Favorite Holiday Goodies...
Dec. 14th, 2007 11:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rowangolightlyNabbed from da Capster...
Special thanks to See_05 for inspiring me with this notion....
Hey! Let's SHARE!
We're all talking about our Christmas preparations (some good, some not so good!)... Let's all share some of our favorite Christmas treat recipes. PLEASE?? I'd love to learn your fave recipes from this time of year. And if you have a story that you attach to a recipe, so much the better!!
Please post the story/recipe here, and then again in your own journal, and keep the joy rolling!!
What is your FAVORITE Christmas or Hanukkah (I worked for Cy Rudnick's Fabric for 10 years, so I know how to spell Hanukkah without googling!) or other this-time-of-year holiday treat recipe, and if you wanna, WHY?
As I told Capi, of COURSE there is a story. When is there not? In fact, there are two stories that go with this recipe and one of them is one of the Memories of Mom ones I've been meaning to post. I think this is a good day for it.
This recipe is for Sandies, meant to be pecan sandies, I'm sure, but we didn't use nuts. I'm not sure why, but maybe my sister was allergic to them.
First the recipe and then the story. OH, this is important too; the recipe is written in my mother's hand-writing (amazingly like mine only neater!) It's a page torn out of a school writing pad, written in blue felt tip pen. The paper is yellowed and stained with years of use, the writing faded in spots, the page speckled with bits of long since consumed cookie dough. It used to be folded in quarters so the fold marks cross-section the delicate page.
Certainly, I've re-written it into my own hand-written recipe book but it's not the same as taking out Mom's recipe and making them from that; more sweet, certainly. (I've taken a picture of it, but can't post it right now; the printer/scanner isn't plugged in. I WILL post it when I can.) And Yes, I've written it just exactly as she wrote it.
Sandies 325 degrees 20 minutes
1 C margarine
1/3 C sugar
pinch salt (this ingredient was written in later in blue ink)
2 t water
2 t vanilla
2 C sifted (rice) flour
nuts (?) (that question mark has always tickled me)
Cream margarine and sugar; add water & vanilla; mix well.
Add flour - chill 3 or 4 hours; shape in balls.
Ungreased cooky sheet.
Bake 20 min. slow oven 325
Cool slightly - roll in confectioner's sugar
(3 doz.)
The reason this is a favorite Christmas recipe is that when I was little, it was the only kind of cookie my sister and I could eat. You see, she was allergic to milk and eggs and I was allergic to wheat and eggs. Yeah, cooking and baking was a challenge. And this was in the dark ages before health food stores and alternative eating sources, "what do you mean, you can't have flour?"
So Mom and my sister and I would go into the kitchen on a Saturday and get out all the ingredients. We'd measure them carefully, mix them, cover the bowl with Sarann wrap and then put the bowl in the refrigerator. We'd wait impatiently, actually, usually Mom would sit down with us and draw us paper dolls during this time, then we'd draw the clothing, remembering to draw in the tabs so the clothing would stay on the dolls. She had a knack for drawing lovely faces; funny that they were always in profile, a fact that I understood much better after I got in drawing classes in college.
Once the dough was chilled, we'd get out the cookie sheets, roll little bits of dough in our small palms and drop them onto the sheets and then carefully pop them into the oven. Then we'd wait impatiently for the 20 minutes while the smell of hot cookies filled the air. We'd get the tins ready with powdered sugar and then when the sheets came out with golden brown little balls, we'd help roll them into the sugar. Not much "cool slightly" to it, because you see, if you're having to make them of rice flour rather than wheat, they harden and dry up very quickly. You have to roll them in confectioner's sugar immediately or they're so hard you can't bite into them.
Then they're stored in the confectioner's sugar so the treat is to stick two fingers into the cannister and find a cookie; that sweet little morsel that melts in the mouth. And then, of course, you have to lick the powdered sugar off your fingers, too. It was always a sadness when your two fingers searched and searched in the pile of sugar and encountered no more cookies. But then, you still got to lick off your fingers! And then it was time to make more...
When I was very little, I dreamt of donuts and oh, what are those pastries that are light and hollow and you fill them with....ah! Eclairs and cream puffs! I dreamt of those but you know, when I finally was able to have one...OH, the disappointment. They never actually taste as good as my imagination thought they would. Probably a good thing, though, eh?
So while I'm at it, I have to share my Dad's favorite cookie recipe. *chuckle* I've got his hand-written little piece of paper with this recipe, too. It's on a 3x5 note pad sheet, scrawled in blue ink, starting right at the top of the page...that was my Dad; plunge right in with both feet, don't read the directions but somehow it always turns out fine in the end. *grin* See, my mother went back with that same blue ink and wrote "Macarooms" diagonally beside the ingredients so we'd all know what it was for without having to read, "coconut, sugar, flour, salt, almont...OH, that's macaroons, ok!" THAT is so a snapshot of my folks, it truly is, bless their hearts.
