Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Snickerdoodles


According to Webster's New World Dictionary and Thesauraus, 2nd Edition - "snicker" means to laugh in a sly, partly stifled way and "doodle" means to scribble aimlessly. We wondered what the person who created this dunkable, cinnamon cookie were thinking when they named it? Anyhootieha....Anna tasted her first, fresh off the conveyor belt Snickerdoodle from perhaps Cosco or Sam's Club, at an Allegheny Intermediate Unit 3 - Bucco Tailgate Party this past summer. I told her about this cookie recipe book my Mom had when I was about her age...I was sure it had the Snickerdoodle recipe in it because I used to make them.....maybe Gramma Dorsey still had it?? Well...she did...but the book was in about four pieces..many pages missing...no Snickerddodle recipe. Maybe one of our dogs had something to do with that? Fate saw me entering the Half-Priced Bookstore on McKnight Road in September....hundreds and thousand of books and there it was... two feet in the door on a to-be-shelved stack. I snatched it up like an obnoxious early-bird at an estate sale! It was "the" Betty Crocker Cooky Book (notice the spelling?) and it looked brand new and it was in one piece...just like I remembered it back when I was Anna's age!! My good Serbian friend Melissa was with me at the store ....as we were on a lunchtime work mission to sell back a bunch of books. It made the "find" all that more memorable...as I affectionately now call it the

"Kooh-key" Book - as only Melissa would pronounce it!! It is actually a 2002 facsimile edition of the 1963 original. I just needed that Snickerdoodle recipe...and as sure as I made them back in the day from my Mom's book when it was all in one piece ...there it was on page 23...with a nice picture below the recipe. After making sure cream of tartar was in the spice drawer...Anna and I...with aprons on of course... baked a batch. She pulled one of her retro jelly jar glasses from "her" collection - "The Archie's (1971)" to compliment our new, but old Snickerdoodle cookie. They will be in the lunch bag tomorrow....maybe she will share the cookies and this story with her friends at lunch. I will put some on the community counter at the office...with a few set aside for Jess...as she had to listen to me ramble on about our first "aprons on" post earlier today!! She promised she would even read the post!