GOOD LUCK FOODS TO CELEBRATE THE NEW YEAR!

You may not want to face this, but in 10 more days a new year will be here!
So, are you interested in some good luck foods to celebrate the New Year?

“What foods are prepared on New Year’s Day in the USA to bring good luck? That depends upon the culture and cuisine! As New Year’s Day approaches, people around the world will plan for the coming year, eager to get off to the best possible start! Many people will “eat for luck”-they plan to eat special foods that, by tradition, are supposed to bring them good luck. Throughout history, people have eaten certain foods on New Year’s Day, hoping to gain riches, love, or other kinds of good fortune during the rest of the year…” from “Eat for Luck!,” by Victoria Sherrow & David Helton, Children’s Digest, Jan/Feb94

When I was a child growing up in predominately German Cincinnati, it was customary to have sauerkraut on New Year’s Eve. My mother cooked it with some kind of pork, and made mashed potatoes and creamed peas to ‘go with’ and served it at midnight. (I shudder to think of eating such a heavy meal at midnight today! My stomach would never take it). But my parents often had a New Year’s Eve party and that was the menu. I remember one year, I was babysitting for neighbors on Pulte Street when, at midnight, my brother Jim brought me a plate of sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and peas. I cried into the mashed potatoes thinking of the party I was missing. I never stopped to wonder why we had sauerkraut and pork on New Year’s Eve – it was a tradition in our family.
Someone inquired on Google about eating sauerkraut and this response was posted: ”Everyone I know says it’s for “good luck,” but no one can tell me with certainty where this custom started. It appears to be a German or a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition that has migrated to other portions of American culture, but down South other practices prevail: there, New Year’s Day calls for black-eyed peas — particularly a dish called Hoppin’ John, with seasonings and rice — and collard greens…”

When we were living in Florida for a few years, I became friends with a woman whose family was from Puerto Rico. They invited us to join them for a New Year’s day dinner which was made up of black beans and rice; that was their customary New Year’s meal. It was my introduction to Hoppin’ John. This legendary New Year’s dish is a casserole of rice and black-eyed peas, sometimes flavored with pork. It is thought to have been introduced to the South by African slaves. The dish was traditionally served with a shiny dime buried deep. The person whose portion had the coin was guaranteed good luck in the New Year (I guess as long as you didn’t swallow the dime–that wouldn’t be very lucky!).
To give you some idea of how people celebrate the New Year in various parts of the world, Romans, in ancient times, gave gifts of nuts, dates, figs, and round cakes. Northern Italians attempt to attract wealth at the New Year by eating lentils, symbolizing coins. In the Piedmont region of Italy, the New Year’s Day meal of risotto signifies wealth with its abundance of small grains. Another Italian custom is to eat sweets for a year of good luck. It can be as simple as a raisin or a more elaborate, almond-filled cake in the shape of a snake. As a snake sheds its old skin and leaves it behind, this cake symbolizes leaving the past behind as a new year begins. In Spain, you are promised good luck in the New Year if, at midnight, you eat one grape with each stroke of the clock. Dumplings are a traditional New Year’s food in northern China. Because they look like nuggets of gold, they are thought to signal good fortune. The Vietnamese celebrate their new year in late January and eat carp – a round-bodied fish thought to carry the god of good luck on its back. Cambodians celebrate their new year in April by eating sticky rice cakes made with sweet beans .In Iran, the New Year is celebrated in March, when grains of wheat and barley are sprouted in water to symbolize new life. Coins and colored eggs are placed on the table, which is set for a special meal of seven foods that begin with the letter “s”.
In some countries, cakes and cookies were traditionally served on New Year’s Day for many decades (Are these customs still observed? I don’t know). Donna R. Barnes and Peter G. Rose coauthors of “Matters of Taste: Food and Drink in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Life” (Syracuse University Press) have written: “New Year’s Eve was especially noisy, with the firing of guns to bring in the New Year. Ordinances in both the Netherlands and New Netherlands eventually prohibited such behavior. The special treat for New Year’s Day in the Netherlands were thick crisp waters, which originated in the eastern part of the country and adjoining parts of Germany. These wafers were made in a special wafer iron. The oblong or round long-handleed irons, made by blacksmiths, created imprints of a religious or secular nature on the wafers. Wafer irons were often given as a wedding gift, even in this country. Enormous quantities of wafers were prepared on New Year’s Day. The were consumed by family, servants, and guests distributed to children, who went from house to house singing New Year songs, while collecting their share of treats along the way. There is ample evidence in diaries and letters that Dutch Americans continued the custom of visiting each other on New Year’s Day. In New Netherlands…cookies were molded in wooden cake-boards, instead of wafer irons…The American New Year’s cake is a combination of two Dutch pastries brought here by the early settlers, the cookies described above and spiced, chewy, honey cakes formed in a wooden mold or cake-board. It was in the late eighteenth century that this homemade pastry prepared in heirloom wafer irons by the Dutch, changed to a mostly store-bought product purchased by the population at large….”

And, in the American Heritage Cookbook and Illustrated History of American Eating & Drinking, (American Heritage, 1964), I found the following: “The custom of paying New Year’s calls originated in New York, where the Dutch held open house on New Year’s Day and served cherry bounce, olykoeks [doughnuts] steeped in rum, cookies, and honey cakes. From New York the custom spread throughout the country. On the first New Year’s after his inauguration, George Washington opened his house to the public, and he continued to receive visitors on New Year’s Day throughout the seven years he lived in Phildadelphia. On January 1, 1791, a senator from Pennsylvania noted in his diary: “Made the President the compliments of the season; had a hearty shake of the hand. I was asked to partake of punch and cakes, but declined”…Eventually, it became common social practice for those who intended to receive company to list in newspapers the hours they would be “at home.” It was a disastrous practice: parties of young men took to dashing from house to house for a glass of punch, dropping in at as many of the homes listed in the papers as they could. Strangers wandered in off the streets, newspapers under their arms, for a free drink and a bit of a meal. The custom of having an open house on the first day of the year survived the assaults of the newspaper readers. The traditional cookies and cakes continued to be served, along with hot toddies, punches, eggnog, tea, coffee, and chocolate. But public announcements of at-home hours were dropped at the end of the nineteenth century, and houses were open only to invited friends.”

Do you eat a special food on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day? If not, perhaps you might enjoy starting a new tradition in your family. If pork and sauerkraut are not to your liking (and I admit, it’s an acquired taste but one I love), you might want think about serving Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day, 2010. Here is a recipe for you to try:

