Winter filigree

A cold and frosty morning - so we made scrambled eggs for breakfast and then sugar cookies for the preschool holiday party. It's well and truly feeling like December now. The air is sharp in your lungs and the winds find every chink in your winter wear. I'm so glad I finished my Catherine Wheel scarf, but now I'm wishing I had a hat to match. Maybe after Christmas? There is still a lot of winter yet to come.

For those poor individuals who have never tasted Gramma Joy's Sugar Cookies, don't despair! The recipe is as follows (and you will think you've gone to heaven when you taste them):

1 c. butter (softened)

1 c. oil (some kind of vegetable, but not olive)

1 c. white granulated sugar

1 c. powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar some call it)

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. vanilla (I scraped the seeds from half a vanilla pod)

4 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream first 3 ingredients. Add next three. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then add to wet mixture by 4ths. Form into balls, roll in white sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet, pressing down with a fork in crisscross patterns. Bake for 11 minutes.

I do all this with my Kitchenaid mixer, but a hand mixer works too - just takes a wee bit longer. When they are cooled (I cool mine on wire racks) they are scrumptious. Like sand when you bite into them, then they dissolve as you chew. Ohhhhh, man.