Take Me Back Tuesday: Not Your Ordinary Cookies

Over the weekend, I watched a show on the food network channel which was a bake off among several teams. One team struggled with a old fashion cookie recipe not coming out like the other team member remembered it from their childhood. An argument broke out and accusations of not following the recipe exact was the blame for the mishap with the cookies not being the best they should have been.

Now, normally I don't watch the food network, that is more my husbands style of television watching...I'm more into reality shows myself...but this argument caught my attention and I wanted to see how this ended. Mostly, it confirmed my thoughts on replicating vintage recipes from my past to only be slightly disappointed in the finished product today.

Growing up, I remember especially during my preteen and teenage years, I baked a lot. You name it, I could bake it. Especially during the summer months, my mom worked during the day, so I had lots of time for baking. I remember looking through cookbooks to find recipes that we had all the ingredients for and I'd make it. I have mentioned here before of a pound cake I used to make, that was to die for. It was the most flavorful, buttery, moist cake and it always came out perfect each and every time I made it.

Along with that pound cake, I made lots of cookies. Chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal, teacakes, sand tarts,  and butter cookies were just a few of the many cookies I'd bake. And even being a young baker, I never had any issues with anything I made not turning out just right. Never.

You would think at my age, and all the years I have spent in the kitchen cooking I would not have an issue with some of my favorite vintage recipes. I mean after all, I spent years making them perfectly when I was younger, so why would I have any issues today with the same tried and true recipes? I have struggled with that for a while now.

This weekend, I did some rearranging in my kitchen, cleaned out all the cabinets, brought out some of my favorite things that belonged to special people in my life and displayed them in my kitchen. I have said for years, I am buying back my childhood one item at a time, and so I unboxed several thrift store treasures that were exactly like the ones that once belonged to family members. Overall, I felt like it was a productive day, and honestly made me feel like cooking up something from my past.

And that is exactly what I did. I found some of my OLD cookbooks and sat and looked through them finding the recipes I always used to make. That was the easy part, as the pages that were the dirtiest, and smudged the most told me there was a recipe I had made over and over. I decided to give it a try once more and found the butter cookie recipe I so remembered from my childhood.

And I am happy to report that this turned out exactly the way I remembered them. They were like biting into a piece of the past and the warm cookies fresh from the oven were some of the best I have had in years. Consequently, that busted my theory on the ingredients today not being like they were 25 years ago. To sooth my bruised ego every time something did not turn out exactly the way I remembered it, that is what I have claimed was the cause. However, this weekend I could not say that at all.

So, I have come to the conclusion, that me being home alone this weekend, with no interruptions, no one poking a spoon in the bowl to see what is being made, no distractions at all was the difference in my baking one of my old time favorites. It almost took me back to when I was younger and would be the only one home, in the kitchen alone and turning out recipes right and left that were wonderfully delicious. At least, that is the only logical explanation I have at this moment.

Let me tell you, I was so impressed with these cookies and how they turned out I decided to go out on a limb and make another favorite dish my grandmother made when I was a little girl. This recipe was lost years ago, but the internet is a wonderful thing and as I searched for something similar, all of a sudden, the recipe started coming back to my memory.

Would you believe, this was the best tasting meal I can remember having in a long time. The sheer taste and smells in my kitchen on Sunday took me back to the days in my grandmothers kitchen all those years ago and a little girl who stood at the stove as her grandma made the most delicious meal that was always a favorite. I had forgotten how wonderful it smelled, tasted and how much love came from my grandma's kitchen. Isn't it great how a food can take you back to the places that are forever etched in your heart.

This Take Me Back Tuesday is all about the food and being able to achieve success with some of the vintage recipes of yesterday. It is about not being able to blame ingredients of today on my unsuccessful attempts in the recent past in making them. It is about realizing that maybe I need to slow down, and enjoy being in the kitchen without distractions, husbands, internet or television to keep me from being focused. It is about remembering wonderful things from the past and rediscovering them today and feeling a connection from long ago. It is about me having the courage to try that recipe again for the pound cake I so have a craving for. It is about having hope and faith.



P.S. I will share these recipes with you in the future, but I did not have the camera in the kitchen with me, and took no pictures at all....ahem....no camera in the kitchen....that may be another distraction I should have listed above......just sayin'