Now that the brownies have vanished (okay vanished isn’t quite true — I mean, we know where they went), my daughter has moved on to cookies. Sweet of her, isn’t it? She’s actually baking in preparation for a family get together this weekend. No special occasion, no particular reason, we’re simply getting together because we haven’t seen each other in a while.
Odd, when you live in a small town. But it happens, doesn’t it? We get so busy with our own lives, doing our thing, we forget to make the time for those we care about the most. It’s almost as though we “assume” their presence in our lives until next thing you know, it’s been three months since you’ve seen one another!
One of my best girlfriends pointed out this sad fact to me years ago. Living only 30 minutes apart, we barely had time to visit, what between her three kids and my two. Add a couple of husbands, a few jobs…next thing you know, months have passed without so much as a lunch date! When she moved to Tallahassee, I was heartbroken. “Now I’ll never see you.”
She looked at me and stated quite bluntly, “You never see me now.”
While my first reaction was hurt, I couldn’t argue. She was right.
Thankfully, our family has a resident Woman-in-Charge-of-Family-Gatherings who coordinates such events — my beautiful stepmother. Realizing it had been a while since our last gathering, considering the fact that my international pilot brother was in town, my cross roads trucker brother was on hand, my sister and I both without events, she scheduled dinner. Casual, easy, a let’s-just-hang-out-together kind of evening. The resident Woman-in-Charge-of-Everything-Else (my illustrious mom) will be there, too. Odder still, what goes on in small towns!
It’s actually very nice to be able to include everyone at the dinner table, and we do so, blending adult children and offspring, grandparents and friends, the new traditions continues; my daughter is baking for said event. Which means I’m tasting. Well, I am Resident-Chief-Taste-Officer-of-all-Things-She-Bakes! Where do you think her sweet tooth came from–the tooth fairy?
Nope. She inherited it from me, and I inherited mine from my dad (her second favorite person to bake for — after her daddy, of course). Nibbling into the first morsel, the cookie melted in my mouth, drenching my palate with sheer glory. The girl has outdone herself. Using a recipe she found in Cuisine at home cooking magazine, she made butterscotch cookies and I’m here to tell you, these cookies are fantastic! Who knew you could pack so much flavor into a simple cookie?
I’m talking real flavor; a mix of ginger and brown sugar, butterscotch and confectioner’s. If you like cookies, you need to try these. You’ll find the recipe on my blog as it’s not available online. Plopping the remainder of the sample in my mouth, I gazed up at my girl from my spot on the couch, my shirt shamelessly covered with sweet white powder and swallowed. “May I have another?”
She grinned. “You like them?”
“Like them? I love them.”
Rule number one: if you want seconds, you’d better compliment the chef. Cooking may be her passion, but positive reinforcement is her natural desire. And you don’t want to be dropped from the invite list when it comes to her dessert table.
Rule number two: try to keep your cookie consumption to a minimum. There are others waiting for the cookie dish so please move aside. Chagrin. Snag. Thank you, come again!
The good news is we can always make more. And with Valentine’s Day drawing near, you may find yourself wanting to ply your way into the heart of someone special — and these cookies will certainly do the trick! Unless your sweetheart is allergic to butterscotch whereby I’d try a different course. Chocolate does make for a handy backup plan, though, and comes in all shapes and sizes.
Just a friendly reminder. Family, friends and love…isn’t that what living is all about?
I so agree with you, brownies do vanish into thin air when you make them LOL. Butterscotch cookies sounds delish though.
They are evaporate-on-thought good!