Summer Recipe - Ripe Peaches

Ok, so this is not a real recipe, but I just couldn't help myself. There are some food experiences that are infused with memories - via touch, taste and smell - so powerful, they transport you back in time. For me, ripe summer peaches are one of my special food memories. My Watts grandparents had a large dairy farm in Bourbon County Kentucky that was sprinkled with various home grown produce. They had a huge vegetable garden just behind their house, which brings back both wonderful and painful memories (those are way too many beans Mamma!), but surrounding the vegetable garden was a spattering of fruit trees/bushes. There was a small orchard diagonal to the garden, next to an old horse barn, that had cherry trees, blue berries and grape vines on the old wooden black fence. But nearer to the house was a very mature peach tree.

Peaches in Kentucky can be hit or miss. Sometimes the frost gets the blossoms just when they are getting ready to produce the fledgling peaches, or when they do make it, letting them ripen is also risky, since deer tend to love those ripe peaches as much as we do! During those rare summers when we happened to be visiting during a year when we hit the ripeness right on target, we were blessed with a wonderful treat!

So, what was the grand recipe?

• Ripe peaches.
• An old kitchen knife (crooked and worn well).
• A small china bowl (cereal size works well) - with or without pattern - but chips on the sides might be a very important ingredient. Picture shows my bowl of choice - Pappa's favorite cereal bowl. 
• Granulated sugar and a spoon (crooked/worn spoon is also a must, but sugar may be in a cup or bring out the trusty sugar bowl with chipped lid).
• Lots of napkins to catch the juice!

Instructions: slice up that peach into nice bite-sized portions - leave the skin on! Pour some sugar into your bowl....then.....dip those peach slices into the sugar before placing them into your mouth. If outside, on a summer day, close your eyes and breathe in that hot summer air....and remember those sweet memories.
Come on! The summer is only half over! Go get some ripe peaches!
C

Advent Calendar - Ma's Cookies

Earlier in the year I wrote a lengthy post about Ma's (Nellie Cox Beyersdoerfer) sugar cookies. They have been an absolute favorite and permanent Christmas tradition for at least four generations. The recipe is simple but when cooked to proper perfection (done on the bottom but taken out before browning), they are light, soft and chewy, with a wonderfully light nutmeg and Cinnamon essence. The picture I have included is their traditional round form, but the various forms they can take are endless. With this round form, we have dressed them up for Christmas with red and green sugar sprinkled on top. However, it really wouldn't be Christmas if we didn't use some of our old cookie cutters to make things more festive. When shapes are used, we have added the tradition of a light confectioner's sugar icing on top - which can be tinted to any color you prefer. Uber delicious!

I have included the recipe again below. The image of that cook-stained original clipping from Ma's kitchen is one of those wonderful pieces of heritage genealogy that I adore most of all. In fact, it is so precious to the family, that whenever anyone gets married, we make a color copy on photographic paper and then frame it to give to the brides. A surefire way to implement an old tradition into a new household!

In my previous post I included a lot about Nellie and my memories of her cookies on the kitchen table, but since this cookie tradition was started in her home, I've decided to include some photos we have of the home place which was torn down just a few years ago.
This precious photo, as faded as it is, has a caption on the back: Christmas 1936. This was taken on the front porch of Nellie and John's home. All of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren grew up visiting Ma here, and sneaking more than one cookie during their visit. Nellie is the woman center front. Travelling to the left is her mother, Oleva Ellen Mockbee Cox, and the young woman on the far left, trying to hide, is one of the daughters (my Grandmother), Freida Beyersdoerfer Watts. This is the house a few years fore they razed it.....but no one has lived in it for years, and with no indoor bathroom facilities (there's another memory I have from childhood!), I'm not very surprised. It sat on a hill in northeastern Pendleton County Kentucky. Each time we make these cookies, we picture this place, and the warm, loving woman inside working to make her family welcome and comfortable.

Be sure to give these cookies a try! You'll be glad you did!

