The time between
Thanksgiving and Christmas at my house has become Cookie Season. The time, where I bake many kinds of cookies to load up on
trays and in tins for gift giving.
I think the very first
cookie I ever baked was Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chips from the recipe on
the bag. I believe I was in HS at the time. Never really needed to
cook or bake as my mother did it all. She always chased us out of the
kitchen and out of her way, unless she needed help processing the food for the
freezer or for canning.
After I was out of HS
and just before I got married, I was working at a local place when a coworker
brought in a Cookie Tray loaded with the most amazing cookies. When I
asked her about the cookies she said they were Italian and she explained the
many different kinds. Before it was over she invited me to meet her
mother and just maybe her mother might share the recipes with me. A few
weeks later I visited her parents and after tea and polite conversation her
mother gave me two notebooks. One for me to write in and the other for
me to copy down the recipes that were contained within. Wonderful people
who have since passed, blessings amongst us.
Around that same time, I had
met and was engaged to my husband who is 100% Italian. When we got
engaged, his family was big on family get togethers. We had large family
get togethers, for birthday's, holidays, engagements, weddings, graduations and
whatever else you could think of. It was during these times that
these delicious Italian desserts and cookies would appear. So I started
collecting recipes from anyone who would share them with me. There were
recipes from my mother and mother-in-laws recipe box. Some handed down from generation to generation. I collected recipes from Aunts and Uncles, recipes
from co-workers and friends. Some were on handwritten cards, others on paper
and a few thrown in, clipped from the newspapers and/or torn out of
magazines.
And then, there was a
time when local cookbooks were all the rage. These cookbooks were put
together by different committees of local organizations, churches and clubs and
then sold as fundraisers. These books often contain many gems. Again containing recipes handed down from generation to generation. If you own
one or two or three, you know what I am talking about. Have you
ever noticed that the Cookies, Cakes, and Dessert sections are the largest
parts of the book? That is because everyone likes dessert. Ha, ha, ha.
Next were the Cookie Exchange
Parties. A party where the host invites you and many others into their
home to swap cookies. Once there, you
exchange a particular cookie that you baked with the many other guests who also
baked a cookie. Yes sometimes there are duplicates but it’s all in
fun. Depending on the number of guest invited you usually bake 6-7 dozen
of a singular cookie recipe. You exchange at the party and return home
with the 6-7 dozen mixture of everyone’s cookies. The exchange can
either be simple or elaborate as you make it. The host usually serves
drinks and appetizers. Some play games and award prizes for best cookie,
cutest cookie, etc. Any way you do it is a fun night together with
friends and family. I have attended my share and all were different and fun in their own way.
When, what to my
wondering eyes should appear, tis the season of computers, searching and
printing and testing. Yes, the wonderful computer brought about my addiction to
searching for more wonderful recipes and many included wonderful photos to
tempt one even more. Print and save, print and save, bookmark, bookmark,
bookmark.
As if that wasn't enough,
along came Pinterest (a web based program on the computer) for over stimulation. Make and create computerized
bulletin boards of your favorite links so now you can categorize and search
photos of your favorite recipes and/or other links. No more boring
bookmark and favorites with just a list of broken links. Hello, my name is Loraine and I have a problem.
Somewhere between the
computer's beginning and Pinterest, I learned to stop searching via the web and
started searching via Images. Yup, I look for my recipes via the image
search. This way I can choose those recipes that look the most appetizing
to me. I find that when testing these recipes they only need a few tweaks or
changes and usually turn out the best, keepers in my book.
What does one do with
all those cookies? You can exchange, give them as gifts, take a tray to
a holiday celebration or wedding, serve them to your family, or even put some
out for Santa. If you're a computer nut like me you can post your
recipes on line and share them with family, friends and the rest of the World
Wide Web.
You will find recipes for tried and true cookies to add to your recipe collection through this post and the next few. Enjoy.
Lets start with the Chocolate Sugar Cookies Bears. I found a photo of these cute little bear cookies on the internet, they were holding whole almonds. However, I could not try the recipe posted, as the sight kept freezing up my computer. So I used my favorite Chocolate recipe instead.
Instead of holding almonds, mine are holding giant M&Ms. I used small teddy bear cookie cutter, but a small gingerbread man would look cute too.
Get the Chocolate Sugar Cookie Teddy Bears recipe here.............
Click on recipe to open photo. Once photo opens right click and save photo to your computer for printing.
Here is the recipe for making Plain Sugar Cookie Cut Outs. Note this recipe does not contain any baking powder (baking powder makes the cookies spread).
Click on recipe to open photo. Once photo open right click and save to your computer for printing.
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From the bottom of my heart..............
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