[Magdalen] Christmas Treats.

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

My church has this wonderful thing that they have identified about thirty
families in the area who are down on their luck, and they give them a
Thanksgiving dinner, and a Christmas dinner. They have these events that
are purely to raise the money needed for the dinner fixings and the
presents for everyone.  They had a cookie sale as a fund-raising project,
and I made a huge batch of butterscotch blondies. We had a sale after the
cookie sale for what was left, and I'm delighted to say none of mine were
left.  My sweetie made a raftload of M&M Chochip cookies and they went too.

Some people make this a staple of their holiday festivities, and I think I
will too, as I search for that perfect blondie recipe. One guy has this
thing of making peanut brittle, and he must make a major project of it, cuz
thebags he had supplied filled a tray that covered half of a large table.
He practically sold out too.

Diet? What's that? We sample each others specialties! It's like a potluck
dinner, only you only have dessert!

I, being childless and inexperienced with kids, hesitated to take a star
from the gift tree, but my buddy said, "Jim, it's really very easy. I took
a star and went to a store and handed it to an associate, and she fixed me
right up. Easy as pie." So I screwed up my courage and picked a star, and
my Inner Voice said, C'mon, Jimmie! You KNOW you can do better 'n that!
So I took three, and went to the mall and it was indeed a simple process.
And, as those who do this probably know, the good feeling lasts.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Thu, Dec 22, 2016 at 11:32 AM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
>
> I yearn for ethnic holiday cookies and breads this time of the year.
> They were an integral part of the holiday season during my Upper
> Midwest USA upbringing, and the special recipes by family and
> friends are lost to me for good.
>
> Still there are the pleasant memories of them.  Here are some of  them:
>
> (1) Fattigman (literally "fat man)," small cookies that were the  specialty
> of my godmother, Aunt Gladys.
>
> (2) Crumkake; thin, delicate rolled confections.  No one made  them
> better than my mother.
>
> (3) Sunbakkels: baked in special "sunburst" shaped tins.  Loaded  with
> cardamam spice.  Another of my mother's specialties.
>
> (4) Pfeffernusse cookies:  a German specialty of a German  neighbor.
>
> (5) Julekage:  A sweet holiday bread common to all the  Scandinavian
> countries.
>
> (6) Date filled cookies.  My mother and Aunt Helen made several
> varieties of these.  They weren't ethnic Scandinavian but were  part
> of the Christmas scene.
>
> (7) Rosettes:  A local woman (Mrs. Chris Thompson) was so good  at
> these treats, she made them for the entire village.
>
>
> David Strang.
>