Pineapple Cookies and an Anniversary


Tomorrow is my wedding anniversary and I am without the groom. Ours became a commuter marriage in June when Dave accepted a lucrative job offer in Prescott, AZ working for Lockheed Martin. Because of familial obligations and the fact that there is no ocean in AZ, I have remained behind in Gig Harbor, WA (and in Ilwaco at this moment), keeping the home fires burning as it were. The plan is for Dave to work until October 2013 when he will be old enough to collect Social Security. He is coming home for ten days in September, but his the 90th birthday of his mother trumps our 22nd anniversary so tomorrow will be somewhat sad for me. It is our first (and probably not our last) anniversary apart.

Not to worry. I will not be entirely alone. My daughter Amy is with me here at the beach and our friends Jo & Jon are arriving tonight for the weekend. We intend to go out for dinner at 42nd St. Café in Seaview to celebrate and today I indulged myself in another luxury for today I made pineapple cookies. I first blogged the recipe for these cookies three years ago, but I think they are worth another mention. My Grandma Frieze always had them in the cookies jar when we children came to visit and they are a favorite of mine and my cousins. They are tender and soft and the pineapple brings back memories of summers at Grandma’s. Unfortunately my own children never developed a liking for them and since I could eat them all on my own I do not often make them!

Although she has special needs, Amy does like to help me bake and because I do little of it any more she was willing to help this morning. Tomorrow we will fix up the table with the beautiful new French table cloth Dave sent me and then go out to dinner. At least it will stay clean this way!

Grandma’s Pineapple Cookies

Temp.: 375 degrees F. Time: 12 min (check after 10) Yield: About 3 dozen

2C sifted enriched all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

½ C. soft shortening (I use margarine or butter)

1 C. granulated sugar

1 egg

½ tsp. vanilla extract

½ C. drained, canned, crushed pineapple

¼ tsp. nutmeg (this makes them taste different. Grandma never used it and neither do I)

1 T. granulated sugar

Heat oven. Sift together first 4 ingredients. Mix shortening and next 3 ingredients until creamy. Mix in pineapple, then flour mixture. Drop by teaspoonfuls 2” apart, onto ungreased cookie sheet. (I like to use a little no stick) Sprinkle cookies with nutmeg (optional) and sugar, combined. Bake until golden.

Summers with Grandma

I grew up in Bellevue, Washington. My grandparents all lived in Vancouver, Washington so when I was elementary age my parents would take me to Vancouver to stay with my Frieze grandparents for a week in the summer time. I could visit my Mills grandparents for an evening, but because my Grandma Mills had an addiction to alcohol I actually stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Frieze.

Sometimes my cousin Janice, who is not quite eight months younger than I, would come from Whidbey Island at the same time and for a week I would have a beloved sister to play with, a treat for an only child. We made our own fun, playing in the yard or enjoying the treat of going to the dime store with our grandparents to pick out a toy. One year we got little baby dolls that came with plastic bath tubs. My grandfather had an English Ford and I found the little lighted sticks that popped out and blinked when Grandpa made a turn fascinating. My parents had to roll down the window on our American Ford and stick out their hand to signal.

Grandpa went-to-bed-with-the-chickens. Eva, fix the bed he would say not long after dinner. Grandma would let me stay up and watch Johnny Carson and eat Cheerios. This is something my parents would NEVER have allowed. Grandparents get to spoil their grandchildren more freely than parents do although I believe I may have spoiled my own children too much.

Grandma Frieze was a tiny woman with a backbone of steel. Because my grandfather was never quite happy wherever he was she had to learn to travel light and make a home in more than forty houses in two states and moved back and forth across the country between the Missouri Ozarks and the Pacific Northwest three times. Whenever adversity as come into my life, instead of asking myself what-would-Jesus-do, I look to a woman to whose experiences I can relate and ask myself what-would-Grandma-do.

Recently I got to have my Granddaughter Linda for a week at our home by the sea. I, too, spoiled her. We watched too many movies, ate too much popcorn and she got to have chicken nuggets as often as she liked. Instead of staying up watching one of the late shows at night we snuggled in bed and watched a movie past her usual bedtime and in the morning I made whatever breakfast she wanted. We got to visit with one of her favorite people, author Sydney Stevens, twice and sit next to her at vespers in Oysterville, which Linda thought was very special. Although Linda may never see me as a role model, I hope she looks back fondly on summers hanging out with me..One of these years she can bring her little sister Lydia and just think of the fun we will have with that little spitfire!