Mexican Wedding Cookies on Day of the Dead
Every Christmas for as long as I can remember, my mom and I would bake dozens of cookies for the holidays.
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| Mexican wedding cookies - aka, sandies |
We'd start at the crack of dawn (I'm still an early riser over here!) and make an entire day of it. We'd bake till we couldn't bake anymore, listening to our Christmas music and baking and tasting away. We never strayed from our tried and true recipes -- classic, simple and mostly from Better Homes and Gardens, New Cook Book.
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| Anyone else remember this?! |
Our cookies were nothing fancy and definitely not elaborate -- but we always made sure that our Christmas celebration included Quaker Oats' oatmeal cookies (with and without chocolate chips), Nestle toll house's chocolate chips, sugar cookies and sandies, aka Mexican wedding cookies.
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| Naked sandies, before the powered sugar coating |
But even more consistent than our cookie line-up year after year, was my grandpa's reaction eating those sweet treats. I always knew how he would react as he tasted each morsel. And let's be clear -- he never turned down a sample!
"Mmmmm," he would cry out in his hearty voice, drawn-out for maximum affect. "This is meno," he would say (his own affectionate slang for bueno). "Delicious, mija."
It never failed. He always loved it, no matter how good or bad they came out. And, sandies were his absolute favorites.
For Dia de Los Muertos this year, I put up a small altar with pictures of our loved ones who have passed away. Most of these people, my daughter never met.
Yet, their memories still live on. By putting up their pictures and sharing stories of what I remember, it's my way of helping my daughter understand a little better about where we come from and what makes us - us.
And let's not forget the food! We made my grandpa's favorites, those powdered sugar balls of pecan deliciousness.
Except, I completely fumbled. I forgot (it's been a while!) and I rolled the first batch in powered sugar BEFORE baking, which you're not supposed to do! Roll them after, otherwise the sugar melts into the cookie and you have to roll it again once it cools. Oops.
Pan de Muerto
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| Um, do those look like "gnarled" bones on top?! |
This year, we tried our hand at pan de muerto, curtesy of King Arthur Flour.
It's a Mexican sweet bread with grated orange zest and anise. Anise has that distinct black licorice flavor, which I'm not crazy about, so we only used a pinch.
Perhaps I baked them a tad too long.
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| Dia De Los Muertos Dress |
Our resident taste-tester (and hubby too!) gave it a thumbs -- or should I say, hand -- up.
One new dress in the shop last week.
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| Red Winter Wonderland Dress - click here for more! |
It's a vintage-style, winter wonderland dress. I kind of want one too, truth be told. I'm ready for the holidays! Bring it on.
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| Setting up her train set -- for more, click here And, yes! Girls love trains too! |
Meanwhile, our little mama has been hard at work, updating her shop. Check out Little Lovebug's Closet for the latest inventory: https://little-lovebugs-closet.myshopify.com You go, girl!
So, this afternoon I took down our altar and carefully packed away our items until next year. This picture is one of my favorites and speaks volumes about the love they had for each other. Hopefully, they're still dancing, hand in hand, together for eternity.
Peace.
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