Creativity in the Kitchen: Time to make " the sauce"

"The Sauce"

My destiny to serve authentic sauce on top of pasta was sealed when I said yes to Sal Marotta’s proposal of marriage. Marottas do not do bottled or (gasp) canned marinara. My soon-to-be mother-in-law Emily offered a lesson in the sauce before the wedding.  I was an eager student. I had tasted the sauce. It was thick, rich, dark red, and memorable.

To this day the sauce is my only true claim to culinary skills. 

Making the sauce is not about the recipe. It is about the experience.  I learned that a layered rich sauce must begin at the start, with the starter.  The starter is the heart of the sauce.  It is the legacy of all the sauces that have come before . . . it is stored in the freezer.  Sal’s Great Aunt Julia had rows and rows of starter in her freezer.  She called it her “blood bank.” My Sal’s grandfather, Grandpa Sal, brought the idea of starter sauce to America from Sicily when he immigrated. Grandpa Sal had a full kitchen in his garage so he could cook the sauce with more space and ventilation without getting nagged about the mess.  He taught Emily (another non-Italian who needed the secrets), and Emily taught me.  It took us all day in the kitchen and much wine for the recipe as well as the lesson itself.

Great Aunt Julia

On the day of my lesson Sal’s mom confidently taught me how to cook the sausage, onions, garlic, and then to brown the paste- incorporating all the flavors.  All the while the heart of the sauce sat patiently slow warming on a separate stove top coil.  Side by side we layered the flavors by combining starter and paste, wine and herbs. By evening I learned the Marotta stories, was advised against putting oregano in the meatballs (it is mutinous and can cause loud Italian fighting), and more than anything that the sauce was a legacy. I was part of the family and trusted to carry the tradition forward.

It has been thirty years since my lesson. I now have my own tradition of warming the starter in early September. I spend the day browning the paste and incorporating the new sauce to make a batch that will last us throughout the fall and winter, leaving a little extra starter for next year.  So far I have taught my oldest daughter the process, who has added a playlist to her cooking, and expect someday my youngest will ask for her turn in the kitchen with me.

Because everyone knows you can’t feed an Italian family properly without the sauce.

The inspiration for this post came when I met a remarkable person named Sarah Shotts at the Arkansas Women’s Bloggers Conference last month.  As soon as she told me about her dream to record “heirloom recipes” across the world I knew I found a friend. If you or someone you know has a passion for family, food, and film please visit her Kickstarter “Project STIR.”

The Cookie Project: Soft Oatmeal Cookies

Warning: These cookies might trick you into thinking you are eating "healthy." My friend Kathryn Trattner Herd (aka "Katie") is a writer, librarian, wife, and mom expecting her second child in August.  Her recipe bakes out wholesome puffs of goodness with just the right amount of sweet- kind of like Katie! Make a batch of good old fashioned oatmeal raisin cookies and show her some blog love by clicking on her link to read about her writing goals and works in progress!



Soft Oatmeal Cookies by Kathryn Trattner

Katie is a garland around your beautiful long blond hair kind of girl!

My mom learned to cook in my Great Grandmother's Kansas farmhouse kitchen. The two story white farmhouse I visited growing up wasn't the one of her childhood but I can't imagine that there was much of a difference when it came to dinners served.

Our summer visits were made up of fresh catfish fried in a cast iron skillet, homegrown tomatoes, sweet corn, and cantaloupe. Ice tea was a given, a big pitcher on the table and everyone's glasses full of ice. And from the oven the scent of oatmeal cookies made from scratch.

Growing up our house wasn't a chocolate chip cookie house like my friends were. If cookies were getting made they'd be oatmeal. And my mom would make them in great big batches - just like her grandmother had. Pan after pan would come out of the oven to cool - all available counter space covered and the whole house smelling like vanilla and raisins.

Recipes were read but rarely followed. I asked my mom what her recipe was for oatmeal cookies and she pulled out my Great Grandmother's cookbook and looked it up. But when I asked her which one she said all of them and then listed the things she'd change.

Soft Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup raisins
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup water
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar (I love the low sugar in these cookies) 
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup oatmeal- dry (I used Quaker Oats)
2 cup flour

Combine raisins in water and cook 5 minutes (This makes the raisins soft- who knew?!); drain and reserve 5 tablespoons juice and combine juice and baking soda.

Cream sugar and shortening - beat in eggs and flavoring. Stir in oatmeal, salt, and raisins. Add juice, soda mixture, and flour.

Drop by spoon and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

P.S. From Katie:

Soft Oatmeal Cookie Care Package

"I wouldn't consider myself an oatmeal cookie person - I'd rather have a Snickerdoodle or shortbread. But more and more I find myself reaching for an oatmeal cookie. It's a piece of my childhood. It doesn't matter if the cookie has come from the store or a coworker; it's always going to be a little piece of my mom. I still see her standing in the middle of the kitchen, the sink full of bowls and mixing spoons, flour dusted on the counters, and the ticking of the timer as we waited for the cookies to come out of the oven".

