Cookies and Home Decorating
The holidays add variety to the home decorating palette with thousands of ornaments, varied color themes and natural greenery giving our rooms a festive air of celebration. From early December to mid-January many homes take on an entirely new look. And of course, tradition dictates that most of the added color is in the red or green family, but those shades do change from year to year so that bright red is giving way to deeper cranberry red, and the bright green of holidays past has moved toward the sage or forest blue-greens. The key is contrast. Red and green are on opposite sides of the color wheel and that will forever make them contrast well-no matter what the shade or hue.
This contrast reminded me of another holiday tradition that is not only warms the heart but also the stomach. And that is the tradition of baking special treats, be they cookies, or breads or pies. One of my favorite holiday recipes comes from Mary Ann Zimmerman from North Lawrence, Ohio. During her long-life Mary Ann was a professional cake decorator and worked from her home creating festive delights for brides and grooms in the surrounding counties. Although she would have never been able to attend all the weddings for which she baked cakes (sometimes 5 in one weekend) she was regularly in attendance to "cut the cake" and I imagine it was at one of these times that someone shared this recipe. The anise seed adds the same kind of contrast to the sugary sweetness of the cookie that we often look for in decorating--just the right "spike" of contrast to add real interest.
Anise Seed Cookies
This is a large recipe and may be cut in half if you aren't looking forward to a marathon baking session.
3 cups white sugar
1 cup butter (no substitutes)
6 eggs
2 Tbs anise seed rolled fine
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp soda dissolved in hot water
5 cups flour (or more as needed if rolling for cutouts)
Cream butter and sugar. Blend in eggs, soda and water. Add sifted flour and cream of tartar to make a stiff dough stirring in anise seed as well. Shape dough into balls and stamp onto baking sheet or roll out and cut into desired shapes. Bake at 375 degrees until done and frost if desired.
So, may you have a happy holiday. Enjoy the new look that holiday decorating adds to your home and don't be afraid to keep it looking "seasonal" throughout the month of January. Many decorations celebrate the whiteness of snow and the green of approaching springtime. Those decorations can actually keep the home looking more alive throughout the month of January.
Just remember that, like sugar and spice, anise seed and sugar, many times the secret for a well-decorated room is to have an unexpected accent that might seem a bit foreign at first, but in the end will add your personality to the décor.
Until next time, keep asking questions. Send them to mrfurn@msn.com and I will answer as many as I can in person or in my column next month.
