Making Cookies With Mama

By Denise Hitchcock

    I know I probably made Christmas cookies with my mother while I was growing up, but I don’t really remember the experience. Not because my memory is dwindling, but because my mother’s kitchen was her laboratory, and she didn’t want any trespassers until time to wash dishes. I say this in honest. My mother is a chemist, and worked in labs that created some of the first plastics and synthetic fabrics. When she and dad started a family Mom left the lab of a factory for the experiments of her kitchen, and won many a bake-off to prove her experimental edge. This Christmas season I finally got Mom into my kitchen to bake cookies. And we had great fun! (Kids aren’t the only ones that snatch dough samples or nibble before cooled.) We chose three recipes: Noel Nut Balls, Gingersnaps and Lace Cookies. Each cookie was so different from the other that an office sampling could not produce a true favorite – they liked them all!

    The Lace Cookie is a recipe from the BlueHighways TV website “From The Kitchen” and came to us from Vera Peterson of Gurnee, Illinois. I found that using one of the silicone baking mats helped these cookies come off the trays beautifully each time. And mother pointed out that she probably would have invented the silicone mat if she still were working in the lab! Merry Christmas! Lace Cookie Recipe

    Check out the “From The Kitchen” portion of the BlueHighways TV website to get new recipes – or share some from your kitchen. I find it helpful for preserving my favorites and making them easy to share with friends and family.

    Also a new cookbook from a mother daughter team is A Well-Seasoned Kitchen, ($34.95 +S&H) by Sally Clayton and Lee Clayton Roper (BHTV President). A portion of the proceeds from this book is donated to Alzheimer’s Association, Colorado Chapter.