Cookie Dough Diary

Reflection.  It's been a few years since I've done "Christmas cookies."  My definition of Christmas cookies happens to be "cookies only made around the holiday."  Rules are that they must only be eaten as of Christmas morning and thereafter (crazy, isn't it? Frenzied baking, but wait, they're for Christmas!)

Recipe.  I have left the baking to my son's fiance, cookie cutters and all.  But I decided that I'd make the date filled cookies.  The recipe I call Gram's, but its really in the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook (red and white plaid, unfortunately their new cookbook does not have the recipe).  A basic roll out sugar cookie (but equal parts of brown sugar/white sugar) used.  The filling is chopped dates with water and lemon juice and sugar, boiled.  Roll out and cut cookies, place date filling on a cookie, place another cutout on top, press sides together.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Run run as fast as you can...you can't catch me....Cookie Dough Diary:  we waited for our creator to roll us out.  Alas! She has given away all her cookie cutters to Angela.  So, she decided to take us to Pennsylvania and roll us out there, in her mom and dads' kitchen.  They decided that the rosettes were more important, but that's okay, I'm a patient cookie.  I traveled back home for baking.  Oh dear, still the dilemma of no cookie cutter (rats).  So off to Caleb's house we go, with full intention of being rolled, cut and baked after the gifts have been plundered.

Revealed.  Never got around to it, so Angela rolled, cut and baked later Christmas Day.  And they are delicious!  There are way too many here for one person, she was way too generous in bringing over "just a few," so the rest go in the freezer.  But here's a plateful: a plain cookie, but with that luscious treat inside that keeps us coming back for more.

Unforgettable!

"As I was driving down the street, down the street, down the street..." comes to my mind as I reflect and anticipate writing this story....

On my way to my folks in Pennsylvania, I was listening to the radio to all the holiday music.  After 3 hours of the same songs (yes, there really is a limit), I popped in a CD and came across Nat King Cole and the duet his daughter "re-mastered" with them singing "Unforgettable."  My mind instantly went to my former piano teacher, Wendell, and his wife, Lori.  They had been performers for a number of years, and one of the songs they sang was this.  Along with the ticker tape in my brain, his phone number popped into my head, so I called to get permission to record for you this story, my version of the Wendell story.

I met Wendell in the early 1990's (I believe) when looking for a piano teacher as ours retired and moved to Florida.  I had no idea what a treat I was in for.  (a sideline here folks, I always wanted to take lessons, figured it would motivate the kids more if Mom took them too....)

Wendell has perfect pitch.  All he has to do is hear a song and he can repeat it.  He can rewrite music in different keys.  Yes, I took this in a music theory class, but what WOWED me was when he would say "this one has 6 flats, this is how it would sound in the key of ____" and then just sit down and play it...(need I say more?)  

Sometimes, when life was really getting me down in the dumps, I'd go to my lesson and, knowing I wasn't going to do well, would manage to sidetrack him and say, "show me how to play it again," and then I'd bask in listening to Wendell play it.  Not only would he play the version he'd write for me (with a pencil, btw, not a computer program), he would play also his version. (Another sidenote on this:  rather than use a book for me, he'd use music he'd write because "isn't it better to learn a technique while playing a song you enjoy?")  A couple of times I opened my eyes (yes it was that relaxing) and realized his eyes were closed as he was playing.  I think that's what impressed me the most.  He not only played it, you could tell he could feel it.  

I can still play Music Box Dancer "by heart."

Wendell (and Lori) are magical people.  They married and their horses were a part of the ceremony, which took place in their barn.  Their love of animals, and their love for each other, has helped them to choose to retire soon.  I wish them the best.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

.... yesterday's.  It has now become a Christmas past.

I have to admit, this Christmas was very special.  Is it because of my grandchildren, and seeing the wonder in the eyes of a child?  Is it the humble little tree I conjured up from the barn and carefully chosen ornaments that a 2 year old could handle? (I do declare this is the best tree I've had since my tree I'd gotten from the Ives' farm!) The humble little gingerbread house that the grandchildren made for me?  I think it's perhaps the knowledge that today is my eternity, it is a day that lasts 24 hours and I need to enjoy every single moment as it happens.

Grandma's

Rosettes. A tradition passed down from my Grandma Doty.

A Christmas Story

Reading this story, it touched my heart and I could vividly picture details.  I hope all who read it enjoy it as much as I did!


http://infloressence.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/ 

Turn turn turn..turn around

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones, a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.  A time to get, and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew, a time to keep silence, and a time to speak, a time to love, and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace."  Ecclesiastes 3:2ff

Our hearts turn to comfort one another in sorrow, the loss of the innocent.  Why does tragedy occur?  How can a righteous, loving God allow this to happen, that the innocent are slain?

We all try to answer that question, yet day after day, year after year, history repeats itself and we live in a violent world.  There are precautions we can take to ensure our safety, but when death calls, no one can hold it at bay.  He comes.  And it's not pretty.  We weep, we mourn with those that mourn.  We hug our own closer.

Are we prepared for an emergency?  Words from this popular commercial ring in our ears and we try to collect things:  candles, tools such as gardening habits, learning to live off the land.  And in the back of our minds, the emergency of nuclear disaster would devastate us all, our natural resources will be contaminated (and there is only so much bottled water in the world that you can hold onto, eventually you will run out).

So, what is the bottom line here?  Every day I think about that, every day I add more to the answer...so this is ongoing, forgive me if I skip something, do not judge me and say, "yeah, but what about this?"  Every answer is the right answer.

Answer for today:  Love and cherish your moments today, this is all we have. The past is history, it will not repeat so don't rest on its laurels.  Today is your moment to shine for every single person that surrounds you today. 

Decem-Brr

I heard the rattle
One December day
An unfamiliar rattle played,
Wild, not sweet, the rattle repeats
No peace down here no-good omen!

Here's the culprit...