new history.

the sugar cookie recipe I've been making since I was a girl (featured below) I'd had believed was my grandmother's. every year my grandma lorene bake these cookies. and we all look forward to snacking on them--as they are practically bite-size covered in colorful sprinkles.

I'd known that my cookies never quiet tasted like hers. but, I reasoned that I just didn't have her touch.

today, while at my mother's snowy farm kitchen, I was going through her folder of loose recipes. and I found Lorene's Sour Cream Christmas Cookies, written in grandma's hand, likely right after mom & dad were married. it is noted on the card, that this recipe came from her mother. it is not the same recipe which I'd been baking all this time.

I asked mom, so, where did this other recipe, that I've been using, come from? and she doesn't remember. but pointed out, it was probably someone's family recipe, maybe just not, ours.

Also, in the folder of recipes, is a picture of me at 11 years. with straight bangs and a few freckles.

annual bake-off

only once a year (mostly) do I take the time to make, roll, cut, bake & decorate cookies. mostly I prefer to make cookies that are easily dropped onto a sheet.

these are the sugar cookies which I've been making since I was little. my grandmother's recipe. (I should really remember to ask her where she got the recipe.) one that I thought, when little, had a bit of secret in them, since they call for a combination of milk & orange juice.

I love these cookies. Though they are now in the freezer, waiting for actual visitors, and holiday celebrations. Of course the temptation is too great, and I do pull one or two out, every day, for buttery-sugary-munching.

A batch of gingerbread cookies, (a recipe clipped out of my 12/95 issue of Sauveur--oh my, so long ago?) also now waits. For the buttery-gingery-sugary munching needs.

wintry week

our ice storm came rather ferociously. then melted away in one day.
as it melted, it sounded like rain on my roof. I stepped outside in the back, and watched in wonder, as the trees shed their ice, in pellets. and the trees simply crackled in relief. it was like watching a downpour of bits of glass. all the while, the sun was shining. glinting light everywhere.

and then, the next day. it snowed. all night long. in a hush.

and today, it will begin to melt away.

iced over

I have only a few days each year, in which I question why I love living in this big/small state.

ice storms. are definitely more pain than pretty.

here's hoping all those around me without power, get it back soon. b/c it is too cold not to have a furnace running, and a hot cup of tea in hand.

baking pumpkin

with the sub-zero temps over the weekend, it was important to warm up the kitchen with some baking. I made several loaves of pumpkin bread. a favorite of some visiting familia around christmas day. This recipe from Everyday Food I find I've relied on quite a bit, since it was first published. (Of course, I half the ginger and add cinnamon. Because I have a hard time imagining pumpkin bread w/o cinnamon.)

in other news. we are expecting a big ice storm to start tonight. here's hoping I keep my power over the next few days. as, it will be mighty cold (and no internet), if it goes.

shorty

went out to the christmas tree farm and cut my tree. the cute, young smiley guy in the Carhardt's overalls wasn't sure I'd be able to cut it on my own. but, I'd done it okay last year.

it was particularly windy. and of course, cold. but I walked around and found one just short & fat enough to fit my wants. and into my trunk for the drive home.

and now she's all dressed up in lights and stuff.

and when I walk into my house, I get a whiff of that christmas pine.

tis the season, in my house.