S Cookies

How are you feeling these days?

Are you having a case of the winter doldrums? 

Are Covid restrictions making you feel trapped?

This is a funk to beat all funks.

Aside from binge-watching Downton Abbey, I spend a lot of time looking at my phone. I came across a note that I had written seven years ago which apparently got transferred to my newer phones along the way. As I read it, I thought - Wow! I had enthusiasms back then!  

My Dreams of a New Life

Food & wine, beauty, flowers, beautiful sunny days, calm, a small cottage - white and blue - a flower garden

Walking in a small, charming downtown area... working at a gallery, helping out in a bakery, meeting a friend for dinner, going to the symphony, traveling to Paris.. Taking walks in the countryside, going to the ocean...

It doesn't involve working in a library, taking a train, going into the city. It doesn't involve sickness, depression, death, or tv. It doesn't involve working full time...

It involves being in a community with kind, learned people.

It's a village. There are art festivals, farmers markets, street fairs, small bookshops. There are local churches, church events to go to and to contribute a pie to.

I don't have a full-time pressure-filled job. Life is slow, unhurried. 

Take the steps to get the life you want. There are other ways to live.

Go find it.

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Not long after I wrote that, I did end up making a change, though it didn't quite live up to my dreams. 

Today I didn't come up with any brilliant thoughts of a future beautiful life, but I did make something tasty to eat. 

That'll have to do for today.

S Cookies

2 sticks of butter, softened

1 1/3 cups of sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

4 ounces Amaretto

5 cups flour

4 tsp. baking powder

Cream together butter & sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and Amaretto. Sift together flour and baking powder. Combine all throughly.

Glaze

Make an egg wash. Take a whole egg and about a tablespoon of water and beat with a fork.

If you have some coarse sugar - like demerara sugar - that would be great. If not, granulated sugar works, or any fancy sprinkles you may have on hand.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Handy tip: spray your hands with some spray oil, like PAM, to help you form your dough. Take a small amount of dough and roll it between your hands to form a 6 inch long log that's about a half inch wide.You might think that this is not enough dough for the size of the cookie you want, but you would be wrong! :) The dough puffs way up when baking and looks about the size of a Stella D'oro breakfast treat. Place your S's on the parchment lined baking sheet. Dip a pastry brush in the egg yolk, brush the cookie, then sprinkle generously with sugar. You can make any shape you like, of course. X's and O's, knots, you name it!

Bake at 350 F for about 25 minutes until lightly golden. Makes about 3 dozen large, perfectly dunkable, not-very-sweet cookies.