For the last few months, I have made it my habit to enjoy tea and biscuits (cookies, to Americans) at bedtime. Lately, with all of the cookies I have been baking for Christmas, it has been hard to make a choice.
Date Nut Meringues were tonight’s treat. The recipe is from my husband’s grandmother. At some point in the past, I compiled her famous Christmas cookie recipes into a little booklet and distributed it to family and close friends.
I cannot imagine the work involved in making just one treat in days long past. The date nut meringues required whipping egg whites to a stiff peak- easy enough with my mixer, but hard to do by hand. Pitting and chopping dried dates, cracking, picking, and chopping English walnuts- I know first hand that this is hard work.
When I tasted my cookie this evening, I remembered the hard work that went into it and it made me feel a pleasant nostalgia for all things old fashioned and homemade.
Living Miss Marple 