These cookies may look like nothing special, but to me they mean Christmas, plain and simple.

Every year of my childhood, Nanny and Mom would set out to make several dozen of these little guys, and then into the freezer they would go. First to be eaten at Christmas, but we’d eat the leftovers all year round, directly out of the freezer.

Whether ice cold directly out of the freezer or warm and gooey fresh from the oven, Reese’s Peanut butter cup cookies are a simple, poppable delicious treat for Christmas or any time.
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Post tags: baking, Christmas, cookies, Desserts, Nanny, peanut butter cups

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Annie and I met randomly when I stumbled upon her post for After Eight cupcakes, and explained to her where the “After Eight” comes from. (It’s the brand name of a mint chocolate candy in the UK) We became fast friends via google chat, and I can honestly tell you she is one of the most gifted photographers I’ve ever met. She also happens to be smokin’ hot and wickedly funny. I hope that you’ll visit With Sprinkles On Top to see all of her fabulous baking. – Amber
 

“What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance.  They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life.  And, most importantly, cookies.”  – Rudolph Giuliani

My name is Annie and I run With Sprinkles On Top. Amber’s grandmother passed away last week and she asked me to contribute a guest post to her blog. I only had to think for about 0.2 seconds before I knew what to bake: my grandmother’s cut-out cookies. As the wise quote from Rudy Giuliani states above, grandmothers provide more than just love and support — they usually provide delicious food to go along with it.

When I heard about Amber’s Nanny passing away, I couldn’t help but think about my own grandmother. My Omi passed away last November. I would give just about anything to be able to return to my childhood — to my grandparents’ house, which was always filled with the scents of good food and warm feelings of love. My grandma used to make hundreds of cookies every Christmas. Her classic and staple recipe was her cut-out cookie recipe. The cookies are a typical sugar cookie — but with a touch of nutmeg. The nutmeg gives the cookies a unique flavor and sets them apart from everyone else’s holiday cookies.

Every now and then I make my grandmother’s cookie recipe. My apartment fills with the familiar scent of these cookies and I always think about my Omi and how much I miss her. I sifted through my bin of cookie cutters and tried to find inspiration for the cookies in today’s post. I found my balloon cookie cutter and immediately thought of the movie “Up”. The movie, in short, is about an elderly widower named Carl who flies to South America (in a floating house) with a little boy named Russell. The story, specifically the pieces about the love between Carl and his late wife Ellie, is heartbreakingly poignant. I thought it was fitting to make these cookies as a representation of Carl’s house, floating up to the sky and filled with his memories.

Amber, I love you dearly and I’m thinking about you as you grieve for your beloved Nanny. And because you know how I much I love quotations, I’m going to end this post just as it started — with a quote.

“Nostalgia – it’s delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, “nostalgia” literally means “the pain from an old wound.” It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards… it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel, it’s called the carousel. It let’s us travel the way a child travels – around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know are loved.” — Don Draper, Mad Men

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Post tags: dessert, guest post, Nanny, sugar cookies

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This is probably one of the hardest posts I will ever write. I had planned to post the recipe for this High Rising Sandwich Bread on Sunday. But at 4 a.m., we received a call from my parents that my beloved Nanny had passed away. I spent most of Sunday in a fog. I know I was awake from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m., but I think I spent most of the day drinking cups of tea brewed by my wonderful husband, or playing Angry Birds to calm my mind.

I don’t know if I can ever adequately explain my relationship with my Nan, but if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that she’s pretty much the entire reason I even started blogging. I missed her, I missed her cooking, and I wanted to catalogue my journey to perfecting all the recipes she spent a lifetime teaching me.
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Post tags: baking, bread, King Arthur Flour, Nanny, sandwich bread

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Is there anything more familiar and wholesome than a peanut butter cookie? Not to this American girl. I was thinking a lot this morning about my nan. I miss her a lot. We just visited the family in San Antonio over July 4th, but it’s always hard to leave again.

This morning, thinking about Nanny, I was reminded of why I started this blog. So much of what she taught me is poured out on these few webpages. Sadly, she’s at the point now where she hardly cooks for herself anymore, and so she’s forgotten some of the favorite recipes we cooked together. Even stuff I’m not a fan of, like her potato salad. I can make it by heart, even though I never eat it. Her secret? Poppy seeds. But she’d forgotten about that the last time I was home and my sister was making it for a family meal.

While it’s a little heartbreaking, it also reaffirms to me why I should keep writing these recipes down, and sharing them with you. No matter what, there are recipes within a family that should go on. That should have a life beyond the people who made them their own.