My batch made up two dozen, you might want to double if you were planning to share because they are THAT GOOD!

The Cookie Project: Orange Crisps!

Today's recipe comes from the files of my friend Pam Richardson.  We met through our musical children and bonded on our stint for the Orchestra Board (OPUS) at Edmond Memorial High School. Pam was our President and took the bored out of Board Meetings. I learned of her baking skills through some of those meetings, and her ongoing friendship is a special treat.  Pam is a multi-talented woman who takes great pictures, writes beautifully and can bake just about anything.  Join me in encouraging her to start her own blog really soon!
Orange Crisp Cookies
by Pam Richardson

Hmm . . . Wonder why she picked this recipe?!

As a mom of three boys, I have spent a lot of time in the kitchen over the past 25 years.  I tried to involve them in the meal preparations, usually without much success.  There was without doubt a race to the table when the food was ready, but just not much interest in getting the food from the fridge, pantry, or cabinet to the table.  That was unless I was baking.   Then,  our small kitchen was filled with more bodies than actually fit without bringing back  “The Bump” from the 80’s.  We would dance our way through a Texas Sheet Cake, a loaf of homemade bread, Grammie's Chocolate Pie, or numerous varieties of homemade cookies.  The cookies were the favorite because who doesn't like cookie dough?  If I really needed six dozen and had some helpers in the kitchen, I knew I’d better double the recipe to have a chance of coming out with six dozen freshly baked cookies.  The Orange Crisp Cookies have been a family favorite through four generations.  This recipe card came out of my mom’s recipe box that was passed down from her mother.    In today’s electronic world, I find myself so often going to the internet on my iPad to get a recipe.  So this recipe card, with all its discoloration, takes me back to my grandmothers kitchen.  I see her face and that sweet smile and recall all the features of her very small kitchen.   There’s the porcelain top table and the big sink, the old gas range and grandma's step stool.     I can hear the sound of the screen door slamming and the loud hum of the refrigerator.

Pam's Grandma Florence

Little did I know at the time, but there was much more going on in that kitchen than I realized.  I thought we were making cookies, but as I have raised my own family, I know we were making memories.  So as a relatively new “empty nester” I look for ways to continue to connect with the boys when they pass through the house and often times it is a good meal shared around the table or a goodie bag of homemade cookies to take with them when they return to the lives they are building as adults.

As I was going through my mom’s recipe box after she passed away, I found a recipe for the Orange Crisp Cookies neatly typed on a fresh new card.  Attached to the card was this message, “I had the pleasure of making these cookies with my mother when I was just a little girl.  Since then, I’ve made them with my girls and now with my five grandsons.  I sincerely hope making and enjoying these cookies create as many precious memories for you as they have for me!”.

Orange Crisp Cookies (makes two dozen)

2 Cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 Cup shortening (I used butter!)

2 Tablespoons orange rind (I couldn't find orange rind, and so I used 2 Tablespoons of Orange Extract)

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

1/3 Cup White Sugar

1 Egg, well beaten

*Mix together ingredients.  Bake at 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes, press with fork.

*The dough looks separated like little brown peas, but it mushes together nicely when you dig in with a tablespoon.  I did a better job of not eating the dough this time- so the two dozen was real. 

These cookies are so different and really delicious-  Happy Baking!

The Cookie Project: Snickerdoodle Momma Recipe

Note to self: Cookies expand while baking

The Cookie Project: Recipe #2

I met our guest cookie baker late one night at the 2013 OWFI writer conference.  Cathy Collar is as warm and down home as my kitchen smells when I'm baking up her Snickerdoodle recipe.  

Cathy is an author, jewelry maker, mom, and joyful grandma. She is a special person I am grateful to know.

Please read the sweet note her daughter Jennifer wrote about "Snickerdoodle Momma." Share some blogger love by visiting Cathy's blog, and while you are nibbling on your snicker-doodles why don't you drop by the websites of her talented daughters: Jennifer McMurrain and Brandy Walker!

Snickerdoodle Momma Recipe

Welcome to the Cookie Project
Cathy Collar!

Ingredients:

1 Cup Butter or Margarine

2 cups Sugar

2 Eggs

1/4 cup of Milk

1 t Vanilla

3 3/4 cup of Flour

1/2 t Baking Soda

1/2 t Cream of tartar

1/2 t salt

Small bowl of Cinnamon & Sugar combined (I mixed 3T sugar with 3t cinnamon)

In mixing bowl cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, 

beating well after each. Blend in milk and vanilla. Thoroughly stir together, flour, 

baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Stir into creamed mixture. Form into 1 inch 

balls. Roll balls in cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place on greased cookie sheet 2 

inches apart (Follow this sage advice- my first batch pictured above); slightly flatten balls. 

