1. To fall in love with someone great.
2. To fall out of love with someone that isn't great.
3. To read one entire book.
4. To write one screenplay.
5. To run 5 miles (in a row).
6. To learn how to bake without sugar.
7. To be nicer to my mom.
8. To learn how to do laundry (but only if my mom does, too).
9. To drink more coffee.
These have to be one of the quintessential Christmas cookies. They are known by many names but Mexican Wedding Cookie seems to be the most common.
There are several variations of this cookie in many countries – Biscochitos in Mexico (always made with lard), Kourabiedes in Greece, Polvorones in Italy and Spain making them a universal holiday cookie treat. It’s important to use the highest quality butter when making these melt-in-your-mouth morsels.
Mexican Wedding Cookie
2 cups whole pecans or walnuts
2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 pound unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened (preferably Plugra)
1/3 cup superfine sugar
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ cups confectioners' sugar for rolling cooled cookies
It was the day after Christmas, we’d had too much sugar and a fair share of post-modern stress so, it was probably a bad idea to try to go “sale” shopping.
We couldn’t even get into the parking lot at Saks, it was 5 of 11 and the 70% discount ended at noon and neither of us had even had a cup of coffee.... (I sometimes think my daughters and I should wear signs around our necks that say “Please feed before attempting to interact with us.”)
And then sort of Saks was off the table but we were already out and we poked our heads into a shop on Melrose Place which was too expensive and besides the point and Anna said she just wanted to go home. Neither one of us had really had coffee.
“No, let’s take a walk,” I insisted. “We’ll find someplace to eat.”
Europeans do it better. Not the wine, beer, and cheese, which are all great, but the holidays and vacations. A holiday in Europe occupies at least two
weeks. Summer vacation is six to eight. With that much time off from
work, one’s internal clock resets. The mind and body slow down to take
in the pleasures of the moment.
For as long as I can remember, Thumbprint Cookies have been my favorite holiday cookie treat. My paternal grandmother started the Thumbprint tradition. The cookies soon became a favorite of her little son Ronny (my dad.) So, of course, my mom had to learn how to make them and carry on the Thumbprint tradition. My mom’s been gone for many years, so the Thumbprint tradition was left to me. I’m certain the tradition will be carried on for generations. My daughter-in-law makes them now, too.
Our Thumbprint cookies are made of a rich, buttery dough that is rolled into a ball, coated with coconut and poked in the middle to make a bowl to hold creamy frosting — red and green, of course. Long ago, my grandma may have used her thumb to push a shallow indentation into each little ball of cookie dough, thus the name Thumbprints. Somewhere along the line, though, my mom began using the end of a wooden spoon for the job. It may have been because the thumb-pressing process doesn’t take place until the cookies have baked for 5 minutes. It makes for a very hot, steamy thumb. Ouch! The end of a wooden spoon creates a space for frosting much too small for my taste. Over the years, I’ve started using the end of the handle on a small Swedish butter knife made of wood. It’s the only thing I ever do with that wooden tool. The rest of the year it stays tucked in a kitchen drawer. The end of that knife makes a large basin to hold lots of frosting. Perfect!