Vintage Cookies

Last year, just before the holidays arrived, I made a visit to my Grandpa's consignment store. I visited with my Grammy and watched my Grandpa as he stood behind his beautiful old-fashioned cash register, waiting to make a sale.

And then I spotted it. The Original Cookie & Noodle Maker. What a marvelous item this was! Box faded, recipes dotting the back. Grandpa started entering the item in the register the moment I retrieved it. Boy, did he know how to make a sale!


There is something so wonderful about baking with an item like this- old, classic, and loved-- timeless. I feel differently when I cook this way, a bit reflective. Whenever I make pies, I insist on using my hands to mix the dough- as if that step- that working of the hands- is vital to its good old fashioned taste. I believe it is.

Shortly after this purchase I was making cookies with Belle when another wonderful gem appeared, hidden behind a row of cookbooks- her dad's childhood Betty Crocker's Cooky Book- worn and very loved. It is a lovely cookbook, full of bright pictures of whimsical cookies and drawings of different cookie-making methods.

Decades later, that book received some more lovin' . And from what I hear, its being well-loved this very week. A true culinary treasure. When I moved, I was secretly quite sad that my days with this book were over. So I was thrilled when I received a package from Belle's mom complete with the Cooky Book circa 1963 via Ebay.


Today I got out both beauties for a divine day in the kitchen.


I turned to the pressed cookie section in the Cooky Book,


experimented with different designs,


made some sparkly sugar-topped treats,


and thought of my sweet Grammy and Grandpa.