Happy Birthday, James!

He's here. Safe home from China. Tomorrow is Jamie's birthday. We'll have homemade Gingersnaps (among other things).

Gingersnaps

Yield: 10 dozen

1 ½ cup shortening 4 teaspoons soda

2 cups brown sugar 2 teaspoons ground ginger

½ cup molasses 2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 eggs 1 teaspoon cloves

4 ½ cups flour more granulated sugar

Cream together; shortening, sweeteners and eggs, until light and fluffy. Sift together dry ingredients, stir into the creamed mixture. Form into small balls (1 – 1 1/2 “ dia.). Roll in granulated sugar and place 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes.

Snow Day = Baking Day

Lenox Fruit Cookies - A Family Heirloom - yields about 8 dozen 2" cookies

1 cup butter ½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 eggs, beaten 1 cup nuts (I use broken Black Walnuts)

1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved ½ cup raisins

in 1 ½ Tablespoons hot water ½ cup currants

2 cups flour 1 ¼ cups flour mixed with dried fruits

Cream butter, add sugar, cream well. Add eggs, then soda in water. Add flour, salt and cinnamon. Add nuts, fruits mixed with flour. Mix well.

Drop in small spoonfuls on greased cookie sheets. Bake 10 – 12 minutes at 400°.

These improve with aging and ship well. It wouldn’t be Christmas without them.

Digression:

In 1901 Methodist ministers went to Conference every spring and received their assignments for the coming year. They and their families expected to be moved from town to town within their conference every year.

If a minister was well-liked, his congregation would ask the Bishop to assign him a second year, perhaps even a third.

In 1903, my grandparents arrived in Hillsboro, the first time they had moved since their marriage in 1901. Their next-door neighbors gave them this recipe – which bears the marks of a old one, even for that time.

Dissolving the baking soda in water hearkens back to the time when NaHCO3 was a large, hard crystal, not a fine powder. And the practice of mixing the dried fruit with flour dates from the common occurrence of ‘seeded’ raisins.

Seeded raisins were large and sweet, but had hard seeds which had been removed by squeezing them out between rollers. This made a large, flat sticky raisin. Recipes calling for them frequently specified that they be quartered. Sifting them between the fingers with flour kept them from sticking together.

I frequently add a little freshly grated nutmeg to the dough, equivalent to a quarter-teaspoon or so. I think it compliments the Black Walnuts.

Lenox Fruit Cookies

15 inches of snow on the ground, a perfect opportunity to bake! I made 8 dozen of Lenox Fruit Cookies.

Fruitcake: Our Love/Hate Confection

Most people hate it, but James loves my fruitcake, and it means Christmas to him. So...I baked a recipe of fruitcake and have two loaves in the fridge. I soaked them (brushed them) with good-quality brandy.

Maybe I should cover one with a sheet or marzipan, in the European style.

Humm?

The Woods

I remember going for walks with my mother, at no greater than four years of age, perhaps only three; and being taught things about the plants and animals around me.

She taught me about Poison Ivy: what it looked like, where it grew, how to avoid it.

Cardinal, Blue Jay, Robin and Woodpecker, their colors, songs and how they walked on the trunk of the tree, or hopped from branch to branch.

The little Golden Guides rested near the kitchen window, to look up the bird of the hour, or go along on our walks and identify a tree by its bark, after the leaves had fallen.

I know every patch of Poison Ivy in Greenbelt today, and it is astonishing to me that there are adults in America today who cannot identify it. Didn't their Mommies love them?

Homemade Tear Gas

For Thanksgiving, everything on my table was homemade (exception: canned cranberry sauce - for the traditionalists). I made cranberry-pear chutney from dried cranberries and pears, using a recipe I found on the Internet - I think it was from eatingwell.com. I followed the recipe exactly, at least as far as the spicing was concerned, but it was so hot it couldn't be eaten on its own.

I put my face over it while it was cooking and the steam truly burned my eyes.

I could serve it - but only by diluting it 50% with applesauce.

My mother and aunt (AKA Mommo and Julia) came for dinner and were both appreciative and liked not having to cook or clean up in their own homes.

I made gluten-free spoonbread for my mother (taste OK but doesn't look very good) and the meal was, except for the rolls, gluten-free.

Turkey casserole, creamed turkey on toast points and turkey soup, of course; followed.

It's December 8th, and I've just about used up all the turkey. The last few slices of breast will go into an otherwise veggie soup tonight, along with the two pints of turkey gravy left.

Stay tuned for other developments.