Bake @ 375 till light brown about 10 min. Makes 8 dozen (IF you don't eat any of the dough and IF you are good at making 1 inch balls. In the Marotta kitchen my batch made up 45 cookies- you do the math!)

Snicker-doodle Momma by Jennifer McMurrain

My mom and I have an ongoing debate on who the above recipe belongs to. She says it’s hers because she passed it down to me and I say it’s mine because I’ve perfected it over the years.

Every year at Christmas I hear, “Jennifer, are you going to make snickerdoodles?” And you know who is asking that question? My mom.

I’d like to think the snickerdoodle recipe isn’t the only thing my mom has passed on to me.

My mom can always find something nice to say about a person. She has an uncanny ability to look at situations and see it from a different light. You may see a group of outcasts in the park, but she sees a group of people who have finally found friends who understand each other.

Mom will go above and beyond to help people and never ask for anything in return. She has sent countless dollars, jewelry, and other gifts to people dealing with terminal and chronic illness. When we lost my younger sister at the age of 24 to leukemia, her first instinct was to start a jewelry design business in my sister’s name and give the bulk of our proceeds to help others. For the past 10 years she has never faltered in this mission. Even in 2011 when she broke her back, she still made it to every arts and crafts show.  

My mom has never met a stranger. More times than not she will have meaningful conversations with people in the grocery line that she’s just met. I can’t count how many people have confessed to her they’ve lost a loved one when we are at arts and crafts festivals selling our jewelry and books. Knowing she has lost a daughter, they see her as a kindred spirit and I know no matter how they felt walking in, they know they are not walking the agonizing path of grief alone. They have a friend who completely understands what they are going through. That friend is my mom.

As I live my own life, as a woman as well as a mom, I try very hard to live like my mother and all of her attributes, including the three above. Hopefully one day my daughter will look at me as her own “snickerdoodle momma”.

The Cookie Project: Impossible Chocolate-Scotchie Chip Cookies

If you give a counselor a cookie . . .  she will want the recipe (and a story to go with it!)

Welcome to The Cookie Project!  Summer is heating up and while most people might crave ice cream I have a seasonal hankering for cookies.  All kinds of cookies.  The serving size is built right in!  I hope you will follow along with some creative kitchenry as I collect cookie recipes and stories from awesome people. By the end of the summer we will have a cookie cookbook- and learn a lot about the sentimentality of sweets. My goal is to make every single recipe in my "test kitchen" so if you live close by I will be happy to share samples!

Why cookies? All of my childhood summers were spent in Texas, visiting my multi-talented and super special Grammy.  One of her many remarkable talents was baking.  Cookies.  All kinds of cookies.  Goodness stored  in an airtight rectangular Tupperware safely stored at the top of her Frigidaire. The container was originally designed to fit a Texas sized sheet cake, but Gram found a higher purpose. I can still smell the mix of sugar, butter, and morsels that welcomed me each time I  peeled back the lid.  Just one more . . .

"Scotchies" were one of my favorite Grammy specialties. They were a combination of the usual cookie base ingredients plus oatmeal and butterscotch morsels.  I am still searching for the original recipe, and will let you know when I find it.  My Pinterest search led me to another nostalgic fun fact - Although Grammy liked to bake "from scratch" she was also a big fan of Bisquick.  We used to giggle together over the recipe titles on the back of the Bisquick box. "Impossible Peach Cobbler" - we wondered "what's so impossible about it?" I couldn't resist this Pinterest Board recipe that called for Bisquick with a suggestion to add butterscotch morsels.  I have renamed it "Impossible Chocolate Scotchie Chip Cookies."

Impossible Chocolate-Scotchie Chip Cookies

1 stick of butter, softened (1/2 Cup)
1 Cup brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (McCormick's does not have corn syrup!)
1 egg
2 3/4 Cups Bisquick Baking Mix
1 Cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli- yum)
1 Cup Butterscotch morsels (I thought about 1/2 cup but-sometimes more is better)


Preheat your oven to 375 and don't worry about greasing your cookie sheets. Grammy always put on her apron while she baked, so you if you have one put it on.  In a large bowl: mix butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg. Now add your Bisquick Mix, and chips.  Scoop rounded teaspoonfuls onto your cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes. Cookies are done when they look a little golden.  Let sit on cookie sheets briefly transferring to wax paper for cooling.

The Pinterest recipe that inspired this recipe was created by Stephanie Parker from Birmingham Alabama. She is an author, blogger, and columnist who cooks "real food." Take some time to visit her blog and Pinterest Boards- you will be in good company.  Ms. Parker has over 4,000 followers and may be the next Pioneer Woman!

Happy Summer and happy baking