To make Hoppin’ John, you will need:
• 1 pound dried black-eyed peas
• 2 small smoked ham hocks or meaty ham bone
• 2 medium onions, divided
• 3 large cloves garlic, halved
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup long-grain white rice
• 1 can (10 to 14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes with chile peppers, juices reserved
• 1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 3 ribs celery, chopped
• 1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, minced
• 2 teaspoons Cajun or Creole seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 green onions, sliced
Preparation:
In a large Dutch oven or kettle, combine the black-eyed peas, ham bone or ham hocks, and 6 cups water. Cut 1 of the onions in half and add it to the pot along with the garlic and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer gently until the beans are tender but not mushy, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Remove the ham bone or hocks, cut off the meat; dice and set aside. Drain the peas and set aside. Remove and discard the bay leaf, onion pieces, and garlic.
Add 2 1/2 cups of water to the pot and bring to a boil. Add the rice, cover, and simmer until the rice is almost tender, about 10 to 12 minutes.
Mince the remaining onion then add to the rice along with the peas, tomatoes, and their juices, red and green bell pepper, celery, jalapeno pepper, Creole seasoning, thyme, cumin, and salt. Cook until the rice is tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the sliced green onions and the reserved diced ham. Serve with hot sauce and freshly baked cornbread.
And for those wondering where on earth the name “Hoppin’ John” came from, there are a number of theories – take your pick:
1. Hoppin’ John is a corruption of the French “pois a’ pigeon” (pwah ah pee-ZHAN), which when pronounced in the Creole manner sounds very much like hoppin’ John.
2. Hoppin John was the name of a lively African-American waiter with a limp who served the dish at a Charleston hotel.
3. Hoppin’ John was a husband named John who came hoppin’ to the table as dinner was served.
4. Hoppin’ Johns were waiters hoppin’ to serve hungry dinners in John’s restaurant in Charleston.
5. Hoppin John was a lame cook who hopped up and down while cooking it.
6. Hoppin’ John was the dish served to a Carolina sea captain on New Year’s Day who was told to “Hop in, John.”
7. Hoppin’ John was the name of an old ritual on New Year’s Day in which the children in the house hopped once around the table before eating the dish.
I’m told you need a bowl of collard greens to go with your beans and rice. The greens symbolize $$$$ for the coming year. I’ll make up Hoppin John and collard greens for our New Year’s Day meal and let you know how prosperous it makes me!
Happy Cooking!
Sandy

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things (Part 2 Christmas Cookies)

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS
As promised, here are some more cookie recipes. It’s hard trying to select just a few favorite recipes when there are so many that have become special and favorites to various family members over the years. My sons are the easiest – they just want regular chocolate chip cookies, sans “ingredients”. (Ingredients would be nuts of any kind, raisins, any other kind of dried fruit—no matter how great I think it is – all they want is a lot of chocolate chips). A good chocolate chip cookie will have maybe half a dozen chips in each cookie. I usually dump in twice as many chips as the recipe calls for. You can’t have too many chocolate chips.

Over the years, friends and family members have let me know which cookie is their favorite. Besides the chocolate chip cookies, Kelly likes Peanut Blossoms – the peanut butter cookie with a Hershey kiss on top. His wife, my daughter in law Keara, is partial to the lemon rounds ice box cookie – but also loves crisp little lemon cookies that are made with a box of lemon cake mix and Rice Krispies cereal. I like to dip the baked cookies into a tart lemon glaze during the holidays and recently tried adding some chopped dried cranberries – they were good! My girlfriend Tina also loves the crisp little lemon cookies.

Everyone in the family likes a butter cutout cookie that has been lavishly spread with butter cream frosting. (*At this point I love to tell the story about my son Michael, the Christmas he was 5 years old. I was up half the night frosting all the butter cutout cookies with butter cream frosting. I crawled into bed around 3 am. At 6 am, when I got up – it was only to discover that Michael had eaten all the frosting off of ALL the cookies. My mind goes completely blank after that – I can’t tell you what happened next. I probably cried. And no one received cookies from us that year).

Back in the day – the early 1960s – we had very little money and often lived from paycheck to paycheck. I began baking cookies and making jelly (back then pouring it into babyfood jars to give to friends) as a way of giving something to friends and neighbors. Our relatives were all back in Ohio. You know, I can remember spending $20 on toys for our two toddlers—and getting quite a bit for the money. Christmas in 1963, we had just returned to California after son Steve’s birth, in Cincinnati – and managed to rent an apartment in Toluca Lake…we had absolutely nothing left for furniture (much less presents). I remember baking cookies and sitting on the living room floor with friends, drinking coffee and eating cookies. It’s a good memory.

Kelly’s favorite peanut butter cookie has been revamped – here’s the 2009 version made without any flour. To make Kelly’s favorite peanut butter cookie you will need:

1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg

Mix the above ingredients. You can shape them into balls and add a Hershey kiss after baking for 8 minutes – or roll the balls in sugar and then bake about 10-12 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees. OR, roll into balls and then flatten with the tines of a fork – and bake.

Here is a simple recipe for Fast & Fancy Macaroons. To make Macaroons you will need:

1 14-oz bag of angel flake coconut
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients; mix well. Drop from teaspoon onto well greased baking sheet OR parchment-paper lined baking sheet. You can decorate the macaroons with maraschino cherries or sprinkle with multi colored sprinkles. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove at once using a moistened spatula. Makes 5 dozen. You can also add 4 squares of unsweetened chocolate, melted, or add 1 cup of chopped pecans or almonds, before baking.

Crisp Little Lemon Cookies are made with a box of lemon cake mix. In order to make Crisp Little Lemon Cookies you will need

1 package lemon cake mix (18.5 oz)
1 cup Rice Krispies cereal
½ cup margarine or butter, melted (1 stick)
1 egg, slightly beaten

Mix all ingredients in a bowl; mix well. Shape into 1” balls and place 2” apart on ungreased baking sheets (or parchment paper lined cookie sheets). Bake in preheated oven @ 350 degrees, 9-12 minutes. Cool one minute; remove from baking sheets and cool on wire racks. Makes 3-4 dozen.

Shortbread Squares are a rich, buttery cookie that melt in your mouth. Even nicer if you happen to have one of the shortbread cookie pans but if not, don’t worry. An ungreased 15×10x1” cookie sheet will work just as well. To make Shortbread Squares you will need

1 pound butter (no substitutes), softened
1 cup sifted powdered (confectioners) sugar
3 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup cornstarch

In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Combine flour and cornstarch; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Pat into an ungreased 15-in. x 10 in. x 1” baking pan. Pierce several times with a fork. Bake at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until lightly browned. Cut into squares while still warm. Makes about 6 dozen shortbread squares.

Christmas is almost here and you haven’t baked any cookies? Stock up on a variety of cake mixes and you can whip up batch after batch of easy cookies. Here is my favorite recipe for Easy Chocolate Cookies. To make Easy Chocolate cookies you will need

1 (18.5-oz) box of devil’s food cake mix
½ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 (6 oz) package of semi sweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, combine dry cake mix, oil and eggs. Beat with mixer until blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets (or cookie sheets lined with parchment paper), about 2 ½ inches apart. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 10 minutes. Allow to rest on baking sheets 5 minutes, then remove with a thin spatula to wire racks to cool. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Sandy’s Cooknote: You can change this recipe around – use white chips instead of chocolate chips and you will have a polka-dotted cookie. Drizzle them with a thin white frosting and you can add some colored sprinkles. Use peanut butter chips and you will have chocolate peanut butter cookies. this is a versatile recipe. And it doesn’t have to be devil’s food cake mix – any kind of chocolate cake mix will work. Oops…you are out of cooking oil? Then try this recipe for Quick Chocolate Cookies.

To make Quick Chocolate cookies you will need

1 package chocolate cake mix (18.5 oz)
1 cup chocolate chips
2 eggs
½ cup Miracle Whip dressing
½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Heat oven to 350 degres. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, until blended. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets (or parchment paper lined baking sheets). Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Makes 4 dozen.

Sandy’s cooknote: No, I don’t have any stock in a parchment paper company (I wish!)—but you can line your baking sheets and use the same parchment paper over and over again. It’s my favorite kitchen tool. It doesn’t matter if the directions state to grease the cookie sheets – or not. Parchment paper covers all your bases.

