Grandma's Cookies

Michelle brought these to book group and we couldn't stop eating them. You will not get the recipe for Michelle's Grandma's cookies here, because I did not get it either. She is not giving it away. But they are exactly what a homemade chocolate chip cookie should be: moist and chewy, with nice chunks of chocolate. A little salty, a little sweet. Thin, so you think 3 cookies = 1 cookie. I think I ate 7, but Erin ate in the teens, she claimed.

Grandma's cookies are rare in our world of comestibles. I'm thinking about where my recipes come from, and it's normally a good search on the internet. Maybe from a cookbook. I definitely don't have any recipes from a Grandma. Or many from Mom or Dad. For the book group, I made Libby's Funky Bean Healthy Bean Salad, but I have no idea who Libby is, or how she came up with such a funkalicious side dish. I found it on vegweb.com. So what's the emotional tie to food? Grandma's cookies are so wonderful, partly because they are the perfect specimen of cookie and partly because of the story attached. Partly because of the value - the recipe was passed down and is therefore slightly mysterious. Only certain choice people can make Grandma's cookies happen again in this world.

There is Dad's Stuffing - every Thanksgiving he makes two batches - one that is sweet, one savory. The recipe is not a secret exactly; you can watch him make it. But he will not give you a tutorial. All I know is that you end up with two huge foil roasters full of stuffing that are best eaten with either a) a scoop of Cool Whip (the sweet) or b) a ladle of gravy (the savory). (The gravy is a semi-mysterious herbed and flavorful concoction suited to drizzle over the entire plate of Thanksgiving. Also a recipe that is not a secret, but neither is it blatantly advertised).

So maybe I'm not making Dad's Thanksgiving Stuffing now in life, nor am I trying too hard observe closely, but maybe I will later. It's Dad's now. Maybe Grandma's cookies and Dad's Stuffing are less about the food and recipe itself and more about the people who cook it...the food that makes us crave the people we love.