On A Totally Unrelated Note

June 25, 2009

I’ve posted this photograph of my grandma and me before. My blog. My grandma. Try to stop me!

Grandma’s name was Rosina. She was a true Swiss and the quintessential grandma. She and Grandpa had a family dairy (that continues to this day) and my childhood is stuffed to the brim with memories of being near her side watching her bake dozens of cookies for the tour groups of school children who would visit the dairy so they could milk a real live cow or bake loaves of bread to feed the farm hands in the cook house. I’d sit in the kitchen nook near her while she made multiple calls on the old rotary phone to the florist as she ordered flowers for this or that person she knew who was sick or grieving or celebrating something or another. In the evening I’d be in the living room chair next to her while she sewed on one needlepoint painting after another until they spilled out of her and Grandpa’s home and found their way into our homes, onto our walls, and into our hearts. My grandma was a wonder. I adored her. I still do.

Last Sunday was Father’s Day. It was also the day five years ago when my equally adored dad, Grandma’s boy, died suddenly from a brain aneurysm. For the past couple weeks I’ve been thinking about Dad, about my Grandparents, about my childhood that was so ridiculously joyful and fun and filled with love that I should have been charged rent for growing up in my shoes. As a memory to the dad I loved, who loved his mom, who loved the Lord, I did the thing I knew that would make them both smile. On Sunday, I made a double batch of one of Grandma’s favorite cookie recipes for the church social hour. It was a small gesture. A silly one really. But sometimes you have to do something to say thank you and to honor the memory of those you love even if it’s a very small and silly thing and so I baked a few cookies and spoke their names among others. Judging by the crumb-less serving platters I took home, the church was incredibly supportive of my little cookie gesture.

If you ever want to make some unbelievably yummy refrigerated cookie bars then give these a try and when you do, remember they were first made by a Grandma with a heart just as sweet as the first bite you munch on.

My Grandma’s Graham Cracker Dream Bars

Line the bottom of a 9×13 pan with a layer of whole graham crackers. Cut the crackers so that the entire bottom of the pan is covered to all the edges. Don’t go all crazy trying to cut the graham crackers with a knife because they’re just going to break. Instead, use the knife to shave off one edge of the graham cracker until it fits perfectly in the pan. That’s how my Grandma did it. I’m just saying.

In a *double boiler melt:
1 cup butter
Add:
1/2 cup whole milk
1 cup sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten

Cook everything above in the double boiler until it thickens slightly, stirring continually. It will take about 6-8 minutes over medium high heat.

Add:
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts (or any nut)
1 cup finely crushed graham crackers

While still still warm pour mixture over the graham crackers in the pan. Smooth with a spatula and then lightly place another complete layer of cracker grahams on top. Place pan in refrigerator to cool.

While the mixture is slightly cooling, make the frosting by creaming together:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
a couple squeezes of fresh lemon juice
a teaspoon or more of lemon zest to taste

Spread frosting over the top layer of graham crackers and return to refrigerator until bar cookies are firm. Cut with a warm knife. Optional: Sprinkle finely chopped nuts over the frosting before chilling. Replace lemon juice and zest with vanilla.

*Okay. I know you don’t own a double boiler but it’s kind of important to prevent the egg from scrambling and the mixture from scrotching so do what I do. Fit a metal heat-resistant mixing bowl over a deep saucepan.

Posted in Anita, Storytelling