One more – Snickerdoodles. I have seen a lot of versions of snickerdoodles. One of the old recipes belonged to my mother and appeared in our family cookbook. HERE is an updated version that you can make with a box of yellow cake mix. To make the 2009 version of snickerdoodles, you will need:

3 TBSP sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 package (18.25 oz) yellow cake mix
2 eggs
¼ cup cooking oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease cookie sheet – or line with parchment paper! Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Combine cake mix, eggs and cooking oil in a large bowl. Stir until well blended. Shape dough into 1” balls. Roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place balls 2” apart on cookie sheet. Flatten balls with bottom of glass. Bake at 375 for 8 or 9 minutes or until set. Cool for a minute, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

I hope you enjoy some of these easy-to-make recipes. Some of them are so simple, you can let a child (or in my case a grandchild) help you in the kitchen. It’s never too soon to let them start learning how to cook (and learning how to measure with measuring cups and spoons is a basic lesson in math. My mother turned me loose in the kitchen when I was about ten years old. It was the greatest gift she gave to me – the freedom to explore and try recipes by myself. She had an Ida Bailey Allen Service cookbook – if you can read, you can learn how to cook. That cookbook of my mother’s is one of my most treasured cookbooks in my collection.

Happy cookie!
Sandy

Twas A Week Before Christmas (a poem)

T’was a week before Christmas
And all through the house
Gift-wrap was littered, it
Even covered a spouse,
Who sat forlorn in his old easy chair,
Wondering if there was
An extra cookie to spare—
For cookies were baked
And filled every tin
But to eat even one
Would be considered a sin—
(Unless it was one that was broken or burned);
Decorations hung every where that you turned.
In the guest room presents were piled everywhere,
And trees were put up, not a moment to spare—
Twinkling lights and ornaments too,
But it will look pretty when we’re all through—
I’ve scorched all my fingers giving candy a test
And thought it was time that I had a good rest;
When out on the roof there arose such a clatter,
I dashed to the door to see what was the matter;
Up on a ladder, Grandpa swayed to and fro—
Trying to decide where the reindeer should go—
I was sure he would fall and smash all the lights
I shouted come down and we’ll fix it all right!
The dollhouse is back where it belongs
And hundreds of CDs play holiday songs,
Pork loin’s in the freezer and wood on the fire,
Eggnog in the frig we hope will inspire–
But if not there is brandy, bourbon and port,
To serve every guest who is a good sport;
We’ll work at it all til’ we fall with a jerk
And let Santa get credit for all our hard work!

–Sandra Lee Smith

Memories of Christmasses in Cincinnati

When I was a young child, all Christmasses were magical. There were the preparations; the cookie baking, my siblings and I making ornaments out of cotton and walnut shells, the foil caps from milk bottles, or uncooked macaroni–going downtown to see the nativity at Garfield Park, midnight mass at St Leo’s if you were old enough to stay up that late, going to my grandmother’s on Christmas Eve day, where she had a tree with bubble lights, only to be picked up later by my father–we drove home to see a lit Christmas tree glowing from the living room window and we’d know Santa Claus had been there. (Our tree was never up before December 24th. My mother waited until the last minute so she could get one, really cheap, at the tree stand on the corner next to Fred’s Saloon).

Seeing the lit tree – our anticipation grew.
“Hurry!” my mother would cry as we clambered inside “He’s just leaving – he’s on the roof!” and we’d rush out to try and catch a glimpse of Santa Claus, but never did. Never mind, there were all these presents in the living room, under the tree. I think one of my earliest Christmas memories has to do with a dollhouse and a little china cabinet that I knew immediately were for me. Another year I very much wanted my very own desk. It was the first thing I spotted inside the living room.

“My desk! My Desk!” I cried.
“How do you know it’s for you?” my mother asked.
“I know!” I said. It was the best Christmas present.

When I was a bit older – maybe about ten – I began taking my two younger brothers downtown on the bus, sometime shortly before Christmas. We’d visit all the department store Santas to get free peppermint sticks, and we’d do all of our Christmas shopping at the various 5 & 10 cent stores. I began learning my way around downtown when my mother bought a coat for herself at Lerner’s and had it in layaway. She gave me a dollar (weekly payment on the coat) and two nickels (bus fare each way). I wasn’t particularly interested in the big department stores but I loved Fountain Square, the 5 & 10 cent stores, thrift stores and used bookstores.

We had Woolworth’s, Kreske’s and Newberry’s. My brother recalls all the holiday store front displays, some of which were animated. Santas ringing bells and collecting money for the Salvation Army were on every street corner. (We knew they were just Santa’s helpers as were the department store Santa Clauses. Everybdy knew the real Santa Claus was busy at the North Pole.

I can’t tell you how three young children managed to buy gifts for everyone in the family–we never got an allowance so we had to scrounge around cashing in pop bottles or doing odd jobs for the neighbors in order to have any money at all. It also cost us a nickel for each bus trip, down and back, to downtown Cincinnati. And we somehow managed, I can’t imagine how, to work in a visit to the lunch counter at Woolworth’s to share a grilled cheese sandwich (the cheapest item on the menu) or a hot dog, and a coca cola or a phosphate. Our presents for each other and our parents and grandparents were often the least expensive items you could find in an 5&10 – hair nets for grandmothers, nail polish for our mother, a man’s handkerchief for our father, those tiny glass bottles shaped like toys filled with tiny round candies – for one another.

We had our parents, grandparents, and one another – five children – to shop for. My brother Bill always had the most change, pennies mostly, that he kept in a small coin purse, clenched tightly in one hand. We all knew the hazards of shoplifters! No shoplifter ever got any of OUR money.

Later we would go home and wrap our gifts in ironed-out gift wrap paper and ironed-out ribbons, and then plaster the whole thing with the stickers that came with the gift wrap (stickers that didn’t stick very well, I might add).

But downtown Cincinnati – that was the place to be, just before Christmas. There was Fountain Square, all lit up, and the department stores (Pogue’s, McAlpins, Shillitoes) with all their holiday displays in the store windows; Santa Clauses in each one of the stores, dispensing peppermint sticks. We made our rounds visiting ALL of the Department store Santas – for one thing, we loved free candy. For another, we weren’t above hedging our bets in getting what we wanted for Christmas. So we stood in line to see all of the Santa Clauses, wherever they were, to tell them what we wanted for Christmas. (My younger brothers always wanted the same thing: a cap gun-and-holster set either sponsored by Roy Rogers or Gene Autry and a wind-up train).

One year my brother Biff bought a small wax Santa boot filled with mint, for Dad. When Dad opened it, everyone laughed. Biff was affronted and ran upstairs to cry. The entire family had to go upstairs and convince Biff that they only laughed because it was such a wonderful gift.

Downtown Cincinnati during the Christmas holidays; It was all glittery and sparkling, a kind of wonderland. After the war ended (WW2) Fountain Square was once again lit up.
It could sometimes be made even more special if snow began to fall as we headed for the bus stop, loaded down with our gifts, satisfied that we had once again managed to find the most perfect presents for our parents and siblings.

When we arrived back home, we surreptitiously toted our presents up to my bedroom, to wrap, then put them under the tree.

These experiences were ones shared only with my two younger brothers; there are no photographs to remember them by, only our most cherished memories.
**

What’s Christmas Without Cookies?

