Spritz

The holidays are filled with traditions. Religious traditions take on deep meaning for some people this time of year, but I am talking about the traditions we create in our own homes with our own immediate family. Some things get passed down and enjoyed by several generations like spritz cookies at NOLD.

I remember making them as a child and was delighted to find a cookie press at a garage sale long ago before my husband and I even had children. Not one of the new plastic cookie presses found in all the stores these days, but an aluminum cookie press from Mirro still in the original box. Then, I found another one after my second daughter was born; I want to pass one down to each of them.

My spritzer cookie recipe includes brown sugar and almond extract, although I have seen many different versions in print and online. And, I love coloring the dough to celebrate the season and enhance the visual presentation of the cookies.

I remember watching in amazement as a young child how the dough would come out of the mold in beautiful shapes. Once they filled the baking sheet, we could help decorate them with sprinkles of all sorts, usually heavily. As a child, more was certainly better.

Making spritz cookies at Christmas brings me great joy. I put on the carols and sing along. The kitchen gets toasty warm from the oven. The smell of butter and sugar baking waft into the air, and I am overwhelmed with gratitude. What fun!

Really, I could be playing with blocks or toy soldiers, but I am playing with dough and a press instead. I have made all sorts of cookies already this year, but I am saving cut out cookies and spritz cookies to make with my girls now that school has ended. I can see how much they already appreciate and look forward to our traditions. The time together is priceless.

Christmas trees are my favorite whether filled with ornaments or as spritz cookies with milk. Beautiful, don't you agree?

Snag

I have run into plenty of snags lately like the new rye bread recipe that I had planned to gift but wasn't fit for human consumption after my first attempt. Or, the unrealistic number of projects I planned to complete in December for the holidays or as a foundation for resolutions in the coming year. Or, an extended snowfall that never reached the volume to cancel school but certainly curtailed plans and slowed carpool travel for this mom.

Still, the snowfall has been beautiful and lasting, because the wind hasn't picked up to knock it from the branches and the temperatures haven't spiked to melt it away. This is winter at its finest and just in time for decorating for the holidays. Here, I inadvertently encountered a snag of another sort and learned something new in the process, too.

The established English Yews on our property have seen better days. The deer nibble incessantly on them in the winter such that the bush closest to the front door had so little greenery left, it died last summer. Instead of allowing my husband to yank it from the ground immediately, I decided to string it with white lights linked by timer with the lantern nearby as a festive touch at nightfall, some ambiance of sorts in my book.

Then, I read about snags, or wildlife trees, on A Way to Garden, a horticulture blog by Margaret Roach that I follow and highly recommend. Margaret suggests cultivating dead and dying trees and bushes as habitat for living things. Remove what is necessary for safety and leave the rest as biomass to balance the ecosystem in your garden. What do you know? The English Yew Snag is not only beautifully lit but also an essential element to the health of our land. I can live with a snag like that.

Finally, I began my cookie baking this week which really brought the holiday spirit into the house along with the snow and some carols. For cookie aficionados throughout the year, I have to recommend a new book, European Cookies for Every Occasion by Krisztina Maksai. The directions are thorough and the recipes increase in difficulty with each successive chapter so that you can bake cookies that not only appeal to your palate but also insure success at your skill level in the kitchen. I am sure someone would reward you deliciously, if you gifted it this holiday season. Just an idea to ponder....

Landscape

In the last two weeks, I took two short trips, one east and one west of home, to get my big city fixes. Driving through the rural landscape that can be found in large parts of this country, I always feel a combination of melancholy at the widespread, rundown state of affairs and nostalgia for the beauty interspersed and the stories hidden beneath. 

I then found this short documentary video, Howard's Farm, by Ivan Cash on an 86-year old farmer in my home state that speaks directly to my feelings. Howard as well as farms and small towns and open spaces right off the interstate inspired this late autumn poem:

Rural Landscape

Turn the GPS off or
Drop the directions onto the passenger seat
Sip your coffee while it is hot
Crack the window and listen to the classics down low or
Belt it out with a favorite, evoking memories of youth

Allow the endless rows of telephone poles to hypnotize
Marvel at the labor that planted them like breadcrumbs
Count the birds on the wire that watch you pass
Remember how far you once stretched the telephone cord to
Reach the bathroom, shut the door, and plan adolescent escapades

Follow a wood fence or wall of stones that has seen better days
Drive back roads that meander without sign or marker
Curve around the bend and hug the hills, cross the tracks
Embrace the quilted fields and furrowed rows now fallow
Recall how mud and dirt were once your constant companions

Envy the heavy coats of sheep undeterred in the bone chilling cold
Appreciate the rusted Deeres, the forgotten bales of hay, the hens free to roam
Choose a favorite among the many dilapidated barns washed a dingy gray
Ache as if you were the weathered man in the rocker on the porch
Know he could have been your grandfather once, his memories your harvest

***

Finally, I want to share a quick Christmas craft I enjoy each year. I save last year's holiday cards and use them to make gift tags. So easy. I give sets of them as gifts and use them to wrap my own presents as well. I think this handmade, personal touch not only adds to my enjoyment of giving but also reflects who I am as the giver.