LULU'S CHRISTMAS COOKIE RECIPE #1

The cookies shown above that I just made this morning may not be the prettiest cookies, but G says they are the best tasting ones out of all the cookies Lulu ever made. For as long as I remember this was always the first Christmas cookie Lulu made when she began Holiday baking. These cookies do not HAVE to be Christmas cookies but they can be decorated up for Christmas and are always a hit. G says they melt in your mouth and it wouldn't be Christmas without them!

Lulu always called these "Canadian Cookies" and I recall once when I was a girl that I asked her why she called them that. She told me that she had tasted them once while visiting my dad's family in Canada and someone shared the recipe with her. She named them Canadian Cookies herself.

In our family now we call them "Nana's Cookies" because it was the last treat that she requested me to make for her when she was in the hospital shortly before she passed away. I'm not sure how many she ate because everytime I was there, she was sharing them with the doctors and nurses.

Decorated or not, they are one fine cookie and good for any holiday treat OR just for any day of the week! Lulu used to sometimes put half of a candied cherry on them before baking, but I've seldom done that because G doesn't like cherries. However, if you use red and green cherry halves they DO make an attractive tray of cookies.

CANADIAN COOKIES or NANA'S COOKIES

• 1+1/4 Cups sifted powdered sugar
• 1 Cup shortening (I use 1/2 Crisco and 1/2 softened Imperial Margarine)
• 1 Egg
• 1 t. Vanilla
• 2+1/4 Cups Flour
• 1 t. Baking soda
• 1 t. Cream of Tartar
• 1/2 t. salt

****Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

****Prepare cookie sheets by lightly spraying with a Pam-type product

1) In large bowl blend Crisco together w/softened margarine.

2) Cream in the sifted powdered sugar. (I sift it by pushing it through a strainer)

3) Add egg and vanilla and beat well.

4) Sift together dry ingredients and add to wet mixture one half at a time.

5) Stir well until all the flour is blended in. The mixture will seem a little wet once it's done.

6) Drop by spoonsful onto cookie sheet and then, with a fork dipped in water, press to uniform thickness. At this point you can add colored sugar or other decorations, if desired.

7) Bake for 5 to 10 min until the edges are JUST browned. (Mine took 7 min) Remove to wire rack to cool

NOTE: This recipe can be doubled easily and makes enough cookies to fill a fairly large tin plus also enough to fill a tray which is what I had to do for tomorrow's party for our local CrazyQuilt Stitching group.

Happy Halloween!

I have SUCH good memories of Halloween attached to my memories of my Mum, Lulu. I think she really liked the holiday as I recall how days before she began preparing for it. In the late 1940's what folks gave out to the trick or treaters were little packets of mostly homemade goodies.

Mum first made round cookies and decorated them with carved pumpkin faces by icing them with orange frosting and then piping on the details. Sometimes she used raisens or chocolate chips to make the faces.

Then she made fudge - the old fashioned cooked kind that was SO good. Using unfolded paper napkins she put a cookie in the center and then put a couple pieces of fudge on top the cookie. On top of that I remember some scattered candy corn and perhaps some wrapped caramels. Whatever else was in the packages I don't recall. When done she brought up the corners of the napkins and gathered up the excess and tied them with a ribbon.

Almost all the mothers did this back then. Some of the mum's used to make popcorn balls and I always looked forward to those. There were some neighborhoods in Duluth where the houses gave out full sized candy bars, but I never got to trick or treat very often in those areas....LOL!

So.....All this was because there were no packages of miniature candy bars or mini packages of small candies available in the stores. I prefer to remember those Halloweens and the happy times we had. Our costumes were simple - I was a hobo almost every year. My older brother and Dad's clothing were handy for it and I don't recall anyone having a commercially made costume. Some did have masks which were sold at the dime store. I always just had one of the little black masks that just covered your eyes.

Have a safe and happy Halloween my friends!

Best Oatmeal Cookies

Best Oatmeal Cookies
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Are you expecting a grandchildren invasion or having a party soon? If you are expecting any kind of crowd this is a great recipe for cookies. It makes a really large batch. Last night I made 3/4's of the recipe (only because I didn't have the full amount of required oatmeal) and it filled our cookie jar and a gallon ziplock bag AND a sandwich sized ziplock. And plus....I must confess that I think I ate at least a half dozen myself as I was baking them.