WHAT’S CHRISTMAS WITHOUT COOKIES? Asks the Cookie Lady

What’s Christmas without cookies ? Christmas cookies to share with family, friends, and coworkers—perhaps some cookies for the mailman (now we have a mail lady). I also give cookies to my manicurist. Each of my sons receives a tin of his very own cookies—chocolate chip, no “ingredients” (ingredients are nuts, raisins, coconut or any of those other yucky things that I love so much. When my sons were children, they took containers of cookies to their teachers.

A few years ago, I bought Disney-theme cookie jars and filled them with different kinds of cookies. Along with my sons and their families, one of the cookie jars went to my younger sister and her family, who also live in California. Other cookies are wrapped in baskets or tins—or whatever suitable containers I find (I search for cookie containers throughout the year. Some of our best bargains have been containers bought at Target, after the holidays, for 90% off).

When I got married in 1958, I had one Betty Crocker cookbook and a boxful of recipe pamphlets. That Christmas, General Mills published a small booklet called “Betty Crocker’s Holiday Almanac” – I kept it, and began saving the Christmas recipe sections in my December magazines; Woman’s Day always published a tear-out cookie/candy recipe section—the earliest I have was published in1962. These are in 3-ring binders that have somehow grown to 5 thick binders, just with cookie recipes.

What I had, in 1958, was a start – enough recipes to bake some cookies and a few batches of fudge. When we moved to California in 1961 we had little more than a car-trunk full of clothing and the baby’s bed—but I somehow managed to do some holiday baking.

In 1963 – after moving back to Ohio in March, returning to California in December-We didn’t even have furniture (much less a tree)…but I baked cookies; we invited friends over and everyone sat on the floor drinking coffee and eating Christmas cookies.

From these austere beginnings, my holiday cookie baking grew until it began to reach mammoth proportions. In the mid 60s, a girlfriend and I began making cookie dough in September, and freezing the batches. When we thought we had a goodly amount of cookie dough (I think about ten or twelve batches each) we’d embark on a cookie-baking-marathon. We did our baking late at night at her house, around the corner from me, because her husband worked nights and it was the only time I could get out of the house—when all four of my children were asleep. When we finished, we had filled all of our Tupperware containers and anything else we could find to use for storage. We’d divvy up the cookies, giving burnt ones to our husbands and children to eat and were ready to pack our own cookies into smaller containers for gift-giving.

We were purists, in those days—everything was made from scratch, with real butter and only the best of all ingredients—no imitation vanilla for us! I think there was one frightful year (1975?) when sugar was $5.00 for a 5-lb bag and we had to search for cookie recipes using honey or molasses.

In the 80s, along came cookie exchanges—frankly, these don’t always work out the way you’d like; someone always shows up with store-bought cookies (“I didn’t have time to bake”) or cookies with burned bottoms that no one wants. In theory or in the women’s magazines, cookie exchanges are always fantastic. Take it from me; it doesn’t always happen. You can tell people repeatedly that it’s a Christmas cookie exchange and you want them to make Christmas cookies and you can bet that over half of the contributions will be ordinary (non-Christmas) cookies. In my women’s magazines, cookie exchanges are always so extraordinary – maybe the secret would be to tell everyone that a magazine journalist and photographer will be at the exchange, in order to assure everyone bringing Christmas cookies.

In the 90s, along came grandchildren and my niece and two nephews, children of my younger sister who herself is young enough to be one of my children (I was 21 when she was born). The arrival of these children opened new vistas for cookie baking. We have baked cookies (children love to make cut-out cookies) which are wildly decorated with sprinkles (children believe that more is better). We also began a new family tradition of having a cookie-and-craft day sometime before Christmas, but also for Valentine’s Day and Easter. I make large (holiday appropriate) cookies for them to decorate and we do some kind of craft project that “goes with” the cookie—for instance, when they decorated big tree-shaped cookies, they also decorated small artificial Christmas trees to take home). This has turned into a big event not only for my grandchildren and my sister’s children, but also for my godson, and some of my friends’ children. (The big cookie idea actually has its roots back when my two younger sons were in first and second grades, and I would make enough large cookies—and plenty of frosting—for all the children in their classes to decorate a cookie to take home).

Nowadays, I admit—I’ve learned a lot of short-cuts, such as making cookies from cake mixes. There are entire cookbooks dedicated to teaching you how to bake wonderful tasty cookies from a cake mix! And in recent years (I am confessing this publicly) I have been stocking up on refrigerated sugar cookie dough and using it for our cut-out cookies.
What you have to do, though, is let the cookie dough come to room temperature, mix in as much flour as possible (usually about half a cup or more to one package of refrigerated cookie dough) – mix in it until it’s blended, then shape into several balls and re-refrigerate the dough until its very firm. I usually work with 2-3 packages of refrigerated cookie dough at a time, Adding flour and sometimes something like a little nutmeg, then reshaping it into balls and putting it back into the refrigerator to firm up. Normally, those refrigerated cookie dough cookies spread too much and lose their shape–the added flour will prevent that from happening. Last year my grandson’s school was selling Masterpiece cookie dough for a fundraiser – my goodness! That sugar cookie dough of theirs was excellent.

There was a time I would have turned my nose up at pre-made cookie dough but if you work with it enough, you can still make really good cut out cookies.
And here’s a tip: You can take sugar cookie dough and turn out dozens of different cookies with it–all you need is some imagination and a lot of sprinkles, jimmies, chopped walnuts or pecans and melted chocolate.

I still search all year long for sales on tins and other containers, for sprinkles and jimmies when they are on sale after a holiday, or for cookie cutters on sale half price after Christmas.

And even though I have retired, former coworkers know they can expect to receive a tin of cookies from me. I also take large containers of cookies to the Claims Department, where I worked. My friend Tina says that whenever she takes some cookies home, her husband asks, “Are these from the cookie lady?” It’s a good title. I think I’ll keep it.

You can mix and freeze most batches of cookie dough so it’s never too early to get a head start, but before I begin mixing, I always have to go through my cookie files and decide what I’ll make this year. Some recipes are a given; two of my sons want only chocolate chip cookies, no nuts, no other “weird” ingredients (their description, not mine. “Weird” would be something like chocolate-covered raisins). Close friends put in their favorite requests, such as Crispy Little Lemon Wafers or Mexican Wedding Cakes. Bob likes Springerle; it reminds him of his childhood. A few years ago, I found a beautiful large Springerle board at store in Santa Barbara—and it was on sale! A lot of people don’t like Springerle, which has Anise seeds and extract in it. The finished product is a hard dry cookie, good for dunking. I, on the other hand, am very partial to those paper-thin Monrovian spice cookies that I can never get thin enough with my rolling pin.

I make a lot of sugar cut-out cookies and this is a good project to do with grandchildren. One year in the 1960s, I left butter cutout cookies, all freshly decorated, drying on every available surface in the kitchen and dining room. When we got up the next morning, we found our 5 year old son had eaten the icing off every single cookie. (He doesn’t like to be reminded of this).

I have to make a batch of diamond-shaped butter cookies encrusted with finely chopped walnuts and sugar; my paternal grandmother always made these and the cookie cutter I use to make them was hers.

We make lots of cookies throughout the year and you can generally find the cookie jar in the kitchen filled to the top, but Christmas is the time to make special cookies, the ones you don’t make any old time…like Spritz, and chocolate pinwheels, candy canes and gingerbread boys.

