View from the Kitchen

Extra Fancy

I bake to make the house smell great. I bake to clear my head. I bake on cold mornings (my mom's classic excuse that she used even in July...). And I bake to remember and to forget. My mom died on May 19th after a nearly year long battle with kidney cancer. I miss her so much my heart actually aches in my chest. I miss her when I think of questions she can't answer and things I can't share. But there are things that help and one starts with turning on the oven.

I love borrowing cookbooks from friends. You can see the worn pages, water marks and stains... all evidence of well loved recipes. Last year I made a half hearted attempt to make Snickerdoodles. I was so disappointed to figure out that most recipes have Crisco. I have a love hate thing with vegetable shortening. It does make pie crust better, but it stops there for me. I made a couple of the recipes, and didn't even finish the cookies. Blech. Well, a dear friend Susan loaned me her Emily Lucchetti cookbook and the cinnamon sugar cookie was right there, on the page with the split binding. Tonight I made it with extra fancy Vietnamese Cassia Cinnamon that I got for my birthday from Katherine Scott in a huge box of crazy spices. The house smells mind-blowingly good. You can buy your own Extra Fancy on the link above, since I won't be loaning you any of mine. It's only been available in the US since 1994 when the trade embargo with Vietnam was lifted. Penzey's Spices asserts it's the highest quality and the strongest available and based on the way that our house smells I believe it. I'm surprised our neighbors aren't stumbling out onto the lawn zombie style to follow the smell. Here's to old cookbooks and dear friends and cookies that heal.

posted by PerfectPear @ Tuesday, June 26, 2007