Play-Do Cookies

Before I started school my mom used to babysit while she stayed at home with my sister and me. One of the kids she baby sat was the son of one of her high school friends. There were usually fun things for us to do during the day. Aside from having extra kids to play with, we would make cookies or play dough or paint with water colors.

This particular afternoon we had been allowed to make cookies. Sugar cookies. Somehow we talked her into letting us color the cookies. Blue. Bright Cookie Monster blue. I remember them being delicious. Well, when the dad came to pick up the previously mentioned son he thought my mom was letting us eat blue play dough. We were sitting at the table rolling out cookies and eating the leftovers from the shapes.

In hindsight it probably did really look like blue play dough and my mom probably looked a little crazy. But really, who hasn't eaten some play dough as a child? Especially the homemade kind. It was always so soft and looked like it should taste good.

I've since (for the most part) grown out of making crayon colored food. However, my mom turned 60 this year and we had a tea party inspired theme. I baked 60 pink cupcakes. No, not strawberry, just pink. With pink icing. They were thing of beauty. I piped swirl designs and flowers, in pink of course, on to the top. So I guess I learned some food coloring is good, some.... well makes food look like play dough.

Where it all began

I'm the youngest of four sisters. That meant I was last in line to learn to cook. Read, I never really cooked much until I went off to college and had to. For family dinners I am usually expected to bring some sort of Jell-O salad. Watergate salad is my favorite. The first person I ever cooked much for was what we shall call "an unadventurous eater" I made the same pasta most nights.

Now as I've hit my mid 20s, I'm striving to be more like the 20 something that my mother was. When she was in high school she was Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow. This meant she received her very own Betty Crocker cookbook. A cookbook that was used in our family almost non-stop. Don't know how to make something? Check with Betty. It was almost like she was the aunt with all the delicious recipes.

A former co-worker gave me a used version of the very same cookbook. It's hardback and from the early 60s, probably slightly older than the one I grew up using. But every time I set out to make something, I pull out Betty. A smile comes across my face as I flip through the pages looking for the right recipe. Tonight that recipe is coffee cake, my sister requested it.

My baking may not be done for a large family or a fancy luncheon. It is however made in the same dishes that my mother and grandmother have used. I love my dusty rose Tupperware canisters. I have secret aspirations of becoming a Tupperware lady. I love my brown Pyrex mixing bowls. A wooden spoon, well I'm not sure that I know how to cook without one.

I pull Betty out of the cabinet more frequently these days. I have people in my life who are willing to try something new. I've learned that just because my sisters never expected that I would cook doesn't mean I can't. I actually like to cook. Baking is still my favorite. In my own personal recipe file (a blue argyle binder) there are far more desserts than anything else. Around holidays I love making candy and goodies for everyone I know.

So welcome to my "culinary blog" Pictures of whatever deliciousness I've whipped up. Stories of my successes and probably some failures too. Last weekend I happened to make some super ugly (but delicious) lasagna with my mom's best friend's recipe. I also pulled out Betty to make some oatmeal raisin cookies.