Have I reinvented the wheel with these peanut butter cookies? Heck no. You don’t mess with perfection. But this recipe is special to me. It’s found in the pages of the Better Homes and Gardens “New” Cookbook, which has been faithfully published since 1930. The one in my grandmother’s kitchen was published in 1957. It may be falling apart, but it is well loved and well utilized.

Nanny started my cookbook collection, giving me the paperback version of this cookbook. Inside the first page, she wrote, “Dear Am, Thought you might enjoy this cook book. A start for your collection of recipes. Love, Nanny & Gaga”, dated February 5th, 1997 – the day before my 17th birthday. I think Nanny always knew that I would be the messy but good cook, while my sister is the well organized tidy one. While both Chellee and I have improved on the other’s respective talents, we still shine most in what is our element. I really cherish the fact that our grandmother took the time to know the differences between us while loving us equally. No two girls were as blessed for grandparents than Chellee and I – except maybe Maggy and Sharon over at Three Many Cooks.

Today, I made a batch of peanut butter cookies. And I remembered baking them with my Nanny, at the ripe age of 4. I remember her teaching me how to roll the balls in sugar, and how to press them with a fork. And I remember the handslap for trying to grab one before they were cool. The first of many, for sure.

Go make these. And remember your own mom, grandma, aunt or godmother. Whether she taught you how to bake or not, she taught you something that makes you who you are today. Thanks, Nanny. I love ya.

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Post tags: cookies, Nanny, peanut butter

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My Nan’s potato soup has always been on my list of comfort foods. It’s never the same twice, but it always tastes amazing. It’s one of the few things that I like the taste of pepper in.

When we decided to have friends over for New Year’s Day, I wanted to keep the food simple. The excesses of the previous few weeks were catching up to all of us, and the last thing we wanted was another heavy calorie-laden meal.

Call me crazy, but I was also pretty nervous to be making a meal for a cook book author. She’s like a second mother to me these days, but this was my first time really cooking for her. If you care about the food you make for other people, I don’t know who wouldn’t be nervous!

I’m happy to say our little party, and the soup, went off without a hitch. This warm and hearty soup was exactly what we all needed on a cold day. Along with the wonderful conversation and nibbles like My Mamma’s Salsa, and pigs in a blanket, we were one happy bunch, and it really started the new year off right.

The Players:: Potatoes, an Onion, Celery, Bacon, Green (Spring) Onion, Chicken Broth, Salt, Pepper, Nature’s Seasoning (or garlic and celery salt instead), Milk and Cornstarch (pictured later)

Start by chopping the ingredients that will cook first – potato, onion, and celery. There’s no need to peel the potatoes, though you can if you want to. On New Year’s Day, we made this soup using red potatoes, but for this attempt I used golden ones.

Per Nanny’s instructions, use one medium sized potato per adult you’re feeding. Because we wanted leftovers, I used 4 medium sized potatoes to double the batch.

There doesn’t seem to be too much of a taste difference, but I think I’ll probably use red potatoes from now on, just because they’re prettier in the finished product. (Call me a silly girl if you want to, I like asthetics!)

No need to dice things extra small, though I did keep the celery tinier because I didn’t want it’s crunchy texture to compete with the potatoes, onion, and bacon.

As you go along, just throw everything into your soup pot.

When you’ve got all three into the stock pot, sprinkle the whole thing with kosher salt. I’d say it was probably 1 tablespoon.

Then fill the pot with water so that it covers all the vegetables, with between 1/2 and 1 inch of water above. You can do more if you like a lot of broth. I then added 4 chicken boullion cubes. Instead of water and boullion, you can use the ready made boxed or canned chicken stock, or you can use vegetable stock if you’re going for vegetarian soup.

Now that everything’s on the stove, go ahead and add a little heat. This is all down to taste, but I’ll gather a guess that I added 1 tablespoon of black pepper, 1/2 tablespoon of Nature’s Seasonings, and 1 teaspoon of white pepper.

Please ignore my messy kitchen. Please?
Look! Here’s a pretty picture of it all bubbling away, just before I stirred the pepper in properly.

Allow this all to cook on high for as long as it takes the potatoes to get soft enough that they break apart when pierced with a fork, just like when you’re making mashed potatoes.

While that’s bubbling away, grab the bacon. (no, that’s not a euphamism!) Use as much or as little as you want here, but for goodness sake, don’t subsitute bacon bits! Use the real stuff! I used 4 strips of bacon, and I used kitchen shears to cut it into smaller pieces, which is much easier than trying to chop bacon with any of the crappy knives I own. One of these days I’ll get some good knives.. and a kitchen that has drawers on rollers.. and a double oven..***snaps back to reality*** where were we? Oh right.

