Grandma cookies for the win!
Dec. 24th, 2007 08:15 amThe "Wham, Bam, Thank you, M'am." Winter Tour 2007 of the Hellmouth went without a hitch. Now I am back in dear old tallytown, where I am freezing my toesies off.
(I went from 80 degree weather in the Hellmouth to the current temperature of 35 degrees.)
Today, I will go to the grocery store and get ingredients for Christmas Eve dinner. (Salmon steaks, steamed asparagus, something the Frugal Gourmet calls "Christmas Eve Pasta" a dish consisting of penne pasta, cream sauce, fresh peas, red bell peppers and onions. It certainly looks festive.)
An exciting addition to the meal and my life, "Grandma cookies".
This has to be the best winter ever because I received the sacred "Grandma cookies" recipe. (For my own personal gluttony and not commercial use, of course.)
I have been gorging myself on these morsels of love and awesome since the first Christmas I knew belismakr and first stumbled upon the "Grandma cookie".
And what is a "Grandma cookie"? At it's root definition it is a sour cream cookie with icing, but that simple definition does it no justice.
When you first bite into a "Grandma cookie" you notice the delicate crunch softening by the delicate schmear of icing. After that you feel the flaky soft inner cookie play with the mons of your tongue. At this point, if you are quiet enough, you can hear your taste buds sing the second verse of Handel's "Messiah".
Yes, they are that good.
Today I will make my first attempt at recreating the "Grandma cookie". Personally, I think the reason they taste so incredible is due to the amount of Grandma love she puts into each cookie. Here is hoping I can replicate that love.
(I went from 80 degree weather in the Hellmouth to the current temperature of 35 degrees.)
Today, I will go to the grocery store and get ingredients for Christmas Eve dinner. (Salmon steaks, steamed asparagus, something the Frugal Gourmet calls "Christmas Eve Pasta" a dish consisting of penne pasta, cream sauce, fresh peas, red bell peppers and onions. It certainly looks festive.)
An exciting addition to the meal and my life, "Grandma cookies".
This has to be the best winter ever because I received the sacred "Grandma cookies" recipe. (For my own personal gluttony and not commercial use, of course.)
I have been gorging myself on these morsels of love and awesome since the first Christmas I knew belismakr and first stumbled upon the "Grandma cookie".
And what is a "Grandma cookie"? At it's root definition it is a sour cream cookie with icing, but that simple definition does it no justice.
When you first bite into a "Grandma cookie" you notice the delicate crunch softening by the delicate schmear of icing. After that you feel the flaky soft inner cookie play with the mons of your tongue. At this point, if you are quiet enough, you can hear your taste buds sing the second verse of Handel's "Messiah".
Yes, they are that good.
Today I will make my first attempt at recreating the "Grandma cookie". Personally, I think the reason they taste so incredible is due to the amount of Grandma love she puts into each cookie. Here is hoping I can replicate that love.
With the winter holidays just around the corner, I decided it would be a logical act to knit not one, but five presents.
(This is not counting the chainmail tunic I am knitting for Jonathan or the wedding shrug I am knitting for my wedding attire.)
This first project is different from what I am used to working with, fibre. This pattern requires the use of metal, 34 gauge metal wire to be specific.

Knitting with metal, in progress picture.

Knitting with metal, close up.
You might wonder, what does it feel like to knit with metal? I can only describe as the feeling I had, physically of playing "Flight of the Bumblebee" on new violin strings when I made first chair.
To those of you who don't play a strings instrument, I am about an hour of labor away from having calloused and bloody fingers*, damn!
It's really not that bad. My fingers are a little sore because, well, it's basically piano wire. Plus, my pampered digits are used to dealing with wool and cotton.
When completed, 16 times to make 2 sets of eight napkin rings, I should have something that looks like this.

Pattern:
http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTvenezia.html
*(I played the violin from the age of 8 until the age of 20. During my symphony years, we practiced so long and hard, there would be bloody fingers, especially on new strings.)
(This is not counting the chainmail tunic I am knitting for Jonathan or the wedding shrug I am knitting for my wedding attire.)
This first project is different from what I am used to working with, fibre. This pattern requires the use of metal, 34 gauge metal wire to be specific.
Knitting with metal, in progress picture.
Knitting with metal, close up.
You might wonder, what does it feel like to knit with metal? I can only describe as the feeling I had, physically of playing "Flight of the Bumblebee" on new violin strings when I made first chair.
To those of you who don't play a strings instrument, I am about an hour of labor away from having calloused and bloody fingers*, damn!
It's really not that bad. My fingers are a little sore because, well, it's basically piano wire. Plus, my pampered digits are used to dealing with wool and cotton.
When completed, 16 times to make 2 sets of eight napkin rings, I should have something that looks like this.
Pattern:
http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTvenezia.html
*(I played the violin from the age of 8 until the age of 20. During my symphony years, we practiced so long and hard, there would be bloody fingers, especially on new strings.)