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!

LULU'S BOY

I'll bet most everyone has given up on me, but in case there's still a few readers of "Lulu's Girl" who have hung in there, today I'm back sort of trying to get back to my normal routine.



I've actually been back in California since Christmas, but the Holiday, including New Year's sort of slid by me.



My only brother, Lulu's Boy aka Stewart Lisle Sterling, Jr, who was an voracious reader, went to read with the angels on December 21, 2008. In his last days he was surrounded by family (wife, 3 sons, a daughter, her husband and G and I. He, along with all of us, were given tremendous support by the amazing angels of Hospice. Although not an easy experience for any of us, we managed to have some valuable family time of sharing and love. A few days ago on January 25th it would have been Stew's 79th birthday. Our 2 parents both lived to be older (84 and 91). That fact and his being gone so fast after the cancer diagnosis in October was a shock to all. He was "my rock" and not a day goes by still that I don't think of something to ask him or tell him. There's a huge hole in my heart and life. But in the past week I've been feeling him nudging me to get on with my life.




The pictures here to the left are of Stew, my only sibling, at age 2 (1932) and age 18 at graduation in 1948
























The picture above was taken in mid October 2008 by G when we visited my brother and his wife in Arizona. We only learned of the cancer after we had been back home about 2 weeks.



When Stew first learned about me starting this blog and the purpose for it, I think it made him chuckle a lot. He is the one who provided the picture for the header. I'd never seen that picture; he found it in his baby book! He never thought our Mum was much of a cook; at least he said she didn't have much imagination. Mum's next oldest sister, Aunt Helen, was a professional cook, but I don't think Mum learned much about cooking except the basics from our grandmother who was, at one time, a cook in a hotel restaurant. There are some funny family stories about cooking disasters in our house like the time dinner ended up on the ceiling when Mum first tried to use her new pressure cooker. It scared her away from those for life and when I got one for a wedding present and used it one time when she was visiting, she wouldn't even come in the kitchen!


So, we all assume that Mum got most of her recipes from friends and maybe family too. True there are a lot of recipes in her handwritten book that have names next to them. And, a lot of her recipes I'm sure came from cooking under extreme conditions during the Great Depression and WW2 when my brother was small and I was as yet unborn. The simple things for her were never written down. I found that out recently when I wanted to make Roast Beef Hash. I'd never made it before, but it was something she made all the time. I muddled through and G said it was pretty good.



I will soon continue blogging Mum's recipes and any stories about them here as I have been since I began.



Stay tuned!

Happy New Year

Here's hoping that 2009 is filled with good health and happiness for you all!

Holiday Greetings!

Merry Christmas from Lulu's Girl!

Stay Tuned!

November theme BOM
Originally uploaded by lasassone

I'm in the kitchen making a full Thanksgiving dinner and we plan to have a photoshoot when it's all done!

And, that picture doesn't look much like me - more like my mum. It's the one year anniversary of when G and I joined the big local new gym. I've lost inches and am very proud of how fit and strong I feel. Another year and maybe I'll lose some weight too!

LOL,
LouAnne

Please forgive

I just wanted to post a note to let you know I haven't disappeared from blogging. I have been under the weather for some time with a flu bug and now tomorrow I am supposed to be going away for a week to visit my brother in AZ.

I WILL be back!

Welcome Fall!

Cheddar Apple Bread
Originally uploaded by lasassone

First off, if you are into crazyquilting, embroidery or embellishments, I'm having a drawing on Getting To Crazy,my other blog, the link to which you will find over in the side bar.

Now back to the business at hand:

With the first hours of Autumn/Fall upon us today, I thought it would be fitting to post this recipe for Cheddar Apple Bread. I've noticed all the varieties of apples arriving in our markets in the past week or so and this looks like a great way of getting one of our fruit servings today. The picture was stuck into Mum's recipe book with her recipe, so I think this came from a magazine sometime in her 70+ years of cooking. I don't think she would have saved it if it wasn't good. If I have enough cheddar in the house, I will be making this today. Fire up the oven!

CHEDDAR APPLE BREAD

• 2-1/2 C. flour
• 3/4 C. sugar
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 t. cinnamon

Sift those drys! Then in your bowl, combine well:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 C. milk
• 1/3 C. margarine, melted

Put those reserved drys into your egg mixture, combine and then add in:

• 2 C. shredded cheddar cheese
• 1-1/2 C. peeled & chopped apples
• 3/4 C. chopped nuts (optional)

Stir well and then spoon into a well-greased and floured 9" x 5" loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 65 to 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand on rack for 5 min. and then remove from pan.

NOTES:

• Mum doesn't have the nuts marked as optional, but we don't do nuts at our house and I suppose many are like us. I don't think it will make a difference; if it does, I'll let you know. I may use 1/4 C. of ground nut "flour" for flavour but you wouldn't want to do that if you're allergic.
• I can't tell if she ever made this in the mini-pans, but I will probably do that, so later I can add how many little loaves it makes.

Yummmmm! Typing all that made me hungry!