Bacon. Mmmm.

Fry it up until it’s a little crispy. Don’t do what I did and char it until it’s in cinders.

When cooked, remove from the pan, and drain on a paper towel until the rest of your soup is ready.

The potatoes should be just about done after 30-35 minutes, though you can leave this to cook for up to an hour if you want. Everything will just get more tender and flavorful.

You’ll need a collander, and a second stock pot for this next part. Set up your empty pot with the collander over it. Pour everything from one pot to the other. All the lovely veg should stay in the collander, and the stock should now be in previously empty pot.

Don’t adjust your monitor. My sink is green. It’s kitschy in a cool way, but I really wish it were a double sink.

In this new pot, turn the heat back up to high. Now mix some cornstarch and water. I don’t know how to explain to mix the cornstarch in mathmatical terms, and for this, I am very sorry. I put a little more than two tablespoons in a cup, and a little bit of water, and stir until it’s a thin paste consistency.. then I add that to my stock to thicken.

At this time, also add in your milk. Add as little or as much milk as you want. I added about a cup. We’re all about cooking with love instead of math ’round these parts.

When the stock is thickened to a consistency you like, you can add it back to your potato-onion mixture. Make sure you don’t scald the stock. Now that it has milk in it, that can happen.

Also, chop up your green onions. Add both them and the bacon to your soup.

I’d let it simmer on low for another 5 to 10 minutes, but you can actually let it simmer for as long as you’d like, so long as the temperature is low enough to not scald the soup.

Mmmmm. Yummy stuff, man. Yummy stuff.

Variations of this soup can include swapping the bacon for ham, adding in chopped spinach, or using vegetable stock instead of chicken.

I topped mine with sharp cheddar cheese and saltines, James had his straight up. This soup freezes beautifully, and keeps in the fridge for up to 5 days. Enjoy!

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Post tags: bacon, chicken stock, cream, Nanny, potatos, soup

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Notice the years of cooking stains, the worn edges of the pages, binding that is slowly coming loose.

This war-torn tome is my grandmother’s favorite cookbook. No, it’s not Betty Crocker, nor is it Better Homes and Gardens, though she has both of those in her collection. This particular cookbook is “Recollections and Recipes From Army Wives: The Museum Cookbook”, compiled by the Army wives in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

From the forward:

“Our recipes are present day favorites and include everything from quick and easy to gourmet cooking. We think they symbolize the Army wife cooking today.”

I came home with four cookbooks in total. I just picked random ones out of her collection, and didn’t have much time to pour through them before we came back to New Jersey. While we were on the plane, I read every page of all four books.

What I found filled me with such a sense of family, and even nostalgia – for things I haven’t experienced, and people I hadn’t met – and yet was connected to through my love of creating good food for my family. Over the thirty plus years of my grandfather’s military career, my grandparents were stationed at Fort Leavenworth several times, and my mother has fond memories of growing up on the base there. This cookbook is filled with the heart and soul of military wives. Each recipe has been handwritten by the woman that submitted it. Many of them identify themselves both by their given names, and their married names – Mrs. Smith, etc. These are women who defined themselves in the pride they have for their husband, and the service they as a family were doing for the country. I found so much honor and love as I poured through the pages looking for ideas for this blog.

The grey book here, much to my elated surprise, is an V.F.W. compilation published in the 1940s, when my grandfather was just a teenager. When I opened the first page, I was delighted by the retro advertisements at the very front of the book. I felt like I was stepping back in time.

Imagine my absolute shock and happiness when I spotted this:

Mabel Beatty is my great grandmother, my grandfather’s mother. Not only have I happened upon an actual piece of my own personal cooking history, I discovered the very recipe that spawned my grandfather’s lifelong obsession with cinnamon rolls. I cannot tell you how much this thrilled me. I was literally bouncing up and down in my seat on the plane. (Luckily, it was just James and me in the row!)

This lovely little book was put together by women in Alamosa, Colorado, which is not far from Monte Vista.

Both my grandparents grew up in the same small area of Colorado, though they came from vastly different families. My grandfather was the son of an enlisted man who was injured in World War I. He worked honest jobs, but they never had much. My grandmother’s family owned (and still does) one of the biggest ranches in Colorado, growing barley for Coors, and cattle for beef. Being diversified in these two things allowed them to maintain their wealth throughout the Great Depression. My grandparents met in college, and eloped. When my grandmother’s parents learned of her marriage to a man that wasn’t up to their standards, they disowned her and claimed she’d be back home within six months. At the time of my grandfather’s death, they’d been married 52 years. I hope my great grandmother didn’t hold her breath…

Despite their less than stellar relations, this book was a gift to my grandmother from her mother, for her birthday. I find this little book quite charming and ingenious. It was produced on a typewriter, with five different colored index cards. The sections of the book are divided by the colors, and includes everything from appetizers to casseroles, and of course, desserts. The cover is hand painted wood, and I imagine they probably had a couple of different designs.

