A Hard Freeze, to the Warmth of Cookies

December Newsletter

Oh crap (I say with a heavy Minnesota accent)!  December is here and like every year before it I am not prepared.  Not only have the presents not been wrapped, they have not even been bought.  The fog has just cleared from Thanksgiving and its 11 almost finished pies are finally thrown away.  Another Holiday month is ready for Christmas cookies, roasts and yes, more pies.  The outside garden work is frozen, literally.  I went to dig up my final carrots from the garden only to find a 3-inch freeze already in the ground.  Along the same line, my small humans forgot to bring the eggs inside after collecting them from the coop.  The next day 23 beautiful, but frozen, eggs were cracked.   So, when life freezes on the outside it is time to bring the warmth to the inside, and that can only mean one thing… Christmas sugar cookies.

Christmas sugar cookies are by far my favorite Christmas cookie, of course if it is made the right way.  Thick, but chewy and frosting to boot, no glazed for me.  I was spoiled growing up, I had Grandma Dot’s sugar cookies.  Grandma Dot grew up being called “daughter” by her parents, which eventually was shortened to Dot, a name that stuck for the rest of her life.  Grandma Dot was a classic grandmother, the warmest, kindest of women with an overwhelming desire to show her love through food.  Back around 20 pounds ago, my husband, then just boyfriend, impressed my grandma by asking for a 3rd piece of her meat pie on an already full stomach.  If you left her house without eating something, you must have been at the wrong house. 

Her Christmas sugar cookies were at the top of my Christmas food list growing up and, if I am being honest, as an adult as well.  They were soft with just a slight crunch at the edge and the frosting was sweet, but it did not out-shine the cookie.  She would spend hours baking and decorating and then store the cookies in old ice cream buckets.  As kids, she would open the buckets and you knew no adult could stop you from eating as many cookies as you wanted, this was Grandma Dot’s house after all.  But the last two Christmas’ if I want Grandma’s sugar cookies, I must use her hand-written recipe and make them myself.  Grandma died in April of 2019, leaving behind wonderful memories of being overfed in her kitchen and a boxful of her favorite recipes.  By sharing her classic sugar cookie recipe, I hope to continue her legacy of giving love and warmth through her food even though the world may be frozen. 

Stay Rebellious,

Rebel Pickle

Rebellious Recipes

Grandma Dot’s Sugar Cookie Recipe