Finals are just around the corner for me. I mean literally a matter of hours. And while I should probably talk about how I’m dealing with that. I’m instead going to talk about my method of procrastination. Looking at cookie recipes on Pinterest.
Cookies have always been an important part of how my family celebrates the holidays. My nana certainly expresses her love through food so she would always make a variety of cookies when we’d visit them for Christmas. We would have the basics like chocolate chip, gingerbread, and simple sugar cookies, as well as your less traditional ones like italian wedding cakes, 7 layer bars, and thumbprints. The ones that hold an extra special place in my heart were the peanut butter balls (also known as buckeyes). Sugary balls of peanut butter dipped in chocolate that melts in your mouth. What’s not to love?!
My Italian uncle would have these licorice-flavored wafers. I learned this year that these cookies often have a lot of cultural importance. Often times a special iron for making them is given as a wedding present with a couple’s initials on it so that the cookies will also bear their initials.
Cookies serve as more than just a treat. There’s a sort of ritual around giving cookies that seems to be connected to giving thanks. Obviously, that starts first with giving cookies to Santa, it’s a kind of way to teach children to thank Santa, and is a bit reminiscent of an offering to a deity. It also helps reinforce the myth. Then families exchange cookies. It is part of what makes the season seem so magical and extravagant. We’d also use cookies give outside of our family. In elementary we’d always give cookies to teachers, and send a whole variety to the church bake sale.
The reason this has been on my mind recently is partially because I’m looking forward to being done with finals and baking again, but also because covid has affected so many of the ways we celebrate. Any year we don’t see my grandparents, I struggle to make the variety of cookies my nana has gotten me accustomed to. But now it’s even harder because I can’t just unload cookies on the people around me, at school, and whoever I do end up celebrating Christmas with. So I’ve been thinking about why these little treats mean so much to me in the first place… Now I should really get back to studying.