The Recipe Box — Behind the Story

There it is. Doesn’t really look like much, huh? Truth be told, this is one out of three recipe boxes of my mom’s that I inherited. But this is the one with the cookie recipes, tucked into the front in no alphabetical order.

The family story is that Mom and Dad had recently moved to Fredericksburg, VA and were invited to a Christmas cookie and recipe exchange. Those recipes became the standards that Mom baked over the years and the basis for many special childhood memories.

Food plays a special part in family gatherings, creating memories and traditions that become touchstones of our shared experiences. I hope that as you read, the story brought fond memories of your grandmother’s bread or an uncle’s fried turkey. To all the chefs out there —bakers and cooks—who create the dishes and meals that help us celebrate family, thank you all.

As always, thanks for reading,

—Phillip

ps… promised recipe from the box in the story is below!

GramNan’s M&M Cookies

 Yield:  between 4-6 dozen, depending on size of cookie (6 dozen for 2 ½ inch cookie)

 Ingredients:

 ·       1 ½ - 2 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)

·       1 cup brown sugar (packed)

·       ½ cup granular sugar

·       2 tsp vanilla

·       2 eggs

·       2 ¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour

·       1 tsp baking soda

·       1 tsp salt

·       1 ½ cups M&Ms  (3/4 lb bag)

 Directions:

 Blend shortening and sugar.  Beat in vanilla and eggs.  Sift remaining dry ingredients and add to sugar/egg mixture.  Mix well.  Stir in ½ cup M&Ms, reserving the rest to decorate.

 Drop from teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Add M&Ms to top of each cookie (about 3 per cookie).

 Cook at 375oF 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

 Note: I recommend after mixing up the batter to let it chill in the refrigerator. If too warm, the cookies will spread out, merge with each other, and bake too quickly (burn).