I really love the colors of the holiday season. Not the gaudy red and green decorations that pop up everywhere, or the desperate blue and white, rather nonsensical Chanukah stars that try to participate in the holiday frenzy. And I'm not talking about the bleak white, grey, and blacks of the winter world as everything outside gets pounded by wind, rain, snow, and that cold winter sunlight. What I really love are the warm browns and tans, the nutty, spicy, crinkled colors of holiday cookies.
And I love baking them in my parents' kitchen, with the cranky oven that you light with a match and the standing mixer inherited from relatives and the dysfunctional organization system that changes just enough each time I visit so that I have to call my mother to find the powdered sugar and the plastic bowl that survived my childhood baking projects.
Being a family that's rather a-religious, a bit Jewish, and even less Protestant-ish, the holidays are rather half-assed around here. But even heathens like cookies, and I especially like cookies, so I've taken over the cookie baking duties over the past few years.
This year I made lemon-tangerine sables, which had zest from our lemons from the backyard, meyer lemons, and a tangerine.
And snickerdoodles, the recipe by way of my dear friend Sarah, who (I think) got it from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It's super easy and super delicious.
And pfeffernüsse, a peppery German spice cookie (we use the Joy of Cooking recipe) that's a family-favorite in this household. Or my favorite. Hard to tell the difference.
Happy holidays!
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