First of all I love cookies. Really I love everything sweet. Cake. Pie. Ice cream. Candy. I am a dessert kind of gal.
The second reason is to have a fun project do to with the important girls and women in my life. Someone once asked me if I thought I was doing a disservice to my daughters by not working (no I didn't kill her). She implied or I inferred from her question that girls should see their moms doing it all, mother, wife, career... I don't think there is a right or a wrong way when it comes to parenting. Every family is different with ever changing needs and wants. My husband and I have always thought it best for me to be a stay at home mom. It's a job I love and one that I take seriously.
I am proud that my daughters are surrounded by strong, intelligent, compassionate and diverse women. They have wonderful teachers that are wives, mothers, grandmothers and are active in our community. They have aunts and cousins that have careers and are also wives and mothers. They have an aunt that raised a daughter on her own and has lived all over the country. We have close friends in the community and at church that love my daughters. These women come to see my girls play softball, they support them in school activities, they celebrate and cry with us. My daughters are blessed to have two wonderful grandmothers that adore them. All of these women love my children and I know pray for them.
Our year in cookies is a way to celebrate these relationships. When these women come to visit us or we visit in their homes I hope we will make time for baking cookies or at least eating them. No television or video games. No texting or playing with apps. Just us girls, working side by side in the kitchen, talking, laughing, getting to know one another a little better with each batch.
We began the cookie journey today. My mom, my daughters, and I. We started with the first recipe. Cornmeal-Orange Cookies.
We measured, poured, cracked eggs and went back and forth between my parent's home (next door) and mine in search of extra cookie sheets and needed ingredients. The kids were in and out of the kitchen. They helped a little, played a little and talked a little. My mom told me stories about her days baking and cooking in the kitchen with me by her side as a young child.
And of course when the cookies were done we had to taste them. They are a good dipping cookie. They will be great with my morning coffee. Even good with an afternoon cup of tea. I bet they will be delicious with orange sherbert! And if I need a little snack in the evening they would even go well with a glass of Sangria.
If you come to our back door in the coming year you are likely to find a yummy smelling kitchen, flour footprints on the floor, and an abundance of cookies that must be shared!
