I’ve been cooking all day. Six different cookies for the holiday. Some festive, but most just family favorites.
Mrs. Santa’s Butter Cookies. Especially enjoyed by my daughter (cooked or raw) from my mother’s recipe box. These need to be rolled out, cut into festive shapes with cookie cutters, baked and decorated with colored butter icing. But I’m waiting until this weekend to do this with the family. The problem is that the rolls of dough slowly get sampled by snitchers before getting that far. When we decorate we all sit around the kitchen table and talk while doing it – a fun time.
Ice Box Cookies (AKA Vanilla Refrigrator Cookies). A favorite of my wife’s from “The Joy of Cooking” cookbook.
Scottish Shortbread. My grandmother’s recipe embellished with a highland thistle pattern. Simple to make and great to eat with a glass of cold milk (actually I should say “a cup of tea” based upon my heritage).
Melt-in-your-mouth. A favorite of my oldest son from my wife’s family. Already fully documented at Justinsomnia. Note: I used walnuts in mine this time.
Pecan Crescents. Another for my dear wife’s sweet tooth from her family recipe trove.
Chocolate-Walnut Cookies. A favorite of my middle son from my mother’s recipe box.
A very very busy, productive and fun day. I hope the family enjoys them when they arrive. Up until then we’ve posted signs (stuff like “touch and you die”) so some should still be here this weekend when the rest of the family and company gets here. P.S. I’m a messy cook and the kitchen now needs to be power-hosed to clean up the butter, flour, sugar stains that litter the floor, walls, ceiling and counters. Oh well…
Update: Here is the shortbread recipe. Only three ingredients: butter, sugar and flour.
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ok, I feel like I need a cookie orientation/degustation with the creators/connoisseurs, with the history of them…especially that short bread! It looks very royal. Maybe I should bring my trumpets.
Comment by Stephanie — December 21, 2006 @ 8:35 pm
Bring whatever you want… trumpets, flutes, clarinets, or even tubas, but especially bring yourself. We are so looking forward to seeing you. Note: I’ve updated the post with the shortbread recipe.
Comment by Bri — December 21, 2006 @ 10:04 pm
Stephanie told me about bringing trumpets, and I was thinking maybe you’d think she meant crumpets.
But no, she really meant trumpets (for regal affect).
Comment by Justin — December 23, 2006 @ 12:54 am
Hmmmmm, I was assuming the regal fanfare with a cavalcade of trumpets.
Comment by Bri — December 23, 2006 @ 1:56 am