of goodwill?  I seem to have left it somewhere...

I started to rant about my cable company and their products.  I was two paragraphs in before I realized that I had gotten it all out and didn't really want to post all that hate.

Besides, what it really boils down to is disappointment over missing Doctor Who last night.  That's the part that really gets my ire up.  And I have no idea when or if the episode will be replayed.

In other news, the cat house is almost complete.  The top needs to be bought and hammered on.  Carpet needs to be installed  And the dog is so afraid of this thing, it's not funny.  Part of it hangs over the couch and it took all day for us to get him to lay down underneath it.  We put his favorite ball on top of the tube and a rawhide on the edge, and he won't touch either one.  The ball he's had since he was a wee puppy and rawhide.  Rawhide.  The only time I've ever seen a dog that scared was when our house was hit by lightning.

Tomorrow we head up north to ice cookies.  Wonder if I'll break the record (6).