Dec 22, 2005 14:09
Currently, I'm making Italian anisette cookies. I just made the dough, and it's on my back porch, chilling. It's a family tradition to make a variety of cookies at Christmas (spritz, Swedish nut, chocolate chip), and this recipe was passed down from my mother's Italian grandmother.
Of course, since my great grandmother has four daughters, they all have their own version of Nonina's recipe. While trying to figure out which one to make, I picked one that was written in what is either my mother's or grandmother's handwriting.
It's a piece of paper folded in half, so I unfolded the other side out of curiosity. There's a cute little drawing of a house with Gothic architecture (complete with a bat detail on the roof). I or my Nanny may have drawn it years ago, but I don't remember. Then, I folded it back, but I noticed that on the other side of the folded part, there was a little note. It reads,
"Dear Lola (my mom),
Please call your mother.
Love, Mom (my Nanny, her mother in law)"
I love finding things like that. It made me happy inside. Baking always makes me think of doing it as a child with my mother, Nanny, and my sister all crowded in the kitchen making my Nanny's famous apple pies and peanut butter cookies, as well as other yummy things. It's nice to know that whenever I bake, it's like she's there again.
nostalgia