The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 17 No. 26 - April 12, 2017

FEATURE

Easter memories

Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

submitted

Making and decorating holiday sugar cookies is a fun family activity.

 

 

As the year speeds along, another holiday is upon us. Easter has always been a time for family, church and food.

When I was young, a new Easter outfit, complete with a hat and gloves, was always a necessity for church on Easter Sunday. My grandmother made many dresses for my sister and me. The dresses were usually identical, which made us look like twins, even though we were a year apart in age. I look back now and realize how lucky we were to have those outfits handcrafted for us.

After church on Easter Sunday, my family spent the day hiding Easter eggs with cousins and consuming mounds of food. Aunt Helen always made the best ham. My mother is the youngest of 13 children, so there was lots of food and lots of cousins. This was life in rural North Carolina. In many ways it's similar to life anywhere – family, church and food.

As you gather with family and search for fun activities for kids of all ages, consider setting up a cookie activity table.

Cookie baking and decorating doesn't have to be expensive. If you don't have a large supply of cookie cutters, simply use the rim of various sized drinking glasses. Dip the rim into a small amount of flour before cutting out the cookie to prevent the dough from sticking to the glass.

Try experimenting with fondant to cover the cookies. Fondant really has improved over the years. It's easy to roll out, comes in a multitude of colors and the taste has greatly improved. Texture can be added by rubbing different kitchen utensils over the fondant. You can even make marbled patterns by mixing colors together. The fondant easily adheres to the cookie if you lightly brush the cookie with a small amount of corn syrup or water. You can find fondant in small sample packs at craft stores or anywhere cake supplies are sold.

The following cookie recipe is a good basic recipe to use for cut outs. The beauty of this recipe is that the cookies hold their shape and don't spread too much during baking, so the same cookie cutter can be used for both the cookie and the fondant covering.

Decorated cookies are always a nice addition to Easter baskets. My two boys are Florida natives, so their Easter baskets usually contained beach themed cookies, pool toys, sunscreen and a new swimsuit - very different from my North Carolina childhood Easter baskets.

Happy Easter! Make some cookies with your family.

Sugar Cookies

Makes 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups unsalted butter

2 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 Tbs. vanilla extract

1 tsp. lemon extract

6 cups all purpose flour

1 Tbs. baking powder

1 tsp salt

Directions:

With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and lemon extracts. Mix until incorporated.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to the butter mixture until incorporated.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

*Roll out cookies on a floured surface. Cut into shapes.

Place cut out cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes until golden brown around edges.

How we got the Easter bunny

We Irish Catholics are big on the Catholic system of Mysteries.

There are Joyful Mysteries and Glorious Mysteries and lots more.

St Patrick explained the Mystery of the Holy Trinity with a shamrock.

My grandfather had three sisters that were nuns – Sister Catherine, Sister Mary and Sister Elizabeth. He called them the "Three Sorrowful Mysteries."

My grandfather practiced his own version of Catholicism. It was kinda Catholic Lite – with a bowling ball rattling around in it.

Aside from the Sisters I also had two great uncles that were Monsignors.

My grandmother used to say, "Would have been bishops both, but for the drink."

I understood a Monsignor to be almost-a-bishop. They didn't get a ring but they didn't have to sit in the back all the time when they drove in a car.

In kindergarten I got in trouble because of all my religious relatives.

We called our teacher Sister Fearless because everyone was afraid of her, and we could not imagine her ever being afraid of anyone or any thing.

Sister Fearless was teaching us the Saints. She asked us to name some.

I said "Saint Flo." She said there was no Saint Flo. I said there was. She said there wasn't. I insisted there was. She got angry. I became adamant. She made me sit in the corner.

My grandmother's name was Flo.

The two Monsignors and the Three Sorrowful Mysteries would talk of grandad and then they would speak in hushed tones of my grandmother. They would hang their heads and then roll their eyes to heaven and murmur prayerfully, "Flo is a saint." and "Shure and Begorah, Flo is a saint." and "Sure as there is a God in heaven, Flo is a saint."

If they said so it had to be true. My grandmother Flo was a saint.

I figured I had Sister Fearless beat flat. She was just one Sister and I had raised her three Sisters and a pair of Monsignors.

One of the great mysteries of the Catholic faith is how the Easter Bunny and chocolate got involved with Easter.

I once asked my grandfather about the Easter Bunny.

Grandad hunkered down and started to mess with his pipe – scraping it, tapping it, filling the bowl with tobacco. I realized later that when inclined to yarn large he gave himself time to think by messing with his pipe.

This gave me valuable insight into the behavior of lawyers and politicians.

I suspect there are a lot of pipes in the White House.

Grandad always referred to the Three Wise Men as the "Three Wise Guys."

It was a sarcastic reference. He used to make fun of them for showing up late for Christmas with inappropriate gifts.

He lit his pipe and started. "Well, after the Three Wise Guys messed up with their Christmas gifts, they couldn't stop feeling bad about it for a long time, and they got to thinking that they should come visit again with more realistic gifts. This time they brought chocolate and a big bunny."

"The Wise Guys arrived late for that last supper – they missed the first group picture – but were in time to get in the second one. Most people don't know about the second group picture. It was called "Dessert at the Last Supper".

The Three Wise Guys and the bunny and the chocolate were all in there, and that's where the Easter Bunny came from."

Another mystery solved.

When my kids asked me where the Easter Bunny came from I told them I had no idea.


AMISUN ~ The Island's Award-Winning Newspaper