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. In the 1940s and 50s, when I was growing up, there was very little money. We recycled gift wrap and ribbon, ironing out the wrinkles. We made our own gift tags with stickers that didn’t stick on anything else. Once a year, I took my two younger brothers shopping in downtown Cincinnati. We rode the bus there, and visited all the department store Santas to get free candy canes, then did all of our shopping at the 5&10 cent stores. Somehow we managed to buy presents for everyone in the family with our meager savings.

My mother didn’t shop for a tree until Christmas Eve day, when she could get it half-price. We never saw the tree until it was decorated, with presents piled all around. We were generally kept out of the house, visiting my grandmother, until my father came to pick us up. Somehow we always got there just after Santa Claus left – “Hurry, if you look out in the back you might catch a glimpse!”

Christmas was celebrated Christmas Eve and we have carried on the tradition. I tell the grandkids when they arrive, “You just missed Santa! If you look out the back door, maybe you can catch a glimpse of him!”

For those of you who want to start creating your own holiday traditions, cookies are a good way to start. You don’t have to buy a lot of cookbooks (although I do have a lot of cookie cookbooks) – nor do you have to go and buy all the November/December women’s magazines featuring cookie recipes (although these are inspiring and great to collect in a 3-ring binder) – you can find all the recipes anyone could possibly ever dream about right on the internet. One of my favorite websites is www.allrecipes.com but I promise you, there are many others.

But if you can’t stand the thought of using refrigerated cookie dough, here is an old tried-and-true favorite cookie dough that I have been making for decades (before the refrigerated stuff came along):

WHITE CHRISTMAS COOKIES

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, well beaten
4 cups all purpose flour-sifted
1/8 tsp each nutmeg & cinnamon

Cream butter, gradually add sugar; beat with electric mixer until light and
Fluffy. Beat in eggs. Sift together dry ingredients and stir into creamed
Mixture. Store overnight in covered container. Roll dough very thin (I
Roll it out between 2 sheets of wax paper). Cut into shapes. Bake at 350
Degrees 1-13 minutes. Makes 16 dozen small cookies.

*I always use parchment paper on the cookie sheets; this eliminates ever
needing to butter the cookie sheets. Always cool cookies on wire racks.
When completely cool, they can be stacked in plastic storage containers.

EASY TOFFEE CRACKER BARS

Easy bars with graham crackers, pecans, and other ingredients. Technically speaking, I wouldn’t call this a cookie – it’s more of a confection. But these are wildly popular with everyone.
Ingredients:
• 20 graham crackers (individual squares), regular or chocolate
• 1 1/2 sticks butter (6 ounces)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Preparation:
Line a jelly roll pan (10×15-inch) with foil; arrange graham crackers in the pan in a single layer. Combine butter and sugar in a heavy medium saucepan; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Boil for 2 minutes; stir in vanilla and chopped pecans. Pour the hot mixture over crackers and spread evenly. Bake 10 minutes at 350°. Remove at once from pan to flat surface to cool. When cool, break into smaller pieces.

CLUB CRACK BARS

1 box club crackers
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cream or condensed milk
1 cup crushed graham crackers
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup nuts, chopped
1/4 tsp salt

Line a 13×9 inch pan with whole club crackers. Mix remaining ingredients together. Bring to a boil stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, until thick. Pour over club crackers. Top with more whole crackers.

Icing:
5 tbsp butter
1/2 cup milk or cream
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
cocoa (optional)

Mix ingredients together. Beat well. Frost the crackers. Cut into squares.

**

ORANGE SLICE SQUARES

4 eggs
¼ cup milk
1 pound light brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 ½ cups candied orange slices, chopped
1 cup chopped pecans

Beat eggs, add milk and brown sugar and beat well. Sift flour and add to mixture reserving enough flour to mix with chopped orange slices and pecans. Fold into mixture. Pour batter onto a 15×10x1” well greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool. Spread icing evening on top. Cut into squares.

Icing

1 tbsp butter, softened
3 tbsp evaporated milk
1 tbsp orange rind
2 cups powdered sugar

Combine all ingredients thoroughly.

LEMON BISCOTTI

1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
3 TBSP water
2 TBSP canola oil
4 tsp lemon zest
½ tsp lemon extract
½ cup confectioners sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
yellow sugar (optional)

Preheat oven 375 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray. Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a bowl. With an electric mixer on high speed, beat the granulated sugar, egg, water, oil, lemon zest and lemon extract until blended. On low speed, add the flour mixture, beating just until combined.
Place dough in 2 (12”) logs, 3” apart on the sheet. Bake until golden, 20 minutes. Cool the logs on the sheet for 10 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board. Cut each log crosswise into ½” slices. Arrange slices in a single layer on the sheet and bake until lightly browned, 15-18 minutes. Cool on a rack.

For the icing, whisk confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Drizzle on the biscotti; sprinkle at once with yellow sugar (if using). Let stand until icing hardens, about 2 hours.

This last recipe is for the Christmas tree cookies I baked and Savannah decorated f or my sister’s cookie exchange last year:

Savannah’s Christmas Tree Cookies

4 1-lb packages of refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 to 1 ½ cups of flour
Butter cream frosting
Various sprinkles

Let refrigerated cookie dough come to room temperature in a large bowl. When soft enough to handle, mix in flour to make a stiff dough. Shape into four balls of dough and re-refrigerate until firm. Roll out and cut with tree shaped cutters. Bake at 350 8 to 10 minutes (until just brown around the edges). Cool on racks. Spread with butter cream frosting that has been tinted green with food coloring. Decorate as desired. Makes about 6 dozen (more if you have a smaller tree cutter than what we were using).
**

One final suggestion about baking and decorating cookies–if you have children or grandchildren or even neighborhood children – to decorate cookies with, by all means do. These are precious memories they will always cherish.

Happy Cookie!

Sandy

IT’S CHRISTMAS COOKIE TIME!

IT’S CHRISTMAS COOKIE TIME!

For the past two weeks I have been mixing cookie dough almost every day. Most of the recipes are “ice box cookie”* recipes; the dough is shaped into logs and wrapped in wax paper and then I wrap them again in aluminum foil and write on the outside with a Sharpee pen the name of the cookie and the oven temperature and baking time (so I don’t have to look up the recipe again). Some of the cookie dough are just family favorites, such as the original chocolate chip cookie “without ingredients” which means chocolate chips are just fine, don’t add nuts or raisins or anything that might be interpreted by my sons as ingredients. I have packed most of the drop cookie dough into zip lock freezer bags; some is in the freezer and some in the refrigerator. I have doubled most recipes.
Yesterday I made up a recipe I found in a Taste of Home cookie booklet; the directions say it yields 9 dozen cookies so I was afraid to double that one; I have been baking the stars for two days and it’s a cutout cookie dough I would highly recommend because it’s so easy to handle and roll out. I confess; I made some changes. I added nutmeg to the batter for one thing and when I was making the glaze, I substituted lemon juice for the milk, to make a more lemony cookie. It worked.

