B
Monday, December 23, 2019
The Observer & Baker City Herald
BOB’S
THOUGHTS
Family Cookie-Baking Traditions
BOB BAUM
Stories that
continue to
inspire me
Over my 40-plus years with The As-
sociated Press, I was fortunate to meet
people who succeeded despite major
obstacles.
Their stories inspire. Here are a
couple of them.
I fi rst heard of Lopez Lomong in 2007
when I read a brief item in the Arizona
Republic that mentioned that he was
one of the Lost Boys of Sudan and was
a talented distance runner at Northern
Arizona University in Flagstaff.
So I headed up Interstate 17 from
Phoenix to hear his story. And what a
story it was.
Lomong, a sophomore in college at
the time, told of being snatched from
his mother’s arms at age six by rebel
fi ghters, who would kidnap boys to train
to kill before drugging them and send-
ing them to fi ght. But three older boys
escaped and took him along.
They walked and ran for three days,
sleeping only a little. Sometimes the
older boys would carry him. Eventually,
they were found by Kenyan border pa-
trol agents and taken to a refugee camp
that would be Lomong’s home for the
next 10 years. The children in the camp
were housed 14 to a unit. They lived on
corn meal with a chicken at Christmas.
“We’d eat once a day, in the evening,’’
he said. “We’d play soccer so we would
forget while we were hungry.’’
While in the camp, Lomong heard of
the Lost Boys program in which spon-
sors in the United States would bring in
youngsters from the refugee camp to live
with them.
See Inspire/Page 2B
BETWEEN
THE ROWS
WENDY SCHMIDT
E. Jason Wambsgans//Chicago Tribune-TNS
JeanMarie Brownson adds crushed peppermint candies to her family’s favorite brownie recipe to make a holiday treat.
C HRISTMAS
C REATIONS
By JeanMarie Brownson
Chicago Tribune
Nothing
tops taste of
persimmons
Nothing compares to the taste of
persimmons. The wild persimmons
growing in the Midwest are much more
fl avorful than the orange ones for sale
in local grocery stores, but they all have
a good fl avor. A ripe wild persimmon
can be described as a “sugar plum.” I
never knew what that mythical fruit
would taste like until my fi rst persim-
mon.
If I saw a persimmon tree along a
country road in Missouri, I would pull
over and stop. If I had nothing to put
persimmons in I removed my hat and
fi lled that (if I were lucky enough to
fi nd that many).
There are many recipes using
persimmons. Eating them on their
own is best, unless you want to put
the persimmon in a bowl and pour a
little thick cream on it and eat it with
a spoon.
Again, if you are lucky you can some-
times fi nd dried persimmons in an
Asian grocery store. Dried persimmons
aren’t cheap, but they make a great
snack. Even persimmon vinegar might
be found there.
Persimmons grow on deciduous trees
— Ebenaceae, or “food of the gods”
— two species of which are grown in
the West and are resistant to oak root
fungus.
Japanese persimmon (Dispyros
Kami) grows in zones 7-9. We live in
zone 5 so it might live here but will not
thrive or fruit well.
See Persimmons/Page 2B
Our family bakes cookies.
A lot of cookies. Not so much
in number as in variety. Most
years we craft more than two
dozen varieties. We broke a
record in 2018 with 35 differ-
ent types of cookies on display
Christmas morning.
We do a lot of this bak-
ing together in my kitchen.
For about eight hours every
year, the house is fi lled with
my siblings and their millen-
nial offspring mixing, rolling,
manning the oven, decorating
and cleaning up the sugar. My
sisters haul baking sheets,
bags of fl our, cookie cutters
and tins from their house to
mine. We were blessed to have
our father photographing (and
E. Jason Wambsgans//Chicago Tribune-TNS
taste testing) all the activity
Cherry bars are a longstanding Christmas tradition for JeanMarie Brownson’s family.
for many years.
Natasha keeps count and
frequently bakes a batch or
two just to break records. Joseph, a talented and coconut bar cookie. Mom thinks the
ready crushed in small bags in the baking
baker, outshines us all in making the most recipe originally came from a package of
aisle (near the chocolate chips) in large
intricate cookies. Glen and Marty read, then coconut — no one knows for sure. Last year supermarkets during the holiday season.
reread their recipes dozens of times. For
was the fi rst year I made the cookie instead Otherwise, put unwrapped candy canes or
Henry, it’s all about the decorating — his
of mom. I was tempted to swap out the
round peppermint candies into a small bag.
sugar cookies look like edible art. Claire
maraschino cherries for something fancier. Close the bag, and then tap the candy with
delicately sandwiches her pecan lace cookies Nope. I’ll always make the recipe the way
a rolling pin or mallet to crush it to small
with orange cream. We count Erika’s but-
Dad enjoyed them.
attractive bits.
tery caramels as a cookie. Everyone bakes
Peppermint says holidays better than
The Spice House sells a delicious, very
their favorites.
any other fl avor. No longer content to hang fi ne, espresso powder that simply melts
Each year we add new cookies to the rep- candy canes on the tree, we crush them
into your baked treats. Instant espresso
ertoire. Ten years ago, my dad painstakingly and add the shards to everything from
coffee or Starbucks Via packets work nicely
gathered many of the recipes, typed them
coffee drinks to cocktails and desserts. The too.
into uniformity and put them into binders. Doyles bake chocolate peppermint stars,
These brownies are best served the day
He gave us each a copy. The “Kaiser Krist-
the Hansens make peppermint bark. This they are made, but they can be frozen. I
mas Kookie Kookbook” defi nitely contains a year, I’m transforming the family’s favorite remove them from the pan and discard the
sweet chunk of our family history.
chocolate brownie into a holiday delight.
foil used for baking. Then, before cutting
Dozens of the 50-plus recipes are made
Reminiscent of coffeehouse peppermint
into squares, wrap the brownies in plastic
every year for as long as the oldest of us can mocha drinks and candy shop peppermint wrap and foil. Freeze solid, thaw at room
remember. Christmas would not be Christ- bark, these are the brownies to make for
temperature and cut into serving pieces.
mas without kolacky, oatmeal thins, blond
this season. Rich and chocolatey, with a
Families grow. Some move away to follow
brownies, shortbread logs and molasses
touch of coffee fl avor, the brownies get
their dreams. Fathers leave us legacies.
cookies.
topped with red and white bits of pepper-
The cookie tradition keeps us all connected.
We argue about favorites. Dad’s was never mint candy and a swirl of creamy white
Forever.
in doubt: Cherry bars. I cannot remember a glaze.
See Christmas/Page 4B
holiday without this bright red cherry, oat
Crushed peppermint candy is sold al-