That early morning winter blue

Remember that excitement filling your bones as winter drew near?  Slowly, pieces of outer wear started turning up on the coat rack - mittens, scarves, hats, and soon enough the snow was hitting the ground in big white balls of fluff.  It came down so thick, as if not real...being tossed on us by the handfuls from the sky above.

Kids love winter.  I have yet to see a child not get thrilled at the thought of bundling layers over their body, only to be given the go ahead to scream out the door and wildly leap into the first big pile of snow they see.  It's a way of life around here.  Any place that has 4 seasons (yes I know, some of us Wisconsin cynics complain that there are only two seasons - winter and road construction) has a bit of magic.  There is a speed to each metamorphosis that can seem deathly slow.  One 90 degree day after another in the peak of July, or one -25 degree day after another in the bleak of January.  But the magic happens at the first hint of the arrival of that next season.

The first flecks of green appearing in spring, from the dead brown ground.  Like the dead awakening, reaching for the renewing sunlight.  Then the first blossom; always the most special.  Soon all the fields and yards and gardens are full of color.  Lush and beautiful.  Rarely do we notice the first leaf to flash gold in August.  It isn't until full patches of orange and yellow and red start to appear, that we know autumn has begun to greet us.

Then that first snow!  Not the dust that might fall in October or early November.  I mean the first time the sky opens and gives us piles of the soft white stuff to roll around in.  For weeks, the mornings were dark, thick black and dark.  But with white snow on the ground, the mornings become alive!  All the soft pastels that were lost are now reflected on the snow and bathe the neighborhood in serenity.  A house across the street is frosted with blue-white color as the chimney releases plums of lazy smoke.

These mornings I love.  I sit with my coffee in the not-so-dark living room, in front of my picture window and just try to absorb the peacefulness before me.  Sometimes I still get that wistful urge to hastily pull on layers of clothing and just run around in circles in the front yard, throwing the snow up in the air.  But sometimes its just nice to watch nature's magic, thankful that I not only see what passes before me, but that it is a part of me as well.

An Old Woman's Cookies

One thing there was never a shortage of around our house when I was growing up was cookbooks.  Stuffed away in the cupboard above the washer and dryer in the kitchen were dozens of cookbooks.  Some of which I am almost positive were never used, save for one recipe.  Others were in 3 or 4 pieces from their repetitive use.  By the time I was ten, I knew exactly which book to get down if we were baking chocolate chip cookies.  The red Betty Crocker had the best recipe.  Snickerdoodles?  That was page 74 of the St. Louis church ladies cook book.  Crinkly Molasses cookies?  Well that was a bit more challenging because it meant we had to dig through the recipe card box for my grandma Dora's handwritten card.  The best part about those hand written recipes?  After the list of ingredients, there was one line of directions:  Bake 12 min at 350 degrees.  Pretty straight forward right?  How many of you would be able to journey through a recipe with only this one instruction and come out with perfect cookies on the other side?  Well my mom could.  And I have a feeling her mom and her mom's mom could as well.

I was craving gingersnaps one day.  It was cold, rainy, foggy, and just plain gray outside.  I wanted to make a good cup of tea and have a crispy spice cookie to go with it.  This is usually how most of my culinary adventures begin - I get a craving, won't be satisfied until I can have what I'm craving, and if I have an hour or two free I usually dive right in.  Well I tugged an old favorite down off the shelf:  The St. Louis women's cookbook.  If there was a recipe for a basic, old fashioned gingersnap cookie that I couldn't mess up, it was bound to be in this cook book.

Ah ha!  Page 288 - "Best Ever Gingersnaps."  There is a fleeting memory as I look at the name on the recipe - Helen Johnson.  Her face is very real to me.  She had a loose but curled bob of white hair, dark set eyes and charmingly feline features.  I can hear her soft, squeaky voice smacking in the back of my mind.  Her brick red hat with the wide brim that she always wore to church on Sunday.  Still walking to and from even in winter.  Her husband Ernest was home bound but he would spend time teaching me how to play Gin-Rummy on the wood table he laid across his lap while in his chair.  He passed away when I was very young, but she lived on for a decade or more after that.  Her basement was an art gallery filled with the dozens of oil paintings she had created while she taught herself the craft.  One Christmas she sat with me while we worked together on a very basic crocheted ornament.  It wasn't much, but she dressed it up with bows of different colored yarn, and hand wrote "Merry Christmas" in her neatest cursive across a piece of cardboard that we tied to it.  I must have been the proudest child that day, showing my mom what I made for the tree.  That ornament is still in a box that gets pulled out every year my mom decorates her tree.

I had never baked anything with Ms. Johnson, but I knew THIS was the recipe to use.

The only question left, was hinging on the first ingredient on the list:  "3/4c lard or shortening"  Hmmm...lard or shortening?  What to do?  After a phone call to my mother and a short discussion about cause and effect of using lard over shortening, I decided to go with the shortening.  Here's the list of directions under the recipe:  "Mix together all ingredients.  Form into balls, flatten with the palm of your hand.  Bake on cookie sheets at 400 degrees until brown."

Yep, that's it!  Simple as that.  Because who wouldn't know how to properly mix cookie ingredients together right?  Thankfully I had a basic upbringing in the subject and was able to survive.  In the end, it took two attempts to get the desired SNAP from this recipe.  Which I believe is a considerable success.

It's not everyday you page through a recipe book and can associate a memory from your childhood to each one.  But it sure does make choosing the recipe to use a lot easier.  Here's to Ms. Johnson - for teaching me how to crochet, and how to make the "Best Ever Gingersnap" cookies!

(See below for full recipe)

3/4 c shortening (or lard softened)
2 eggs
1.5 c white sugar
1/2c molasses
2 T ginger (don't skimp if you want the real deal)
1 tsp allspice*
4c flour
2tsp soda
2 T white vinegar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp grated orange zest*

*optional ingredients that I added on the 2nd try and was very pleased with the results!

1) Cream shortening, eggs, sugar and vinegar in mixing bowl
2) Stir in molasses, ginger, allspice, and orange zest until well mixed
3) Whisk or sift together 3c flour, soda, and salt in separate bowl
4) Add dry ingredients to batter a cup at a time until dough come together and stiffens.  Add final 1c of flour.  May need more flour if batter is still too soft.
5) Refrigerate dough for an hour.  (This step can be skipped and you can begin rolling balls right away, the cold dough was just easier to handle.  If you use the dough right away, make sure you dust your hand with a little flour in between rolling each ball to keep from sticking.)
6) Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
7) Take 3/4 T of dough at a time and roll into a ball.  Place on a greased cookie sheet - I fit 8 on my sheets at a time.  You can make bigger balls but I found this led to a chewy cookie rather than a crispy cookie.
8) Using heel of your hand, press dough balls out to flatten.  The flatter they are, the faster they cook so try to keep them all the same size.
9) Oven racks should be middle lower and middle upper - cookies will literally only take about 5-7 mins per pan.  I did mine one sheet at a time.  If you do two at a time, make sure to rotate pans top to bottom halfway through.
10) Cookies need to be dark brown but not smell burnt when you take them out.  1-2 mins too long and the bottoms go from brown to black - I recommend not leaving the kitchen for these cookies :)

Hope you enjoy!!!