The Cookie Lady

Who?

The Cookie Lady! That's who!

Ok, before I get into who The Cookie Lady actually is, let me just give you a quick run-down of some other people in my family.

I seem to come from a line of people who are good at baking. Maybe that's why I'm good at it. (Shameless self-horn-tooting).

The bakers in my family come from both my dad's side, and my mom's side. Let's start with the paternal side. My dad of course, is an exceptional baker. We grew up with homemade bread, a task my dad took over from my mom, (I can't remember a time growing up where I ever had to eat spongey, gross-tasting store bought bread), and now he does that, on top of many other delicious baking items. I'm sure he'd say that he learned most of it from my mom, but, regardless, he is good at it. Next is my dad's mom. She makes the.best.chocolate.cake.ever. No joke. I have no idea what she does to it, but my goodness gracious it sure is amazing. She doesn't bake so much anymore, but the last time I saw her, I'm pretty sure she made a chocolate cake for the occasion. From what I gather, she did plenty of other baking as well, when my dad and his many siblings were growing up. In fact, my dad claims she was one of the best bread bakers, or in his terms "Hooo-ya". So, baking genes from my dad's side? Check.

Now for the maternal side. My mom. Oh, my mom! She can sure bake. We always, and I mean al.ways had icecream buckets of cookies in the freezer. And come Christmas time? Wow. There are so many different kinds of cookies, squares, fudge, candies, etc in the freezer and fridge, that I don't even know if I've tried everything she has made. Ok, that's a fib. I'm SURE I've tried everything. When we are home at Christmas, our desserts often consist of trays that are just piled with all of these treats. She always says she will cut down on how much she bakes, since it's an exceptional amount, but she still had 26 different things on her list this year. I have plenty of it still in my fridge. Anyway, I digress. My mom is amazing! And growing up, she let me help with the cookies too, which I thought was so much fun! Spinning the bowl of the mix-master, flattening the cookies...eating the dough. My mom's mom is next on the list. Her specialty? Butterscotch pie (which I tried my hand at this past Christmas. I'll tell you about it another time). Ok, she has a lot of specialties. Peanutbutter balls, cookies, squares, pies. Yep, she's pretty awesome at baking too. I love calling her when I'm baking something, and asking for some tips. I get more than tips though, I get a short story. Amazing, and it all works. And this leads me to where she learned her skills..........

The Cookie Lady!

You guessed it. The Cookie Lady is my maternal Grandma's mom. She was literally, no word of a lie, known in town as "The Cookie Lady". She is a special woman, that's for sure. I was named after her (my middle name), and so she holds a special place in my heart. She has been gone for a long time now, but I will never forget those eskimo kisses I used to get every time we went to see her. Or playing with a little brass tea set that I have inherited. Or the cookies in her cookie jar.

Ok, I'll get to the point. How did she become The Cookie Lady? Well. Let me tell you....

My Great-Grandma lived a block from the elementary school in the little town that she resided. It all started when after school, a few of the young neighbour children would stop by her house, and she would give them a cookie; they would thank her and go on their merry way. Doesn't sound like much, does it? Well, after a while, I guess these neighbours of hers started spreading the word that she handed out cookies to kids who stopped by after school, so more and more kids started dropping by her house. As it turns out, kids she didn't even know started showing up, but she gave each of them a cookie when they did. And hence, she became The Cookie Lady. A lot of the parents only knew her as such, too.

So there you have it, folks. It started with The Cookie Lady, and worked down through generations, and ended up with me. The Left Handed Baker. (Amateur baker, of course). I wonder if The Cookie Lady made as much of a mess in the kitchen as I do?