A Holiday of Traditional Foods

It has been a wonderful few days of traditional foods and cooking from scratch. In part we have to thank our friend Kurt for sending home-grown and -made jams from Virginia. We did them proud with toast made from fresh-baked bread. We have also had stuffed cabbage rolls, used the leftover rice to make raisin rice pudding, and then jazzed up the leftover pudding with homemade caramel sauce – which then became a fabulous dip for apples. Amazing what you can do when you have some time to cook! My partner and favorite cook asked the other night – why did our parents decide it was better to buy things than to make them? One wonders …

Sugar Cookies

Happy Winter! One of my most enduring traditions of the season is sugar cookies. These unadorned, simple disks (no fancy shapes or frosting) are a tradition from my childhood. I use the recipe from The Book – meaning my Mother’s crumbling cookbook “To the Bride.” After a lifetime of making these, I can almost do it in my sleep. Once I have a batch of warm sugar cookies out of the oven, all is right with the world, at least for a little while.

I hope you find your simple joy for this time of year. Peace.