Back to my grandmother’s favorite.. I should mention, it’s missing the back cover page, no doubt from years of heavy use. And then I spotted this:

That is the beginning handwriting of one Bluebonnets and Brownies blog author, folks. I can’t even begin to imagine what I was trying to write, but I’m almost certain this little stunt warranted a wooden spoon to my backside.

And now, because I promised my grandmother I would, I am sharing with you her very favorite recipe from this book. It’s from the pages that are so very work-stained. Nearly every week, she makes this recipe for Roquefort Sour Cream dressing (or.. you know, Blue cheese), because my family devours it in their weekly lunches at her house. I hope that you enjoy it as much as we do. And I should mention that while I get to keep all the other books I absconded with back from Texas, this little ruby darling must be shipped back to her owner for fear of my own life. Yes, the recipe is that good.

In the coming months, I hope to make many of the recipes contained in the books Nanny let me have. I think it will be a sort of soul-searching through cooking to connect to my own history, and I think it’s going to be an incredible journey.

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Post tags: cookbooks, love, Nanny, nostalgia

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This is another one of those gems from my Nanny. I can’t quite explain why I never thought to combine pasta and chili, but YUM! About 10 years ago I swung by her house for dinner, and this is what I was met with. She didn’t put sausage in it, but that’s because she used a different kind of chili that had much more meat to it.

I’m a little bit obsessed with this meal now, it was so incredibly good. I had made it for James once before, on a random night in England when we were both home late and starving. I don’t know why I forgot how good it is, or why it’s taken me this long to make it again. It’s totally going back into the meal rotation!

The great thing about this meal is that you can go about it two ways – you can make your own chili, and lay it on top of pasta, or you can use completely jarred/canned ingredients. Either way, it’s going to be amazing. And on your table in about 15 minutes flat. (If you used the canned stuff.)

The Players: Your choice of hot dogs/sausages, jarred or canned chili of your choice, spaghetti pasta, and sharp cheddar cheese for topping.

About my choices:

I love, Love, LOVE cheddarwursts. I don’t know what it is, but I think they’re great. In a tortilla, in a hot dog bun, in chili. If you have a craving for something savory, these guys will do the trick.

The hubby, however, prefers things with a little heat. So when I decided to make this dish, I used his favorite hot sausages, and my favorite cheddar sausages, and just used the little jars of Bush’s chili to keep serving sizes uniform, since I was cooking in two separate skillets.

You can get a big jar, the same size as regular jarred spaghetti sauce, and use that with one kind of sausage. Or use both. Or whatever sausage you want! Kielbasa would be great. Just use whatever amount of hot dogs or sausages and chili that will feed your family.

Normally, James and I can eat two of these hot dogs each, and that’s how I planned my cooking quantities.

You can use absolutely any kind of chili you want to. I really like this Bush’s chili. It’s pretty tasty, not too hot, and has beans and meat in it (you can also get beanless). It’s just the right consistency for this meal.

About our pasta – we use Dreamfields. It’s meant to be low-carb pasta. It tastes amazing. Initially, we bought it when we were on Atkins. But now I won’t buy any other. It’s light, and doesn’t make me feel like I’ve eaten a football. You know how pasta normally kinda sits at the bottom of your stomach once you’ve eaten a meal? Yeah, this stuff doesn’t do that. And it doesn’t impact your glycemic index. I dig that.

Once you’ve assembled your ingredients, get a pot of water on the boil for your pasta.

Then, take your sausages, and slice and chop them into quartered pieces.

p.s. I am sorry about the funky lighting in some of these photos. This is the first post to be done from our new kitchen, and the camera didn’t really like the new lighting!

Next, heat a frying or sauteing pan of appropriate size for your quantities. High heat is fine. Throw your sausage pieces into the pan, and allow to cook up until slightly browned and heated through.

You should also throw your spaghetti into the boiling water at this time.

When you really want to pick one of those little sausage pieces up and pop it in your mouth, you’re ready to add the chili.

And stir.

Let heat for whatever time your pasta needs to cook. In my case, it was 9 minutes.

While it’s doing that, you’ll want to stir occasionally, and also, decide that rather than the cheddar jack in the original photo, that you want Cabot’s Seriously Sharp Cheddar Cheese for the top of this bad boy. This cheese is the closest cheddar I’ve found to English cheddar made in America. It is amazingly good. Yeah, I shredded some, and then ate some, and then had to shred more. :/

Also, anything from Vermont = Good.