MACAROONS
2-2/3 C coconut
2/3 C sugar
1/4 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 egg whites
1 tsp almond extract
1 C chopped almonds
Combine coconut, sugar, flour & salt in a bowl. (*g* I'd never have thought to use a bowl!)
Stir in egg whites and almond extract, mix well. (actually, you want to beat them on high, then you fold in the chopped almonds)
Drop from spoon - greased sheets
Bake 324 - 20-25 minutes (until you see peaks for the meringue brown)
When I grew out of my allergies, about the time I went to school, my sister and I loved to bake cookies on the weekends. We loved to make peanut brittle tool....but that's another story. It's one in which we learned the value of following parental dictates and why the old burn remedy of spreading butter on them is NOT a good idea!
Special thanks to See_05 for inspiring me with this notion....
Hey! Let's SHARE!
We're all talking about our Christmas preparations (some good, some not so good!)... Let's all share some of our favorite Christmas treat recipes. PLEASE?? I'd love to learn your fave recipes from this time of year. And if you have a story that you attach to a recipe, so much the better!!
Please post the story/recipe here, and then again in your own journal, and keep the joy rolling!!
What is your FAVORITE Christmas or Hanukkah (I worked for Cy Rudnick's Fabric for 10 years, so I know how to spell Hanukkah without googling!) or other this-time-of-year holiday treat recipe, and if you wanna, WHY?
As I told Capi, of COURSE there is a story. When is there not? In fact, there are two stories that go with this recipe and one of them is one of the Memories of Mom ones I've been meaning to post. I think this is a good day for it.
This recipe is for Sandies, meant to be pecan sandies, I'm sure, but we didn't use nuts. I'm not sure why, but maybe my sister was allergic to them.
First the recipe and then the story. OH, this is important too; the recipe is written in my mother's hand-writing (amazingly like mine only neater!) It's a page torn out of a school writing pad, written in blue felt tip pen. The paper is yellowed and stained with years of use, the writing faded in spots, the page speckled with bits of long since consumed cookie dough. It used to be folded in quarters so the fold marks cross-section the delicate page.
Certainly, I've re-written it into my own hand-written recipe book but it's not the same as taking out Mom's recipe and making them from that; more sweet, certainly. (I've taken a picture of it, but can't post it right now; the printer/scanner isn't plugged in. I WILL post it when I can.) And Yes, I've written it just exactly as she wrote it.
Sandies 325 degrees 20 minutes
1 C margarine
1/3 C sugar
pinch salt (this ingredient was written in later in blue ink)
2 t water
2 t vanilla
2 C sifted (rice) flour
nuts (?) (that question mark has always tickled me)
Cream margarine and sugar; add water & vanilla; mix well.
Add flour - chill 3 or 4 hours; shape in balls.
Ungreased cooky sheet.
Bake 20 min. slow oven 325
Cool slightly - roll in confectioner's sugar
(3 doz.)
The reason this is a favorite Christmas recipe is that when I was little, it was the only kind of cookie my sister and I could eat. You see, she was allergic to milk and eggs and I was allergic to wheat and eggs. Yeah, cooking and baking was a challenge. And this was in the dark ages before health food stores and alternative eating sources, "what do you mean, you can't have flour?"
So Mom and my sister and I would go into the kitchen on a Saturday and get out all the ingredients. We'd measure them carefully, mix them, cover the bowl with Sarann wrap and then put the bowl in the refrigerator. We'd wait impatiently, actually, usually Mom would sit down with us and draw us paper dolls during this time, then we'd draw the clothing, remembering to draw in the tabs so the clothing would stay on the dolls. She had a knack for drawing lovely faces; funny that they were always in profile, a fact that I understood much better after I got in drawing classes in college.
Once the dough was chilled, we'd get out the cookie sheets, roll little bits of dough in our small palms and drop them onto the sheets and then carefully pop them into the oven. Then we'd wait impatiently for the 20 minutes while the smell of hot cookies filled the air. We'd get the tins ready with powdered sugar and then when the sheets came out with golden brown little balls, we'd help roll them into the sugar. Not much "cool slightly" to it, because you see, if you're having to make them of rice flour rather than wheat, they harden and dry up very quickly. You have to roll them in confectioner's sugar immediately or they're so hard you can't bite into them.