A lot of my cookie recipes have to be made up within a few weeks of Christmas – such as a favorite and often requested little lemon crisps that are made with lemon cake mix and – of all things – Rice Krispies. I love all the cookie recipes made with cake mixes! Dress them up with glaze and sprinkles and no one ever guesses it started with a box of cake mix. Some need to be made well in advance of Christmas, such as the Amaretto Bon Bons which will improve with aging. Ditto a cookie called Leckerli that is aging in a big cookie tin with a piece of apple to help them mellow. I’m not going to share the Leckerli recipe although it LOOKS very pretty and festive with a European flair—but it was the most difficult dough I have ever worked with & I kept adding liquid to make the dough hold together. As a matter of fact, several of my very old recipes were difficult to work with—it makes me wonder if the processing of the basic ingredients, such as flour, has changed in the past few decades? And, you know, a basic drop cookie can change dramatically depending on the kind of shortening you use (it took me a lot of trial and error to figure that out). I like to use butter in most of my cookie recipes but in most instances it really needs to be at room temperature when you start mixing it with other ingredients.

*Wanted to say this about ice box cookies – before electric refrigeration came along, housewives had – literally – ice boxes. An ice man brought a big hunk of ice once a week and it went into your ice box. Food was kept cold this way. And ice box cookies are – quite simply – the forerunner of refrigerated cookie dough that is available in every supermarket nowadays. I love homemade ice box cookies. The most requested is my
“Lemon Rounds”

To make Lemon Rounds, you will need:

1 ½ cups sifted regular flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup shortening
1 egg
1 cup granulated sugar
1 TBSP lemon juice
2 tsp grated lemon rind
½ cup very finely chopped pecans

Measure flour, soda and salt into sifter. Set aside. Cream shortening and sugar until fluffy; beat in egg, lemon juice, rind, and pecans. Sift in flour mixture and blend well.
Shape into 2 logs; wrap in wax paper and chill overnight (or longer). To bake, slice dough ¼” thick. Bake at 375 degrees 8 minutes or until golden around the edges. Remove from cookie sheets and cool on wire racks. Recipe can be doubled.

To make Crisp Little Lemon Cookies, you will need:

1 package lemon flavored cake mix (18.5) (pudding included)
1 cup rice Krispies
½ cup butter or margarine, melted (1 stick)
1 egg, slightly beaten

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, mix well. Shape into 1” balls. Place 2” apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 9-12 minutes. Cool 1 minute, remove from baking sheets and cool on wire racks. Makes 3-4 dozen cookies. These are nice with a drizzle of lemon glaze.

This next one is my updated version of sugar cookie dough for busy mothers.

To make Savannah’s Christmas Tree Cookies you will need:

4 1-lb packages of refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 to 1 ½ cups of flour
Butter cream frosting
Various sprinkles

Let refrigerated cookie dough come to room temperature in a large bowl. When soft enough to handle, mix in flour to make a stiff dough. Shape into four balls of dough and re-refrigerate until firm. Roll out and cut with tree shaped cutters. Bake at 350 8 to 10 minutes (until just brown around the edges). Cool on racks. Spread with butter cream frosting that has been tinted green with food coloring. Decorate as desired. Makes about 6 dozen (more if you have a smaller tree cutter than what we were using).

To make Aunt Sandy’s Easy Chocolate Cookies you will need:

1 box (18.25 oz) devil’s food cake or dark chocolate cake mix
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 6-oz package of semi sweet chocolate chips*
1 tsp vanilla extract

In large bowl of an electric mixer, combine cake mix, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Beat until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls (or shape into balls) onto ungreased* baking sheets, about 2 ½ inches apart. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven about 10 minutes. Allow to rest on baking sheets 5 minutes. Remove with a thin spatula and cool on wire racks. Drizzle with glaze, if desired. Makes 2 dozen.

(I quadrupled this recipe and added a 12-oz bag of chocolate chips and a 12-oz bag of white chips. Towards the end I added some chopped walnuts. I rolled the balls in sprinkles or some of them in finely chopped walnuts to which ground candy canes had been added. You can do your own thing for embellishments).

Sandy’s cooknote: *A word about parchment paper. It’s available almost everywhere now. Even Reynolds wrap has a parchment paper. You can completely skip greasing or not-greasing cookie sheets if you use parchment paper. And it can be used quite a few times before it become necessary to change the paper.

I make a lot of fig bar cookies but have to admit—we had 3 fig trees in Arleta and I made loads of fig jam or my own version of fig filling for bar cookies. I realize not everybody has a fig tree – but this is a really yummy bar cookie so I’m including it:

To make DATE OR FIG BAR COOKIES you will need

Ingredients For the filling:

3 cups coarsely chopped dates
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 ½ cups water

FOR THE CRUST & TOPPING:

1 CUP FIRMLY PACKED BROWN SUGAR
1 ¾ C. FLOUR
½ TSP BAKING SODA
1 TSP SALT
1 ½ CUPS OLD FASHIONED ROLL OATS
¾ CUP VERY COLD BUTTER, CUT INTO SMALL CUBES

PREHEAT OVEN 400. In a saucepan, cook dates, sugar and water until thick, about 15 minutes. Cool. OR—open a jar of fig-orange-apricot spread. In a large bowl, mix brown sugar, flour, baking soda, salt and oats. Mix on low speed to combine. Add butter, 1 or 2 pieces at a time. Mix until crumbly. Using your hands, press and flatten half the crumbs into a greased 9×13” pan. Spread cooled filling over crust. Cover with remaining crumb mix, patting lightly. Bake until lightly browned, about 25-30 minutes. Cool slightly and cut into bars while still in the pan. (You can drizzle on a little glaze if you like…to make the bars more festive).

This next recipe has been making the rounds – sometimes made with graham crackers, sometimes with saltine crackers- they are easy to make; it’s more of a confection than a cookie, I think. But you will love them.

To make EASY TOFFEE CRACKER BARS you will need:

20 graham crackers (individual squares)
1½ sticks butter (6 ounces)
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup chopped pecans

Line a jelly roll pan (10×15-inch) with foil; arrange graham crackers in the pan in a single layer. Combine butter and sugar in a heavy medium saucepan; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Boil for 2 minutes; stir in vanilla and chopped pecans. Pour the hot mixture over crackers and spread evenly. Bake 10 minutes at 350°. Remove at once from pan to flat surface to cool. When cool, break into smaller pieces.
**
I think I have posted my chocolate chip cookie recipe on my blog before – but Just in case someone missed it – here it is:

To make the Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies you will need:

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12 oz) Nestle Toll House semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven 375 degrees

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, granulate sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts.
Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

*Ok, I bake them at 350 degrees about 10 minutes and don’t add nuts. And I use parchment paper on my cookie sheets all the time. I also use a lot more chocolate chips.

This is another favorite. To make CINNAMON OATMEAL COOKIES you will need:

¾ CUP OLD FASHIONED OATS
¾ CUP ALL PURPOSE FLOUR
1½ TSP BAKING POWDER
½ TSP SALT
½ TSP GROUND CINNAMON
4 TBSP UNSALTED BUTTER, SOFTENED
3 TBSP APPLE BUTTER
¾ CUP SUGAR
1/3 CUP LIGHT BROWN SUGAR
1 LARGE EGG
1½ TSP PURE VANILLA EXTRACT

Preheat Oven 350 Degrees. In A Medium Bowl, Combine Oats, Flour, Baking Powder, Salt, & Cinnamon. Set Aside.
In A Large Bowl Blend Butter, Apple Butter, And Sugars Until Smooth. Add Oatmeal Mixture. Drop Batter By One Level Tablespoon* Onto Parchment-Lined Baking Sheets. Bake 18 Minutes Or Until Golden Brown. Remove From Oven, Let Cool Slightly On Baking Sheets, Then Transfer To A Rack To Cool Completely.

