Sunday, December 23, 2012

The Cookie Cliff



Over the course of the past week at work I have heard more than one discussion about sugar cookies. Sugar cookies, I'm just now realizing, are one of the preeminent treats of the holiday season. Of all the discussions and debates about cookies, candies, pies, and cakes, it seems, this year at least, that sugar cookies reign supreme in the mind of many. Fat ones, thin ones, soft ones, crisp. Frosted, sprinkled, plain. I don't have my Mom's recipe so I have, once again, turned to the 1932 Meier & Frank Cookbook. They're great although, in my foggy recollection, my sister Nan's were better.

We've traded samples and tried to resurrect long-lost recipes. We've described and dissected, argued and defended. It has been unending and remarkable how this appears to be the year of the sugar cookie. The debates have been contentious but never heated. The exchanges have been contrary but polite, openminded and concessionary. In the end, we've all-- bakers of sugar cookies-- been open to new ideas and examples of the classic sugar cookie.

All in all, our behavior should stand as a lesson to the members of congress who can't seem to agree on anything except to disagree. In all fairness though, we've never set the goal of coming up with just one common sugar cookie, to be accepted by all. No cookie cliff looms in the days ahead. But I'm pretty sure, based on what I've seen and the attitudes involved, we could do it if we had to. I certainly wouldn't want the members of our current congress working in my kitchen.

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