Cakes and Cookies and Pies, Oh My!

Baking has always been one of my strengths as well as one of my joys. I learned how to make beautiful fruit pies from Gregory, muffins from his mother Helen, cookies from my mother. Cakes are easy enough to figure out if you follow the recipes.

Many beautiful looking, yummy tasting sweets recipes come across my computer and I dutifully make hard copies and file them in my cookbook. During the days when I still read hard copy magazines, I would cut interesting recipes and kept them as well. When visiting a friend who made a delicious dessert I always try to get the recipe for my files.

As I was drifting off to sleep last night, thinking about the wonderful assortment of Christmas goodies I have experienced this season, (made, eaten, seen) I realized that there was a layer of guilt that was trying to introduce itself into my thoughts.

Sugar! Brown sugar! Honey! White flour! Pastry flour! Corn starch! Candied fruit! Dried fruit! Fats! They all have become villains in our ever growing awareness of the waist line dilemma. So that means that most cakes, cookies, cupcakes, pies, pastries, etc have also become villains.

We love our sweets but we feel guilty eating them. And the reality, or science of it, is that the combination of sugars, fats, and salt cause us to become addicted to sweets. One sweet is never enough. One piece of cake or pie, one cookie, leads to another and for some of us, who now and then buy store bought cookies, it leads to eating the entire box in one sitting.

Another problem is that when I do bake something, I do not have anyone living here to share it with. I will bring a piece of whatever down to the person at the front desk, or share with the other building staff, but the guilt again arrives saying, "They don't need any more sweets either!"

And often, as your share-ees are consuming the treat you shared, they are complaining about their waist lines at the same time. "I don't really need this!" "Why are you doing this to me?" "I am overdosed on sweets this holiday season!" ... they say while consuming your well intentioned gift.

So what is the answer? Don't bake? Bake but don't eat? Eat and then vomit, like the Romans? Share most of what you bake? Not sure, maybe the answer is just gain the weight or maybe a better answer is "All things in moderation!"

Mini-Apple Pie Cookies

Rhubarb Pie

Cranberry Walnut Cookies

Peach Pie

Helen's Cranberry Walnut Bran Muffins

Adeline's Chocolate and Vanilla Walnut Balls

Cherry Pie

Chocolate Raisin and Nut Cups

Raspberry Buckle

Raspberry Pie

Blueberry Pie

Rustic Cherry Tart

Rhubarb Pie

Banana Walnut Bread

Great Grandma Barbara's German Christmas Cookies

Peach Pie

Peanut Butter Cookies, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

 Silk Apple Pie

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

In fact is not only looks like it is beginning to be Christmas time, it is Christmas time. Beginning the day after Thanksgiving when my decorations go up until sometime in late January it is Christmas around my house.

Yesterday I baked a gross (a dozen dozen = 144) of Gregory's Great Grandma Barbara's German Christmas Cookies, a 200+ year old recipe that uses lard, sourghum, and candied citron.

Each year the ingredients are harder to find but thanks to the internet I still am able to find them. Traditionally they are baked the day after Thanksgiving. Because they are made from a "boiled candy" type of recipe, after the cookies are baked and cool they become so hard that they cannot be eaten or even dunked in tea and eaten.

They have to be "cured" with sliced apples in a sealed container until the 25th when they will be soft enough to eat. Taste wise approximately described, the cookies are gingery, molassesy, spicy with a touch of lemony.

Yesterday, after Barbara's cookies, I baked a gross of my mother's walnut cookies. She used to make them into crescents but I use a very small mellon scoop and make what I call Adeline's Walnut Balls. Heavy on the walnuts and butter, sprinkled with powdered sugar, these delightful treats melt in your mouth.

I've started a new tradition this year, something Gregory and I had talked about before. I got a packet of 100 brand new single dollar bills from the bank. I carry them around in my pocket and give one to every beggar, derelict, homeless person who crosses my path (or do I cross their path?)

Even though the words I used are somewhat pejorative (beggar, derelict, homeless) when I give them the dollar bill I remind myself that they are like me: a person with feelings, needs, hopes, desires.

I remind myself that they are no different than I and I am no different then they in our wants and needs. We are of different circumstances, yes, but all living and breathing gifts of the universe.

I may not be able to solve their problems with one dollar, or cure all the ills of the world, but I can take a moment to smile and wish someone Merry Christmas and regard my fellow human beings.