This isn't one of Lulu's recipes, but she would REALLY like them for a couple reasons: One because it makes a lot of cookies at one time-enough to put a bag in the freezer so you don't have to bake as often! AND....two because it's a recipe with OPTIONS!

So, let's get on with it.....AFTER I tell you that the plate I put these on is one of Lulu's old dishes from the 1930's depression that she got on "dish night" at the local theaters. It was cheap to go to the movies and Dish Night evidently was very popular. So we call this the "theater china". Suffice it to say these dishes are not anything you would want to put in the dishwasher, so it do not get used much.

Best Oatmeal Cookies (with Options!)

4 C. Flour
2 t. Salt
2 t. Baking soda
1 t. (or more) Ground cinnamon
2 C. White Sugar
2 C. Brown Sugar
1 C. (2 sticks) Butter-softened
1 C. Crisco (I used butter flavored)
4 Eggs
1 t. Vanilla
4 C. Quick Oats
2 C. Chopped Nuts (optional-none in mine)
2 C. Chocolate Chips OR Raisens (I used 1 C. of mini-chips)

>Preheat your oven to 375 F
>Sift flour, salt, soda & cinnamon and set aside.
>In a large bowl, cream the sugars, butter and Crisco.
>Add in eggs one at a time, beating after each.
>Add in vanilla
>Carefull stir in the drys you sifted and set aside. Combine well.
>Fold in the oats, nuts & chips or raisens.
>Drop by large teaspoonsful onto spray (or not) cookie sheets.
>Bake for 9 or 10 minutes. Let stand on baking sheet for a minute and then remove to cooling rack.

I dropped the dough from spoons, but if you want to get your hands involved, you can make balls and the cookies will probably be prettier.

However, they will taste the same - Scrumptious!

Lulu's Gingersnaps

I am so sorry, that due to my absence from the blog world over the holidays, I was unable to share some of Lulu's Christmas specialties with you. However, that gives you something to look forward to later this year, right?


I'm fairly certain that this recipe for gingersnaps came from the back of a Brer Rabbit Molasses bottle back in the 1940's or 1950's. The cookies are very good and have been one of my favorite cookies since I was a little girl.


Lately G and I have been craving ginger and the store bought or boxes of gingersnaps just don't make the grade. All the brands we tried are hard and only good for dunking in milk. These cookies are chewy when still warm and can remain chewy depending upon how you store them.


LULU'S GINGERSNAPS

3/4 C. Crisco Shortening

1 C. Granulated Sugar

1/4 C. molasses

1 Egg

2 C. Flour

2 t. Baking Soda

1/2 t. Ground Cloves

1/2 t. Ground Ginger

1 t. Ground Cinnamon

1/2 t. Salt

optional: small amount of sugar in a ziplock bag

Candied Ginger

1) Melt the Crisco shortening in the microwave and set aside to cool.

2) Sift flour, soda and spices onto piece of wax paper and set aside

3) In bowl, beat egg and then add sugar, molasses and cooled Crisco.

4) Blend above well and add the dry ingredients.

5) Turn out onto large piece of wax paper or plastic wrap, form a large ball, wrap and chill dough in fridge for at least 1 hour.

6) When ready to bake, pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and spray baking sheet with pan spray.

NOTES:

#1 - Lulu made these cookies by rolling the dough into little balls and rolling them in granulated sugar in a little bowl or shaking them in a ziplock bag. Most of the time I no longer roll or shake them in sugar as they taste fine without the added calories. However, at Christmas I do coat them with red or green decorative sugar.

#2 - When making the little balls I cut small pieces of candied ginger from the health food store and include 1 or 2 in the center of each ball. You could also add them to the dough and then make the balls.

7) Place the rolled cookie balls on the cookie sheet at least 2 or 3 inches apart. I bake only 12 at a time on my cookie sheets because the cookie balls melt and flatten as they bake. You don't want them to run together. If you keep the dough chilled, roll the cookie balls nicely and place them far enough apart, the cookies will be perfectly round.

***Friends used to tell Mum that these cookies looked too perfect to be homemade!***

8) Bake cookies 8 min. Remove pan from oven and let sit 5 min. Remove to cooling rack.

Enjoy!