By: James Neuhouser
Christmas has come and gone, as well as our annual gingerbread men sale. We gathered our ingredients together, found the recipe, and began baking. The recipe is a secret known only to a few older women. It originally came over from the old country.
The kiosk was placed on a street corner downtown, and the sign indicating the dates the cookies were available was posted and at the church. There were decorated gingerbread men of many different varieties, or you could bring your children to the church, and decorate their own gingerbread man. Tubes of icing was provided.
Thinking of Christmas brings to mind an old family tradition we have of baking Lubkuchen Cookies. My wife’s ancestors are Dutch, and this is an old traditional Dutch recipe. Each year it becomes difficult to make because a main ingredient is Candied Citron. You used to buy Citron in nearly every store, but now it is getting scarce. If you look on your pocket phone there are many suppliers, even Amazon, but even then they might say it is sold out.
My wife just found a container of Citron that our son sent last year. Perhaps I’ll get Lebkuchen Cookies after all. Citron keeps forever just like the cookies, and they get better with age. Checking my pocket phone this was a quite popular item in the old country, and it could have been German.
The gingerbread event will have to include a gingerbread house decorating contest. There will be a contest for individuals, or if you like, come and add to our community house, which we all take turns working on. We’ll need plenty of baby gumdrops and candy for decorating. I hope we make some Ginger Snaps, they are excellent dunkers.
Everyone has a favorite cookie recipe so I thought I might include a recipe for Snickerdoodle Cookies, but the pocket phone gives too many different varieties. Fun fact, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was founded by Moravian people on Christmas 1741. Always wanted to study these people, because we saw their college in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Think we’ll try Nurnberger, Moravian Cookies.
This reminds me, l haven’t gotten a fruitcake this year. Fruitcakes are like cats, you either love them, or you hate them. I think I would do serious damage to get a hold of a fruitcake. If you look on your pocket phone you’ll find them sold by Assumption Abbey monks and Travis Abby monks. Many contain rum but we will overlook that for now. They must be from recipes that have come over from the old country. They were probably popular because they kept for long periods of time without refrigeration. I wonder what Butter Stolen is?
Instead, I’d like to tell you about a lady that started cooking for her family of five when she was 12 years old. Her mother would help on the farm so she became the cook. She had twin brothers two years younger than she. In high school she took Home Ec, and excelled in it. She still has her high school textbook. She received a big Betty Crocker Cookbook for a wedding present, and it is in shambles. I would have difficulty picking it up. The cookbook lies open and sure enough the recipe for the Lebkuchen Cookies is right at the top.
She is an excellent cook, I know because she cooks for me. I would eat out more often for convenience, but it is difficult, as we are both on low salt diets. I tell her to slow down, but it seems I can always find her in the kitchen. Well, I better go, I think I smell Molasses Crinkles baking.
