tinted green

It’s a snowy and cold morning, but my kitchen is warm and cozy and so are the fresh baked cookies and hot coffee.  Batches of Valentines cut out sugar cookies are still coming out of the oven and the coffee pot is still plugged in.  Life is good!

I love making cut out cookies.  Today is rare since I only used one cookies cutter, the heart.  I have quite the collection of cookie cutters.  All the standards like Santa, stars, bells, angels, hearts, and bunny rabbits.  I also have a teapot, ice cream cone, and a train.  I love the old ones and scour second-hand shops for them.  I tried a set of plastic cookie cutters once, they went in the trash during the first batch of cookies.   A few years ago both my mother and mother in law sent me their cutters.  They are some of my most cherished cutters and a gift I won’t forget.  Now when I make cookies for my granddaughters their great-grandmothers are playing a part.

Like my cookies cutters, my recipe is old and a family recipe.  One of my own grandmothers used it often.  It’s a pretty standard recipe except for the amount of butter, a full cup and it uses baking powder instead of baking soda.  The baking powder helps the cookies to rise.  The other special ingredient is love, my grandmother added a lot of love.  This recipe has fed generations of children and adults and everyone agrees, it’s one on of the best cookies ever.

I continue to add the extra measure of love.  I’m making the cookies for family and friends, so of course, the love is still the most important ingredient  It’s not about how perfect the cookies look, I could buy perfect looking cookies, it’s about the special treat of Grammy cookies.  It’s about the pleasure I get sharing the cookies and the memories of my family enjoying them that stays with me long after the cookies are gone.

Yes, life and the cookies and the memories, old and new ones, are good!