DAY OF REST - My Wife GUEST BLOGS Her MOM's COOKIE RECIPE

Greetings Internet friends... Your hairy knuckled neanderthal gets another day of rest as my dear wife has agreed to guest blog for me today. She made one of her Mother's recipes for our Neighborhood COOKIE & BEER EXCHANGE PARTY - Sausages/Beer Cheese Soup and Cookies! If you like her post, drop a comment. Maybe your encouragement will get her to come back again and guest blog for me just for the fun of it, instead of me having to trade housework for her writing skills...

Greetings Foodies,

I'm Jackie, the wife, the maid, the laundry fairy and the washerwoman. I used to be the cook, but in June, Dave took over the cooking and I haven't made much since except oatmeal and the occasional cake. I was raised on a very bland diet, not even an onion in our meatloaf. I like cafeteria food, hospital food and if I were ever in prison, probably prison food.

It all started one Christmas when I was at a complete loss as to what to give him, so I gave him BBQ/smoking classes. He loved smoking meat and grilling, and is excellent at both. He feeds the less fortunate, i.e. neighbors who live on Honey Nut Cheerios. We spent our entire summer entertaining on the patio. Those people are now trained to grab utensils and platters and respond at any given order by our personal chef!

I must say, of all his previous outlandish and scary hobbies, cooking is my favorite. Spices and rubs are new to my palette and I'm finally getting used to flavorful food. Who knew food could taste like this at home? He's also a bartender and makes amazing chocolate martinis and peach martinis. I equate them to being my own form of crack. He is quite handy to have around.

Living with him is not without its hazards though. He has started a fire in the oven, set the backyard on fire and there is even a huge singe mark on the house, not sure how or when that happened. Probably better not to know. However, the smells wafting from our backyard have attracted many new friends. The smoke signals alert the neighborhood that something is in the works. We rarely ate alone!

In my youth, I loved shopping for shoes and purses. On a recent trip to Phoenix to visit Dave's mother and stepfather, I realized I had matured. We walked hand-in-hand through grocery stores. Romantic, huh? Amazing what some of those places offered. There were foods I didn't even recognize. We were mesmerized by it all.

My grandmother's specialty was cinnamon rolls and kolaches. She made 8-10 pans every Saturday and shared them with her friends and neighbors at church on Sunday. They were to die for. The great thing about Grandma was that even if we didn't show up at church, she delivered!! Grandma taught me that putting french dressing on cottage cheese gives it a kick. She denies showing me that, but where else would I have come up with it? One of the highlights of staying with her on her farm when I was little was that on Saturday, we went to "town" and bought groceries. Then, we went to the post office and got baby chicks. They were delivered in boxes with holes in them, through the post office. Those were the days!

The cookies I made for our cookie exchange were from a recipe of my mother's. My mother is a pie person by trade. Family gatherings at my grandmother's house included over 75 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren plus spouses. There are more than that now, but with everyone living busy lives with their own families, we don't get together like that very often. My mother made about 20 pies for each holiday, taking favorite orders from everyone. It was heaven. She had no clue that you could buy pie crusts already made. She always made her own and they were always perfect.

And so, blogger friends of my husband's, I am pleased to pass on to you my Mom's Peanut Blossoms...

Peanut Blossoms

1/2 Cup Shortening
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup packed Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 Tsp Vanilla
2 Tbs Milk
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
1 and 3/4 Cups Flour
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Baking Soda

Chocolate Stars and Colored Sugar

Cream shortening and sugars: add vanilla, egg and milk. Add peanut butter and mix well. Finally, add dry ingredients and do final mixing. Take rounded Tsp of dough and roll into balls. Roll top of ball in colored sugar. Put on cookie sheet (parchment paper). Press chocolate star in center of each cookie.

Bake in pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
Yields 3 dozen

Thanks honey... Of course I liked your cookies best, and readers, take a look at the symbolic photo of our cookie presentation for the party below...

I put Jackie's cookies, as I put Jackie herself on a pedestal for all the world to see...

Oh, one more thing... the fires were small and almost always manageable. The scorch mark on the house is just carbon build up from the wind blowing smoke. At no point during my cooking career was the actual frame of the house ablaze (as far as she knows).