The Recipe Box...Finally!

Nearly everyday a card is added to my recipe collection. This has resulted in a recipe box problem. I've worn out a regular old plastic index card box and have been looking for a replacement ever since. If you know me, you know I couldn't just go to the store and pick up another plastic card box. No, I need something cool and preferably old. Enter this fabulous old storage container. Originally used to store your leftover meatloaf or spaghetti in the Frigidare, this baby was snagged on a flea market spree with my mom this summer. It didn't become home to my recipes until last month when I finally got fed up with trying to find my pita recipe in the tiny box I was keeping everything it. Is it not perfect?

During the move to their new home, I was caught up in the history of so many of my recipes. Nearly every one has memories attached to it, who gave it to me, who I made it for, who loved that particular thing and even who I've passed it on to. History that makes a recipe more than a mixture of butter, sugar and flour, it transforms a list and some directions into a road-map of my life. Being the emotional creature that I am, I found myself sitting at our table crying over my recipes. Funny how a splattered index card can do that to me. I thought I would share some of my favorite recipe-memories with you:

My Mom's Molasses Ginger Cookies. My family has made these cookies every Christmas since who knows when. The rolling/cutting/icing/sprinkles mess is as much a part of Christmas as decorating the tree.

Daily Bread. I have made this bread at least once a week for several years. It's one of the first bread recipes I adapted/made up myself and we love it.

Mrs. Penny's Broccoli Salad, a truly magical salad. Our dear family friend served it to us when I was a teenager and I copied down the recipe that night. I have several recipes from dinners at Mrs. Penny's house.

This is one that got me. My sister's Aunt Clara's Harvest Coffee Cake. We've been making this coffee cake for more years than I can remember and I don't even know where my sister came across it. Last year my sister move out of the country and I miss her so very much. I might just have to bake a coffee cake in honor of her. If only she could drop by for a piece and a good long chat.

So there you have it, some of my favorite recipe-memories. Now I know where to go when I'm feeling nostalgic, straight to my own glass box of history!

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

Need I say more? Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies with Maple Buttercream. If you had come to my house around 4:00 in the afternoon on Valentine's Day you would have been offered one of these delights. It may have been decorated by one of the eleven children who were busily decorating cookies, which would have made them all the sweeter. These were the Valentine cookies that almost weren't though.

I made up a few trays of the cookies (heart shaped sandwich cookies with raspberry filling) for a dear friend's birthday that morning and noticed the sound of someone playing with the rolling pin. Well, that afternoon when I was ready to bake the rest of the cookies, the rolling pin was no where to be found. We searched high and low and ended up borrowing one from our neighbors. The next morning while making our bed, my foot hit something under the bed and there it was. Now why didn't I think to look under my bed?

So here is the recipe for these fabulous, search-no-more, make them every holiday cookie. The cream cheese makes them ultra rich, the sugar (try raw sugar in these) is just right, not overpowering and they rolled out like a dream. I adapted the recipe from one on allrecipes.com. They will be regular guests at all our holidays and any other occasion that may need cookies. What occasion wouldn't need cookies anyway?

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

2 cups sugar

2 cups butter

1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

4 1/2 cups flour

Bring the butter and cream cheese to room temperature. Cream the sugar, butter, cream cheese, salt, vanilla and egg. Stir in flour and mix well. Divide into two parts and flatten into disks. Wrap in waxed paper and chill overnight.

Cut one disc in half and work with one piece at a time. Rewrap the other piece and set it back in the fridge. Roll one piece of dough out on a floured surface to about 1/8 of an inch thick and cut out with a cookie cutter. Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for 8 to 10 minutes or until they are golden around the edges. Cool before frosting.

This makes a lot of cookies but you can always freeze one of the discs of dough for another time. With my horde I need a lot of cookies so I baked them all. I also ate an inordinate amount of them. They are evil and destroyed the last vestiges of my self-control.

To make Maple Buttercream, use any good buttercream recipe (use real butter please!) and add maple flavoring instead of vanilla. You wouldn't want to use as much maple as vanilla so add a little and taste to see if you need more. Try not to eat all the frosting. Pipe it on your cookies with a cute decorating tip or use it to frost a cake. You'll be glad you did!

Once-Around-The-Kitchen-Cookies

There once were two little girls who met each other at a picnic. Their families became friends and they spent many hours at each other's homes, playing "sardines", sewing, watching movies, building princess villages in what turned out to be a drainage ditch but they thought was a river, and many other things that imaginative girls like to do together. As happens so often in these stories, one girl had to move far far away from her sweet friend and after many years they started to write letters. For almost ten years letters passed between the two girls. However, much more passed between them than hundreds of letters. Recipes, gifts and most importantly, the joy of true friendship was shared one piece of stationary at a time.

One girl has gone on to become a professor, helping students learn to speak English. She has travelled all over the world, studied at Oxford, and finished many years of education. She is much loved by her friends, family and students. The other finished several years of education, married and is raising a houseful of lovely children. In her recipe box, she has many recipes shared with her friend. Recipes from tea parties and a cookie business. The other friend has recipes from traditional french picnics and another cookie business. So when one friend picked up the scallop-edged note card and set out to make cookies, it almost felt like they were in the kitchen together again. Almost but not quite. And here is the recipe she made.

Once-Around-The-Kitchen Cookies

1 cup butter

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup raisins

2 cups chocolate chips

1/2 cup flaked coconut

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl. Beat in eggs. Stir in next five ingredients. Add flour and baking soda and mix thoroughly. Scoop with a tablespoon onto an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. A note on the bottom of the note card says that they are very good if you omit the raisins and coconut and add wheat flour instead of white.

The only change I noticed was that the recipe says it makes 2 1/2 dozen and for me it made 5 dozen. I guess it depends on how big you make the cookies. If you don't need 5 dozen at once just scoop the extra dough in cookies sized portions onto a waxed paper lined baking sheet and freeze until solid. They can be stored in a plastic bag in the freezer until you want to bake them. Frozen cookies will take a minute or two longer to bake than fresh but you can bake them straight from the freezer.