October 29, 2003

  • This has turned out to be the strangest week ever.   Due to the massive wild fires in Southern California and resultant toxic pollution alert, many folks have cleared out, me no exception.  I even have a medical excuse.  Brett, after one day as a volunteer fire fighter, threw in the towel and decided to come with me.  We drove up together on scenic Highway 1, saying a prayer for Brucie and everybody with property in Ventura. 


    So I'm home for Halloween, helping Mom make orange and green piped Melting Moment pumpkin cookies for Auntie's little costume party Friday night.  So far, so good; it's been sort of fun.  We just had a light rain to break the heat spell.  This morning my boy woke me up to show me his costume, saying "Greetings, from one rotting corpse to another!"   Gory, but now I can easily put together something Goth to match.


    Mmm, Halloween in the city.  Bay-windowed shops festooned with macabre displays.  Frosty invigorating air.   Haunted Victorian houses.   That real Bell, Book, and Candle feel.   But Auntie lives down on the Peninsula in the Devonshire district.  There, the sunny, quiet winding streets are dotted with quaint English Tudor and French Eclectic cottages, many painted beige with brightly colored shutters and doors, big stone chimneys, rounded half cellars.  It's almost like being in the Cotswolds.


    OMG!  A storm's whipping up!


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    Melting Moment Pumpkin Butter Cookies


    I heard this is the same recipe for Solvang Cookies--those fancy treasured delights from the California Danish resort town--if you substitute unsalted butter for half the shortening and add a little rum extract, melted chocolate, chopped nuts, and the like for each variation.  Whatever, it sure beats paying an arm and a leg for similar cookies at the supermarket bakery.


    2 cups confectioners' sugar
    1 1/2 cups (about 10 1/8 ounces) butter-flavored Crisco shortening
    1 egg
    2 teaspoons Watkins butternut flavoring*
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    3/4 teaspoon salt
    3 cups (about 12 ounces) cake flour
    food coloring


    Cream sugar and shortening until smooth; beat in egg, flavorings, and salt.  Add flour a cup at a time, mixing until smooth after each addition.  Transfer about half a cup of dough to a small bowl and tint medium green.  Color remaining batter orange.  Cover and chill both doughs at least 2 hours, or until somewhat firm.


    Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  With extra-large star tip like that used for mashed potatoes, pipe large orange rosettes about 2 inches apart on foil- or parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Use a small star tip to pipe a green stem in the center or at the side of each or, alternately, shape stems with floured hands.  Bake until set and only slightly browned around the edges, about 12-15 minutes.  They should be crisp, but do not overbrown, or cookies will lose color.  Cool in pan before removing.


    *If not available, you may substitute a mixture of one part each imitation butter, rum, and pineapple flavorings.