texasmesquite

Cooks' Exchange: Family, good food make sweet gifts
Catherine Murray
Source: Wisconsin State Journal

There were some things in life that I wanted to last forever -- like believing in you-know-who at this time of the year. Those were magical times when little hearts captured big dreams.
I remember printing letters to Santa at the North Pole, then waiting patiently for him to respond with a letter a few weeks later. I enjoyed dressing up and visiting the department store uptown where I could sit on the jolly old man's knee to remind him of my letter with wishes of what he could bring me, not down the chimney, but through the front door so he wouldn't dirty his red velvet suit with fireplace soot.

When we were through whispering, Mother and I would have lunch at Manchester's second-floor tearoom in a curved booth or at a window table overlooking the brilliance of the State Capitol.

Convinced that leaving cookies and cocoa with a marshmallow melting on top would help Santa and his reindeer survive the chilly all-night adventure, a plate and mug were placed on a small table in the front room before going to bed.

After the lights were turned off, I'd watch through the window along the side of my bed, hoping to see his sleigh skim bare tree tops while approaching our house. Though I always fell asleep first, there were times I thought I could hear the jingle of bells from a distance.

What fun it was to wake up early the next morning and run downstairs in my pajamas to see what I'd find and if he had forgotten anything important.

It was innocence at its best. And when it all disappeared, the North Pole toys and paper dolls phase of my childhood was gone forever.

The next plateau in my young life found me asking for a Red Ryder BB gun even though I was told more than once that a girl my age should be interested in other things, pretty things like sweaters, wool scarves and matching mittens, jewelry and bubble bath, and practicing the piano more than five minutes a day.

Gifts purchased at local Atwood Avenue stores included trading cards from Ben Franklin's, 78 rpm records from Irv Goff's Music Store, and a Kodak Brownie camera from Bill Stoker's Hudson Park Pharmacy to capture the real world on Talmadge Street.

Life was good, still is, and now, in my 71st year, though I really need nothing at all except family togetherness, I could use a new rod and reel, the old-fashioned kind with a 20-pound test that I can throw out with a bobber, set the clicker, and wait for a big one to bite. Or a small bottle of my favorite Italian perfume, or a new Andrea Bocelli CD, or dinner at a favorite restaurant with my husband, my very own Santa, who always makes sure I find everything, within reason, under the tree on Christmas morning.

But then I remember what Daddy always said ... that if you had good health, you had everything in life -- and Daddy was right.

To good health and happiness, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Some of the best gifts in life are recipes remembered with great fondness. A few weeks ago, Claire Jones, Waterloo, asked for a caramel pudding recipe made with brown sugar to replace one her family rated as "the best."

I searched through dozens of cookbooks, found pudding in many flavors, but not a single caramel pudding that fit her description until I opened "Betty Groff's Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook," and there it was. As a 10th-generation Mennonite and resident of Lancaster County in Pennsylvania, Betty and her husband, Abe, in 1990 when her book was published, owned and operated the award-winning Cameron Estate Inn and the internationally acclaimed Groff's Farm Restaurant specializing in Pennsylvania Dutch family-style cooking. Johnson tried the pudding recipe and said that once chilled, it tasted exactly like the one she had misplaced.

Caramel Pudding

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup lightly packed light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups milk

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the butter in a heavy skillet or large saucepan. Add brown sugar and salt, stirring constantly over medium-high heat until it caramelizes, about 5 minutes (be careful not to burn it). Remove from the stove and slowly mix in 2 cups of the milk. Return to the stove and heat to near boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Combine the flour and cornstarch and stir in; then slowly add the remaining cup of milk. Reduce heat to low and cook until thickened and smooth. Remove a few tablespoons of the pudding, and stir them into the beaten eggs; then return the mixture to the pudding. Cook another 2 minutes, being careful not to let it boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. To prevent a skin from forming on top, lay wax paper over it. Serve warm or cold. Makes 6 servings.

Longtime reader Otto Anderson, Madison, wrote to me at the beginning of the school year with a recipe he's been making for 38 years. He received it from his mother-in-law, Elvy Weiss, Plain, as a favorite cookie she made along with the rest of the German cooks in the family. What would Christmas be without a traditional German cut-out cookie?

Sour Cream Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon lemon flavoring

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

Measure butter and sugar and cream well. Add egg yolks and beat together. Add sour cream and flavoring, stir in half the flour, the baking soda and mix well. Add the rest of the flour and combine well. Refrigerate until dough is easy to handle. Roll out and cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes until bottoms are lightly browned.

This recipe can be doubled, but keep the baking soda amount the same 1 teaspoonful.


If you have a few hours to spare during this busy time of the year, try this cookie recipe from Betty Viney. Peanut butter has achieved a new status from the childhood days of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and here is another one PB fans will enjoy any time of the year.

Peanut Butter Fingers

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 unbeaten egg

1/3 cup peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats

6-ounce package (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar

1/4 cup peanut butter

2 to 4 tablespoons evaporated milk

Cream butter, then add both sugars and cream well. Blend in egg, peanut butter, soda, salt and vanilla. Stir in flour and oats, spread in greased 9-by-13-inch pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and let stand 5 minutes. Combine powdered sugar, peanut butter and evaporated milk and mix well. Spread chocolate evenly before drizzling with peanut butter mixture. Cool and cut into bars. Makes 4 dozen bars.

Note: Recipe adapted by Ann Pillsbury.