CD

12/8/10

From Nellie's Kitchen - Sugar Cookies

I am a firm believer that the most potent memories are those that call upon sound, sensation or taste to render an impact. Which is why I am fascinated by recipes, musical scores and physical objects of the past. At every opportunity, I attempt to cook with recipes that are from the previous generations. By sharing a taste experience, perhaps we can get just a bit closer to those who came before us. So, from time to time, I hope to share a recipe or two, to bring out the more flavorful elements of my family memories.

Some of my most precious, as well as tactile, memories from childhood are centered on visits to my great-grandmother, Nellie Isabelle Cox Beyersdoerfer's home. She lived to be 90, but passed away when I was nine, so even though my years with her were few, she made quite an impact.....and continues to do so. She was the family's keeper of history. Not only did her collection include stories and family heirlooms, but also antiques from her community of Pendleton County Kentucky. My mother spent many a weekend taking Nellie around to estate sales to buy up some of her favorite items. I have even heard tale of grandma Nellie (aka "Ma") instructing my mother to crawl down into the cellar of a burnt house because she could see a fancy teacup lying among the debris.....a sort of accepted form of looting, I suppose, but Mom still has the teacup, complete with blackened melted glass stuck on the side. Those two were quite the wild pair, but their closeness meant I was taken along for visits to Ma's on a regular basis.

Whenever I would arrive, there on her kitchen table was an antique cut glass covered bowl full of her signature sugar cookies. I would pull up a stool that was part ladder and had supported many of the children in our family over the years, and devour a big, delectable cookie. However, Ma's recipe was not exactly HER signature recipe since she got it from an old William Tell flour package or booklet. My mother still has the original as Ma used it, a roughly torn out piece of paper from the early part of the century. Sadly, Dad laminated it years ago, before we all understood the implications of lamination from the preservation point of view, but we've since made multiple scans and copies to pass out to the family over the years. I have a copy framed and sitting on my counter at all times.....I love decorating with old recipes!

At first glance, this appears to be just your standard, run of the mill, sugar cookie recipe, but it is the addition of nutmeg that makes this little cookie unique. As you can see, the recipe calls for a half teaspoon of nutmeg, but no salt, which is a staple among other sugar cookie recipes. I will confess that I use salted butter when making this recipe, so there is a little salt in there. Otherwise, I can say I don't miss the extra saltiness. Although, if you can swing freshly grated nutmeg, which is much easier than it sounds, the taste is a bit more robust.

All in all, it turns out to be a very light and soft cookie. Ma always followed the tip at the bottom and added sugar with her own addition of cinnamon to the top of the cookies prior to going into the oven, and I completely agree with this little step. The cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg, make this cookie a delicious little treat.

When I make this one at Christmas, I forgo the cinnamon and sugar in lieu of a simple confectioner's sugar icing which adds even more sweetness with a bit of a bite. I have always noticed that the fine print at the bottom suggests the addition of lemon for a smart little lemon cookie. I haven't tried that simply because I love the original version so much. Either way, the secret to this cookie is taking the cookie out of the oven after it has puffed up a bit and before you notice any golden color at the base. If you see the light brown forming, the end product can be a little more crispy than desired. One thing I have changed from the recipe, I cook them at 350 or 375 instead of the 450 as recommended. It cooks them a little slower, and gives you plenty of time to watch over them to prevent burning. One other thing I remember....Ma's cookies were much larger than the standard cut out we use today. I was never around when she made these, but I'm guessing she used a lid or jar for her cookies to get them so big. All kinds of shapes work well with this cookie, as long as it has been well refrigerated first! Oh, and be sure to keep them in an air tight container to keep them soft!

Enjoy this family memory, and have some fun experimenting with it!

C

6/26/10

In case you can't see the print of the original recipe very well, I have transcribed it below:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar (granulated)

2 eggs

1 tablespoon cream

2 1/2 cups William Tell Flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Cream butter and sugar; add beaten eggs and cream. Sift the dry ingredients and beat into mixture. Roll and cut. Sprinkle with sugar or nuts and bake at about 450 degrees F.

Note: Grated rind of a lemon and a tablespoon of lemon juice will make delicious lemon cookies over this recipe.