Per cookie: 125 calories, 2 g. protein, 22 g. carbohydrate, 3 g. fat, 1 g. fiber at 1 tbsp batter per cookie, = 1 ½ points on WW..

*Sandra’s cooknote: the original recipe, in fitness magazine, October 2006, calls for dropping the batter two tablespoons per cookie. The cookies are a tad big and would be 3 points each. I measured the batter to make mine a level one tablespoon per cookie to come out at 1½ points per. Don’t crowd the drops of dough on the baking sheets – they are going to spread very thin. I only baked 6 cookies at a time on my baking sheets. These are really great, a nice crisp & crunchy cookie!

I love making Biscotti and have several recipe cards set aside to make some with dried cranberries and pistachio nuts – but until we get enough pistachios shelled, here is a recipe for making Lemon Biscotti.

To make Lemon Biscotti you will need:

1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
3 TBSP water
2 TBSP canola oil
4 tsp lemon zest
½ tsp lemon extract
½ cup confectioners sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
yellow sugar (optional)

Preheat oven 375 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray. Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a bowl. With an electric mixer on high speed, beat the granulated sugar, egg, water, oil, lemon zest and lemon extract until blended. On low speed, add the flour mixture, beating just until combined.

Place dough in 2 (12”) logs, 3” apart on the sheet. Bake until golden, 20 minutes. Cool the logs on the sheet for 10 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board. Cut each log crosswise into ½” slices. Arrange slices in a single layer on the sheet and bake until lightly browned, 15-18 minutes. Cool on a rack.

For the icing, whisk confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Drizzle on the biscotti; sprinkle at once with yellow sugar (if using). Let stand until icing hardens, about 2 hours. For Weight watchers, 1 point per biscotti. 50 calories, 0 trans fat, 0 fiber

Some months ago, I was itching to make the Bundt cake I used to make for birthdays at work—it had a graham cracker crumb and black walnut filling…yum! Well, you won’t find black walnuts around here so I ordered them online (isn’t the internet fantastic? I also ordered black walnut extract online. (I made the black walnut bundt cake for myself for my birthday). One of the ice box cookies I have in the freezer are Black Walnut ice box cookies.

To make Black Walnut Ice Box Cookies you will need:

2/3 cups butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 2/3 cups flour
1/3 tsp. baking powder
1/3 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup chopped black walnuts

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add unbeaten eggs and mix well.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda, and gradually work into the creamed mixture. Add the black walnuts and stir in by hand. Turn dough onto a sheet of wax paper and shape into a roll about 2″ in diameter. Refrigerate until firm – overnight or until you are in the mood to bake. Slice thinly and bake on an ungreased baking sheet at 375° for 10-12 minutes.

This has gotten pretty long and I haven’t shared some of my biscotti and other ice box cookie recipes – so look for a Part 2 of “It’s Christmas Cookie Time!”

Happy Cooking (or baking)
Sandy

A BIG YELLOW BOWL

A BIG YELLOW BOWL

My mother had a big yellow bowl
In which one mixed cookie dough or
Muffins,
And when I was eight, she said I could make muffins
And she placed the ingredients and the yellow bowl
On the kitchen table.
My mother admonished me
Not to try to pick up the bowl
Because it was heavy,
Filled with muffin batter.
But I insisted on holding the bowl
In the crook of my arm
While mixing with the other
Thinking, perhaps, this is what
I had seen my mother and grandmother do.
I dropped the yellow bowl
And it shattered on the kitchen floor.
I ran away in tears,
Leaving my mother to clean up the mess.
Remarkably enough, I was not discouraged
From learning how to cook and bake
But it took me at least a year
To save up enough money to buy
Another set of Pyrex bowls – red, blue, green, yellow -
Because you couldn’t buy just one bowl.
They came in a set, $2.98 at Pete’s Washington Store
In Camp Washington.
Whenever I see any of these bowls
In an antique store
I am instantly carried back in time
To a kitchen on Sutter Street
Where I am eight years old
And yearning to cook.

–Sandra Lee Smith

November 14 was National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day

So I wrote a poem about this one too:

NATIONAL CLEAN OUT YOUR REFRIGERATOR DAY

I approach the refrigerator with a lot of foreboding,
On front of the door I begin by unloading
Magnets and notes and recipes of mine,
And a receipt from the cleaners, dated 12/99.
I take them all off and wipe it all down
With a rag and a bottle of Formula 409;
I open the door and take a peek inside,
It’s filled to the brim, for hard as I’ve tried
Not to cook too much, we can’t eat it all,
And you might say, that’s been my downfall.
*
There are bottles of catsup, salsa, and mayonnaise.
Six kinds of mustard and my favorite Dijonnaise
Worcestershire sauce—Tabasco & steak sauce,
Eight bottles of dressings—why so many, I’m at a loss;
There are five jars of marinades, lemon juice, and cream,
Leftovers covered with mold black and green.
There are bags of salad gone brown and now soupy
Wilted celery and carrots that are now limp and droopy,
A hard lump of cheese that is covered with mold,
And what once was some pie is a sight to behold.
I find a box of old berries, shriveled and dried,
At four dollars a pound, when I saw them I cried.
On a shelf there are jars of my jellies and jams,
In a drawer I identify dessicated yams,
Along with salami that has seen better days,
Are eggs no hen would be proud to have laid;
I toss it all out and now that I’m hopping,
I grab the car keys and head out to go shopping.

–Sandra Lee Smith

November 17 was National Home Made Bread Day

So I wrot a poem about it:

HOME MADE BREAD DAY

My mother had two large speckled turkey roasting pans
And twice a week
Her morning would be devoted to
Making two large loaves of bread,
Loaves large enough to fill those big roasting pans.
It was a most special treat
If she cut off an end of the crust
And handed it to you to eat.
We would put jam or margarine on it
Or just eat it plain,
Hot bread from the oven,
Crusty and yeasty tasting.

We took that bread for granted;
It was served at every meal,
Large slices of homemade bread;
I realize now that
It also served to fill up
The insides of five hungry children.
I was sometimes envious of classmates
Who brought sandwiches to school
For their lunch, made with Wonder Bread.
Our sandwiches were made with mom’s
Homemade bread
Which you couldn’t begin to slice thin—
Our sandwiches were mostly bread;
Sometimes I took a scrambled egg sandwich
To school for my lunch,
Wrapped in wax paper.
The egg was still warm when you made your
Sandwich so by lunchtime
The wax paper had sort of glommed onto the
Bread
And had to be carefully peeled away.
I wondered why my mother couldn’t just be
Like other mothers
And buy her bread
At the corner grocery store.

What wouldn’t I give for just a slice
Of mom’s homemade bread, today.