Your spaghetti should be al dente now, so pour that into a strainer, and get a lovely pasta facial. Then go find those great pasta bowls you got at Bed Bath and Beyond that make you feel posh, and throw it in there.

Take a big serving spoon, and add a couple dollops to the spaghetti. Top with sharp (I mean it, regular Cheddar is not going to cut it here!) Cheddar cheese. If it floats your boat, sour cream is good on top of this too. It just so happens that that does float my boat, and I’m still dreaming of how good it was. God, this post is making me hungry!

Here are our two dinners, James’s nice and spicy, mine deliciously savory.

Man, oh, man. I may never have regular spag bol again! (That’s Spaghetti Bolognaise, or just plain ol’ Spaghetti, if you’re from the U.S.)

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Post tags: cheese, cowboy, Nanny, pasta, sausages, spaghetti

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I don’t really know when this recipe came into my grandmother’s rotation, but I can say that the entire family got down on their knees and gave thanks that it did. This simple coffee cake is great for breakfast, snack, or after dinner dessert. You just can’t go wrong with a combination of brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and dough.

I’ve seen it referenced over the year by lots of different names: Monkey Bread, Pluck It Cake, Pull Apart Bread… Some people make it with the big ‘Grands’ biscuits, others say you have to use buttermilk biscuits rather than homestyle.. Personally, I go for the cheap, store bought 10 count refrigerator biscuits, and it’s always amazing. When it comes to Pluck It Cake, I think store brand everything works just as well as name brand.

I’m here to tell you you can make it any way you want to. Because really, it’s about that trifecta of brown sugar, butter and cinnamon. Sometimes I add vanilla, and always there are walnuts or pecans – but it really comes down to that ooey gooey mix that makes this simple cake so good.

The Players: 3 cans of refrigerator biscuits, cooking spray, ground cinnamon, brown sugar, 1 1/2 sticks of butter, and chopped walnuts or pecans.

You will also need a bundt pan (that funny looking pan with the hole in the center. Famous for jello molds. Spray it evenly with your cooking spray.

Start with your biscuits. Open 2 cans, and count out 15 biscuits, or 1 1/2 cans. Keep them separate from the other can and the other spare 5. This will make it easy to make sure your layers are evenly distributed.

Cut each biscuit into quarters – one slice vertical, one slice horizontal, and put aside.

Here’s your first 15 biscuits, quartered.

Now, take all those quarters, and layer them in the bottom of your greased bundt pan. It should look like this:

Once the first layer are in the pan, it’s safe to go ahead and cut the other 1 1/2 cans of biscuits into quarters and have them ready for your second layer.

You should also preheat your oven to 350F.

In a small sauce pan, melt your butter. Remember, 1 1/2 sticks.

Measure out 1 1/2 cups of packed brown sugar.

Add the brown sugar to your melted butter. Now please, don’t do what I did. I was using a small sauce pan, and I went to dump the brown sugar in, and made a huge splattery mess. I recommend spooning it in to your saucepan.

Then add 1 1/2 tablespoons of cinnamon.

When you get a nice deep brown color, stir in 1 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans, your choice.

When the mixture looks like the above (about 1-2 minutes), pour the mixture into a 2 cup measuring jug. You should have exactly 2 cups of this mixture now. 1 cup will go on the lower layer, and 1 cup will go on the top layer of biscuit quarters.

Pour the mixture around the bundt pan, over the biscuit quarters. Remember, use only half of your mixture, about 1 cup.

Once you’ve gone completely around the pan, and used 1 cup of your brown sugar mixture, start layering on the next set of biscuit quarters.

When the pan looks like this, pour on your 2nd half of liquid.

Now place your pan in your preheated oven, and bake for 45-55 minutes, or until golden brown. It is important not to overcook this cake. For all it’s simplicity, it is a very easy cake to make tough by overcooking. So start conservatively at 45 minutes, and if it doesn’t look like this picture at that mark, give it 5 more minutes, and keep checking back at 2-5 minute intervals.

Once out of the oven, give the cake 10 minutes to cool slightly, and then flip on to a plate or platter:

Now you can really see why it’s called ‘Pluck It’ cake. As soon as this is even remotely cooled off enough to touch, humans become like ravenous hyenas, ripping this sucker apart. It’s incredibly addicting, and once you’ve had one little piece, you can’t stop eating it.

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Post tags: biscuits, Breakfast, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, monkey bread, Nanny, pluck it cake

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