About
Finished Objects
Patterns
Reading List
something nice
Posted on | December 14, 2009 | 15 Comments
This weekend I made Christmas cookies.
There are three kinds of cookies I make – Fruit Drop (above), Hartshorn, and Brazil Nut. My grandmother made TONS of these cookies each Christmas and gave them as her presents to her six children and their families. It wouldn’t feel like Christmas to me without them.
Both the Fruit Drop and Hartshorn cookies require an ingredient called, well, Hartshorn. Hartshorn is derived from the antlers of red deer and is a leavening agent. It has been used since the 17th century and is a forerunner of baking soda, but produces a cookie that is thin and dry. It’s also used as an ingredient in smelling salts – so you don’t want to take a big whiff!
We used to buy little bottles of Hartshorn from Danhauer’s Drug Store in Owensboro, Kentucky. Going there is like stepping back in time; it’s a quaint little store on a picturesque street in a small town, yet it’s modern enough to have a large selection of Vera Bradley and a website. My daughter informed me yesterday that they’re no longer selling bottles of Hartshorn, apparently we were the only ones buying it. I can buy it on Amazon, but it won’t be the same.
The Fruit Drop cookies are cooling next to two of the crocheted potholders I got in this summer’s swap. I think I’ll put hooks on my cabinets so I can display my potholders – I love them all and they say “home” to me.
Here the Hartshorn cookies are about to go into the oven. Some I decorate, some I leave plain. This recipe calls for anise flavoring, which gives the cookies a nice licorice flavor (and I do not like licorice as a rule, but I love these and also ouzo). Baking Hartshorn cookies requires stamina. The first few batches are fun – roll out the dough! cut out the shapes! but by the tenth batch, you’re ready to be done already.
And how about some knitting?
These are the handspun socks I knit on US3s from this yarn, which might be my new favorite way to knit socks, as well as my favorite way to spin multi-colored top. So fast! Only 48 stitches! Seriously, you can knit a pair in a weekend. I made two pair of these, the other will be a present for my daughter. Of course, these are mineminemine! I have enough yarn leftover for another pair with contrasting toes, heels and cuffs.
Actually, I did complete another pair over the weekend. One more gift down!
What did you do this weekend?
Comments
15 Responses to “something nice”
Simple2Column Layout is a Wordpress Theme crafted by Tad Hunt | Email: "tad (AT) thaddeushunt (DOT) com".
December 14th, 2009 @ 11:09 am
hartshorn, wow. Never heard of it before. That is a tradition that reaches back.
I love how the names is exactly what it says — I was thinking it was some herbal ingredient until you explained. Sometimes things are just what they say they are.
I love to make cookies but yeah, after 3 trays I’m done.
The socks look great. You had a super productive weekend!
December 14th, 2009 @ 11:14 am
Yummy looking cookies… want to share the recipe? Or is it a secret?
The socks are LOVELY! Your handspun looks sooooo good. There are very few people that I would spin and knit a pair of socks for… your daughter is a lucky lady!
December 14th, 2009 @ 12:09 pm
Oooh, everything looks so tasty. And those socks are the BOMB! I have some handspun I think I will make up into socks for dh. He doesn’t have a pair of handspun socks yet.
December 14th, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
Those socks are gorgeous! Perfect marriage of yarn and product. Lucky feet of daughter and you.
If there is a way to convert cookies to bars (barss, here in the Scandinavian Upper Midwest) I’m all over it. But scooping and dropping and rolling and cutting? Nah. Although I am considering making some spritz this year…
December 14th, 2009 @ 12:29 pm
YAY, cookies! I think I need to make some this weekend.
December 14th, 2009 @ 1:21 pm
I never heard of Hartshorn either, but the socks are great!
December 14th, 2009 @ 1:45 pm
You are like the Mr. Wizard of cooking! I’d never heard of such a thing as antler power in cookies. *boggles*
But as much as your cookies look lovely, I think the socks steal the post. I’m. In. LOVE. *drool*
December 14th, 2009 @ 3:58 pm
Cookie and socks!
Yay!
December 15th, 2009 @ 8:16 am
Ah, yes, the holiday baking. That’s pretty much all that I’ll be doing this weekend. I’ve never heard of hartshorn before. Does it add flavor to the cookies as well as the leavening? Those socks are beautiful! Of all the sock yarns out there, I love socks from handspun the best.
December 15th, 2009 @ 8:51 am
Ack! There’s crochet on your site, I love it! The cookies look really good. Like, too good.
The socks are gorgeous, as usual. I’m patiently waiting for mine.
December 15th, 2009 @ 1:51 pm
This is really Cookie’s time of year, isn’t it? She’s all over the blogs, all over the cookies.
Love your socks! 48 st is so forgiving. I like what the colors did, and would not have predicted that from the yarn. So what else is new, right?
December 15th, 2009 @ 6:54 pm
Your handspun/handknit socks are beautiful!
Lovely yarn and lovely stitches!
and yummy looking cookies–your grandmother would be proud ;-)
December 15th, 2009 @ 8:33 pm
Slightly weirded out by the powdered deer antlers, but the cookies look yummy. :-) And I LOVE the socks.
January 5th, 2010 @ 7:48 am
I just love the cookie pic with the potholders and the yellow tupperware canister! :)
January 14th, 2010 @ 9:00 am
Gorgeous socks! Lucky daughter:-)