cranberry bread – a true kitchuation
grandma betty is nothing if not concise in her cookbook. some of the recipes assume some knowledge of cooking and force me to rely on what i know to get a dish to come out the way i’d like. the recipe for her cranberry bread (or, at least, i assume it is her recipe because there is no name written after it) is a perfect example. it is less a recipe and more a list of ingredients with a baking temp and time.
grandma betty’s cranberry bread recipe
Betty’s Danish Puff Pastry
Hi, I am Betty’s oldest daughter, and since my daughters have gotten interested in Mom’s recipe book, I thought for our 40th Anniversary I would make these for the kids.
As our oldest grandson Cody observed, mom’s cursive is something to read. So here is the recipe.
Soft Betlasses Cookies – by Dandylion
During a baking day with Joe’s family, I enjoyed learning how to make Grandma’s Soft Molasses Cookies – these may be my favorite cookies! Of course, the recipe doesn’t give us all the info we need, but I (with the help of my help of my aunt-in-law, Heather) figured it out! I got this Grammy – don’t think you can stump me yet…
christmas cookies with the hollenbachs
i had forgotten how a scent can trigger a memory. this weekend, i experienced a moment of such pure scent memory that i felt surprised then all warm and fuzzy inside. it started with grandma betty’s sugar cookies which i was looking forward to making all week – even though it felt like events were consipiring to keep me from it.
i finally got around to making the dough on friday night, but it didn’t really look like i recalled. it was much more shaggy looking. being the dutiful recipe follower, i popped it into the refrigerator to cool and came back to it on saturday. i had stored it in discs like below:
when i started to unwrap the disc, i was hit by the smell that i recalled so strongly from childhood cookie decorating. i couldn’t believe i’d forgotten it and i was giddy as i started to roll out the dough. it truly felt like christmas in the house.
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Getting Sauced!
not what you’re thinking, debbs! grandma betty does have plenty of recipes that call for booze, but unfortunately i’m not reporting in on that one. when we were growing up, i always wanted to make spaghetti sauce just like mom did…well, i never knew how. then the magical book came along at christmas and there was the recipe! i was so excited to finally have my chance to make the sauce that we grew up using! (making a sauce in my house is a huge challenge as it better live up to my italian husband’s standards!)
i tried the recipe immediately after i got it…though i made some adjustments. this is what i got when i was done:
grandma’s christmas cookies
growing up this time of year, we all looked forward to making cookies. mom faithfully followed grandma’s recipe and we kids decorated something like 8 dozen cookies each year.
looking back, i believe the recipe probably only worked for about 2 dozen cookies but my mom must have quadrupled the batch to keep us busy. though her kitchen was a wreck, she could sneak away and wrap presents, watch tv, or just enjoy the silence while the 6 of us blithely decorated and fought and snuck cookies in the kitchen.
it looked something like this:
oddly, dandy lion is missing from this photo. there is a strong chance that she was only a couple months old and therefore not required to participate.
this weekend, i’ll be recreating this recipe from grandma betty. the one recipe that stands out as one my mother tried to pass onto us.