Then they're stored in the confectioner's sugar so the treat is to stick two fingers into the cannister and find a cookie; that sweet little morsel that melts in the mouth. And then, of course, you have to lick the powdered sugar off your fingers, too. It was always a sadness when your two fingers searched and searched in the pile of sugar and encountered no more cookies. But then, you still got to lick off your fingers! And then it was time to make more...
When I was very little, I dreamt of donuts and oh, what are those pastries that are light and hollow and you fill them with....ah! Eclairs and cream puffs! I dreamt of those but you know, when I finally was able to have one...OH, the disappointment. They never actually taste as good as my imagination thought they would. Probably a good thing, though, eh?
So while I'm at it, I have to share my Dad's favorite cookie recipe. *chuckle* I've got his hand-written little piece of paper with this recipe, too. It's on a 3x5 note pad sheet, scrawled in blue ink, starting right at the top of the page...that was my Dad; plunge right in with both feet, don't read the directions but somehow it always turns out fine in the end. *grin* See, my mother went back with that same blue ink and wrote "Macarooms" diagonally beside the ingredients so we'd all know what it was for without having to read, "coconut, sugar, flour, salt, almont...OH, that's macaroons, ok!" THAT is so a snapshot of my folks, it truly is, bless their hearts.
MACAROONS
2-2/3 C coconut
2/3 C sugar
1/4 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 egg whites
1 tsp almond extract
1 C chopped almonds
Combine coconut, sugar, flour & salt in a bowl. (*g* I'd never have thought to use a bowl!)
Stir in egg whites and almond extract, mix well. (actually, you want to beat them on high, then you fold in the chopped almonds)
Drop from spoon - greased sheets
Bake 324 - 20-25 minutes (until you see peaks for the meringue brown)
When I grew out of my allergies, about the time I went to school, my sister and I loved to bake cookies on the weekends. We loved to make peanut brittle tool....but that's another story. It's one in which we learned the value of following parental dictates and why the old burn remedy of spreading butter on them is NOT a good idea!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 07:57 pm (UTC)Don't ask me how, but somehow that triggered in my wee small brain another long-ago, long forgotten memory of Christmas past.... Grandma S always had made for us when we gathered at her house.... home-made divinity. *blissful sigh* In soft pastel colors.
Man, that stuff has to be pure sugar. *L* Incredible stuff.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 08:06 pm (UTC)You triggered one for me; that my Grandma K. always made sure to have raisin bread for me when we visited. She and I didn't get along (putting that mildly!) but occasionally a happy memory surfaces from then and there.
Never got much into divinity though...yeah, pure sugar!
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 08:21 pm (UTC)A few months back when i had to see cousin Joe about getting this crown cemented back on, i asked him about religion. I know for SURE his folks tried hard to make them all into little Catholics, but you never know if it *took* or not, unless you ask, eh? So i asked. I wanted to know if that was an area to broach in term of comforting him as he grieves for his wife.
He answered me thusly (in case you feel i've wandered kinda far afield here... *heh*): Well, no. It didn't take. Yeah, they took us all to church and lined us all up (there were six kids - Catholics, you know!) in the pew, and yeah, we did the alter boy thing and the folk mass thing and all. But it didn't stick. Let me give you an example. One Sunday, i was sitting there with everyone, focused front like you're supposed to, when something struck me. I tipped my head forward and looked down the aisle so i could see Grandma and i said, good and loud so she could hear me, "Hey Grandma! We're out of sweet rolls!"
*LOL* That little story just cracked me up. Partly because i, too, was dragged to that same church, so i know the whole scene intimately. Grandma herself took me, cuz Dad sure wasn't about to do it. And of course, i *saw* all of my cousins lined up like that. *L* This particular story had to have happened before she was taking me, tho, (during my middle-school and high school years), when they would have all *fit* on one pew, and when Grandma would have sat with them. Cuz when she took me, we never sat with them, and they were usually busy being part of the mass somehow or other.
It also amused me because Grandma didn't keep OUR family provided with sweetrolls in the manner that is implied in the story. *heh* We got some, now and then, and ALWAYS when we visited her house. But we certainly didn't have any sort of regular supply! *L* But then, THEIR house were devout, so maybe that was the requirement! *L*
But i also wanted to say...... in terms of Christmas time and treats, we always had lots of them around when we were at our grandmothers' houses, yes, but we were sharply prohibited from having more than one. OY! ONE??? Like to just die. ONE?? I think the restrictions eased a *little* after dinner, but only a little. It was tough, having all that around and not being allowed to touch it!! TORTURE!! *LOL*
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 09:39 pm (UTC)I was so impressed with it, in fact, that I stood in front of the mirror, hour after hour, with both hands holding down the right eyebrow and wiggling the left one like mad until it could figure out how to raise all my itself. Truly, it's one of my proudest achievements. I use it to great effect while playing Elizabeth, let me tell you....ah, the power! *g*
Mom was the true disciplinarian of the family, truth be told. Dad was to go to when questions of a philosophycal or "what if I..." or "why" type question and he was immensely unflappable and patient. But he never once spanked us and he explained why. His hands were huge and he was afraid to hurt us; never telling us that he'd been beaten until he was herniated at 3 years old. Bless his heart; one of the truly most gentle men I've ever known. Bruce reminds me SO very much of my Dad; in his best points, thankfully.
