“come here… eat this piece of asiago…” my grandmother (nanny) beckoned my
elementary school friend, alea, to eat the bit of hard white cheese on the
white napkin in nanny’s outstrectched hand.
“don’t worry… i didn’t touch it”, nanny added.
of course my friend alea didn’t care if nanny had touched
it. alea wasn’t afflicted with the
crippling ocd that nanny was… everything nanny owned was white, germs were
everywhere, baby wipes were used for everything, pills had to be checked and
re-checked before taking them, and calcium was a necessity-never a shortage of
milk, calcium fortified orange juice and of course…the asiago cheese.
people who were close to nanny often were blinded by her
ocd… the annoyance of her mind constantly in fear overdrive. but just as none of us are any one
thing… neither was nanny.
she was a classical guitar player and teacher, cancer
survivor, child of the great depression, raised in a house with 18 kids (9 of
which her father took in when their parents died suddenly), she told stories of
sneaking blackberry brandy sips in the basement when she was 8 and then
sledding down icy streets, she always bought me novelty socks with owls and
flowers on them, her purse always contained white tic-tacs and kleenex, she
made incredible meatballs-on holidays my cousins had a contest of who could eat
the most, she never smoked and only drank bailey’s on very special occasions
(basically only on alternating february 29th’s), she shopped for liz
claiborne in the petite section of nordstrom and loved a sale, her feet were
tiny and her skin was like porcelain (she wore sunscreen daily-not that she was
ever exposed to any actual sun), noone could ever cut her hair correctly, and
she would surprise me…
when she died 2 september’s ago i found out that she kept a
dream journal… odd for an italian catholic woman… right?
she also baked… these amazing cookies. every christmas she would bake about 50
dozen cookies and package them up in white boxes and i would ride with her in
her blue chevy caprice to deliver them to all of the people she knew--- mostly
doctor’s naturally. these cookies
were simple but perfect. i miss
nanny everyday. somedays it’s
overwhelming… and some days i’m just overwhelmed by silly petty bummers or
tribulations… days like that, i break out her recipes and the cake flour and
the sifter and bake a few dozen batches.
the thing with me is.. i never stop moving. this frustrates people. i’m always looking for the quicker way. i rarely sit and do nothing or even
just one thing at a time. but when
i bake nanny’s cookies i’m forced to do things the slow way. i must wait for the butter to
soften. i need to fold the sugar
in slowy. and as nanny drilled
into my head the flour must be sifted 3 times.
sometimes after the second sifting i think, “what’s the
difference, noone’s looking.” but
then i go ahead and sift once more… just in case.
so here they are… sure to cheer you up when you’re bummed
out…
sandies (5 dozen)
preheat oven to 300
combine & blend well…
3/4 cup softened butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp water
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
stir in…
2 cups of cake flour (sift 3x’s)
add…
6 oz’s of semi-sweet chocolate chips
form 1 inch balls
bake at 300 for 30 minutes
roll in powdered sugar
sand tarts (6 dozen)
preheat oven to 350
combine & blend well…
1 cup softened butter
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
beat in gradually…
1 cup sugar
1 egg
stir in…
2 cups cake flour (sifted 3x’s)
add…
6 oz’s of semi-sweet chocolate chips
drop by teaspoons on ungreased cookie sheet & bake at
350 for 15 minutes
here is the nanny
nanny is on the far right on the italian's lap...
mangia mangia... nanny serves up pasta
and then we hit the late 1960's
and here are the cookies...