–Sandra Lee Smith

OCTOBER & APPLE HARVEST TIME

OCTOBER & APPLE HARVEST TIME

Supermarket produce bins are filled with many different kinds of apples, and at such good prices–but if you live in an area where apples are grown, or can get to a Farmer’s Market–you may find even better prices. One year when my brother Bill was visiting me, we went to Oak Glen and were able to buy a big box of different kinds of apples for about ten dollars. It was late in the season and the apple grower was happy to get rid of some that were a little past prime – but I had apple sauce in mind and didn’t care. Not very long after that, Bob & I bought an apple tree of our own and for the past decade, it produced all the apples we could use. I still have many quarts of applesauce in our jelly cupboard from our crop last year. These weren’t Granny Smith apples, but a close cousin–a green skinned tart apple, idea for apple sauce and pies with the name of “Beverly Hills.” Living in the San Fernando Valley, I knew we needed an apple tree that didn’t require a frost. Now, living in the high desert, we’ll have frost–and snow–so more apple varieties are available to us. We bought several fruit trees from a nearby nursery last spring.
Did you know that the saying “As American as apple pie” is referred to as the symbol of America? The word “apple” itself comes from the Old English word “aeppel.” and there are approximately 10,000 different kinds of varieties of apples grown in the world with more than 7,000 of these varieties grown in the United States. Apples are a member of the rose family of plants and the blossoms are much like wild-rose blossoms. I can attest that the pink/white blossoms in the spring are beautiful and aromatic. When the English pioneers first arrived in North America they found only crab apples–the only apple native to the United States. European settlers arrived and brought with them their English customs and favorite fruits. In colonial time, apples were called winter banana or melt-in-the-mouth. An apple a day keeps the doctor away is a very old English saying; ownership to the saying has been long forgotten.. Today, the expression still rings true, as our knowledge of apples’ many health benefits increases.
One of the most interesting facts I was able to uncover is that most historians fail to mention that those early orchards in the New World produced very few apples because there were no honey bees. Historical records indicate that colonies of honey bees were shipped from England and landed in Virginia early in 1622. One or more shipments were made to Massachusetts between 1630 and 1633, others probably between 1633 and 1638. The Indians called the honeybees “English flies” and/or “white man’s flies.”
One of America’s favorite legends is that of Johnny Appleseed, a folk hero and pioneer apple farmer in the 1800s. There really was a Johnny Appleseed whose real name was John Chapmen; he was born in Massachusetts. Appleseed’s dream was for the land to produce so many apples that no one would ever go hungry. Most historians today consider him to have been eccentric but very smart businessman, who traveled about the new territories of his time, leasing land and developing nurseries of apple trees. It is estimated that he traveled 10,000 square miles of frontier country. He collected apple seeds from cider mills, dried them, put them up in little bags, and gave them to everyone he met who was headed West. For forty years he traveled through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa (planting seeds every place he considered to be likely spots). He did more than just plant apple seeds. He began nurseries to take care of the apple orchards as well as other fruit, vegetable, and herb plants. He walked alone in the wilderness, without gun or knife. He chopped down no trees and killed no animals. Appleseed believed that God wanted him to go around and read his Bible to people and plant apple trees. He was respected and appreciated by the Native American tribes and the new settlers alike. For the rest of his life, he traveled alone and denied himself the companionship of a wife.
Apples are the most varied food on the planet, with more apple varieties on record than for any other food. The list of apple varieties topped 7,500 the last time someone counted, including more than 2,500 varieties grown here in the United States. Each apple variety has its own unique flavor, and best uses.
Previously I mentioned making apple sauce – which I consider to be the easiest food of all to can and we sometimes got at least 30 quarts of applesauce from our one tree. However some of the apples went into desserts and I have gone through some of my files searching for favorite recipes.
First, here is a recipe for Spiced Baked Apples (low in calories, high in fiber!)
To make SPICED BAKED APPLES, you will need:
2 TBSP dark brown sugar (I use Splenda brown sugar)
½ tsp apple pie spice
¼ tsp salt
4 favorite sweet apples, cored and halves
2 TBSP chopped pecans
Combine brown sugar, apple pie spice and salt; sprinkle evenly over cut sides of apples. Place apples on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or under tender. Sprinkle evenly with pecans and bake 5 minutes more or until pecans are toasted.
Original recipe suggests serving with some nonfat vanilla yogurt or no-sugar-added fat free frozen vanilla yogurt. Or you could add a small dollop of fat free or sugar free Cool Whip.
Per serving, 110 calories, 23 g carbohydrates, 1 g protein, 3 g fat, 3 g fiber, 145 mg sodium. Weight Watchers, this dessert is 2 points without any topping.

Here is another simple recipe for BAKED APPLES;
To make Easy Baked Apples, you will need
4 medium size tart apples, cored
4 tsp low sugar strawberry spreadable fruit
½ tsp cinnamon
1 ½ cups unsweetened orange juice
Place apples in a foil lined 8” square baking dish. Spoon 1 tbsp fruit into the center of each apple; sprinkle with cinnamon. Pour orange juice into pan. Bake, uncovered, 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until apples are tender. Serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.
This dessert has, per serving, 109 calories, trace of fat, 1 g. protein, 29 g carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, no cholesterol 9 milligrams sodium. Weight Watchers, this dessert is also 2 points per serving.

MAPLE APPLES WITH CINNAMON CREAM is another heart-healthy low cal, low fat dessert. To make Maple Apples with Cinnamon Cream, you will need:
3 medium apples, peeled (if desired*) cored and sliced
½ tsp grated orange peel (optional)
2 TBSP natural or sugar free maple syrup
1 tsp margarine or butter
½ cup reduced sugar or sugar free nonfat vanilla yogurt
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
Place apple slices and orange peel in a one quart microwavable baking dish. Drizzle maple syrup over the apples; toss to mix. Dot with butter. Cover loosely; microwave at high power 3 to 5 minutes or until apples are crisp tender, stirring once.
Meanwhile in a small bowl, blend yogurt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Spoon apples, hot or at room temperature, into serving dishes. Drizzle each serving with yogurt mixture.
Per serving: 87 calories, 1 g fat, O mg cholesterol, 32 mg sodium, 20 g. carbohydrates, 1 g protein, 3 grams fiber.

Sandy’s cooknote: eat the apple peel any time it’s possible–it’s good for you!

OLD FASHIONED APPLE FRITTERS
My grandmother often made apple fritters and served them dusted with powdered sugar – yum! One of my favorites to this day. To make Old Fashioned Apple Fritters, you will need:
1 cup sifted flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 ¼ tsp salt
¼ cup sugar
1 egg
½ cup milk
2 tsp cooking oil
1 cup diced pared apples
Cooking oil for frying, confectioners sugar
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Beat egg well and combine with milk and oil. Stir into dry ingredients, then add diced apple. Drop batter by tablespoonfuls into hot cooking oil heated to 375 degrees F. and cook about 4 minutes. Drain on absorbent paper and sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

OLD TOWN APPLE-CINNAMON MUFFINS
To make Old T own Apple-Cinnamon muffins, you will need
¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups flour
1 TBSP ground cinnamon
1 ¾ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 ½ cups milk
1 cup peeled, chopped Granny Smith apples, packed
Cinnamon sugar
In mixing bowl, cream butter with sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating until well combined. Add vanilla. Toss together flour, baking powder and salt in another bowl. Then add, alternately over low speed, with milk to butter-egg mixture just enough to blend. Fold in apples. Fill 12 paper-lined muffin cups at least 2/3 full with batter. Sprinkle each muffin with 1 tsp of cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake at 350 degrees 25-30 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Serve warm. Makes 12 large muffins.
Cinnamon Sugar
½ cup sugar
1 TBSP ground cinnamon
Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl, tossing to mix well. Makes ½ cup.
Each muffin contains 354 calories, 13 grams of fat, 0.12 grams fiber. Each muffin is 8 points on Weight Watchers (you might want to eat just half of one! Or instead of making 12 large muffins, aim for 24 small ones which would then be 4 points each).

Happy Cooking!
Sandy