Boy, did I ramble on that one....
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 10:23 pm (UTC)So long as we keep it behind us...
(( hug ))
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 10:28 pm (UTC)But I always give, and do to this day, my parents full and high marks for stopping it right there. Nobody could be more loving than my parents while we were growing up. The may have (and did have) some lousy communication habits but far as I'm concerned, that's far less important than the basic knowledge that we were LOVED.
Amen for putting it behind us...and learning from it!
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 10:40 pm (UTC)So if they had any "excuse" for what they did to us, i don't know. But BOY! They sure did to us!
Interestingly enuf, nobody (of my sibs) reproduced but me, and i only did so after *years* of self-preparation. *whew* Ya know? (And i'm so VERY glad none of my sibs did... they were not ready!)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 10:44 pm (UTC)My sister didn't deal with a lot of her stuff -until- she had children, which is bass-ackwards in my opinion but life happens, ya know? She married an abusive husband and stayed there 20 years, so it's hard to tell where these things come from.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 11:27 pm (UTC)Mitch stayed WELL clear of relationships. That's a pattern that is seen from time to time coming out of abusive childhood.
Lynn.... i can't account for her. She's very selfish but otherwise, i don't know. She's alone. She's had long-term relationships, but now she doesn't. I do not know if there was any abuse in there, and if it was, i'd expect it came from *her*, not him.
Sue.... well, Sue and Vicky go at each other periodically with guns and knives, so there you go. Nobody bothers to even try to examine how they treat each other verbally -- too dangerous in there. Yeesh.
I did the work, tho. Serious work. I'm WAY not perfect, and i speak thoughtlessly like anybody else (altho' i try NOT to do that - it can be so very hurtful!). But i rejected the manipulative/abusive patterns outright, and i've worked hard to replace them with healthier options. Sometimes, i've had Tom step in to administer consequences when i was unsure. And sometimes, i had to race in to make sure HE was being fair, because i'm on a hair-trigger when it comes to physical punishment.
It's all very charged emotional stuff, but you can break the pattern. It's VERY hard, and takes years of consistent watch-dogging and self-supervision. That's where most folk fail to see it thru. But.... if we don't break the chain, then we continue to WEAR these chains, eh?
*whew* Hairy topic.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 11:33 pm (UTC)I cherish the idea that someday we'll have time to sit down face to face with cups to tea and just talk...and talk...and talk. That is, after we get done hugging and crying all over one another, that is!
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 10:33 pm (UTC)We (my two sisters and I) sat in the first pew, directly in front of the organ (where Mom presided). Any misbehavior not spotted by Mom was always seen by one or more members of the congregation (and duly reported to her), and eventual retribution was assumed at the onset. As the oldest, I was expected to ride herd on the others (never a happy thing, but very common in the earlier days of large families); it took years before I could have any kind of adult conversation with my sisters.
The Look(tm) is definitely a learned item - I got it from Mom, much as you did from your father. And it still works, to this day...
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 10:36 pm (UTC)Prolly a good thing I decided not to have kids of my own! *lol* Guess it's no wonder that I have a few people afraid of me when I combine the two playing QE!
My poor sister rode herd on me, but I never was too aware of it. The joys of Double PK! See, they never wanted the old bidd, er, the lovely matrons of the church to have to complain about us!
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 08:35 pm (UTC)Grandma had time, cuz altho' there were ten of us, we didn't live with her. We all descended upon her for one single evening.... and then we went home. JUST how a grandparent likes it, eh? *L*
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Date: 2007-12-14 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 09:57 pm (UTC)Chanukah
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 10:09 pm (UTC)plus the guy I am dating is a jew.. ugh. I better be right.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 10:10 pm (UTC)*LOL*
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Date: 2007-12-14 10:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 10:41 pm (UTC)That's why "Peking" became "Beijing" somewhere around the time I left high school - some linguists got together and decided that the 'pe' sound didn't adequately define the actual sound of the Chinese kanji.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 10:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 11:07 pm (UTC)