The Christmas Season is here. Among the many activities it is a time for baking cookies. Cookies make memories. I have been searching for a recipe for the date rolled cookies my aunt made only at Christmas.
I was at her house once when she was making them. It was a very tedious and monotonous job. Cutting the dates into little pieces. Grinding the nuts into a little jar, which had a hand crank lid that screwed into the jar. Whole nuts were put into the top, ground and then they dropped into the glass container. When the prep was done, she cooked the dates and the nuts and made them into a spread that she smeared onto the dough.
I wanted to find that recipe as a remembrance of her this Christmas. I began by searching my cookbooks.
Cookbooks were frequently created by the women in a community as a fundraiser. They submitted their favorite recipes and then they were compiled by a printing company into usually a spiral bound cookbook. Fundraisers were for churches, band uniforms, clubs, and circles.
One of my oldest was saved from my mother, KINGS DAUGHTERS Recipe Book, published by the Pollyanna Circle in 1949. The cover page has a photo of the Kings Daughters Hospital, where the Lutheran Home is now located in Perry.
The date rolled cookie recipe was not there, but the advertisements of cookbook sponsors were intriguing. International Harvester advertised a refrigerator! The telephone number was 1360. Bessmer Funeral Home could be reached at 866, and included an ambulance service, as did Workman Funeral Home. Household hints were listed at the back of the book, such as, “When dampening the family ironing, wrap up the damp rayon blouses and best things, and put in the refrigerator for several hours. The chilled pieces will iron much easier.”
My next oldest recipe book was published by the Kinkead-Martin Unit 583 of the Rippey American Legion Auxiliary in 1950. Thirty members were listed. The recipes varied, but the contributors were listed as Mrs. I.J. Burk, Mrs. Harry Smith, Mrs. Jay States, Mrs. Ray Monthei, Mrs. Walter High, etc. The phone numbers for Rippey businesses such as S Hanson Lumber were listed as 2 on 81. In 1950 B and L Coal Company was a sponsor for the recipe book, offering “Quality Angus Coal LUMP-NUT”. I hope a reader will explain NUT coal.
I thought I would certainly find Aunt Dorothy’s recipe in the COOKIE BOOK sponsored by THE BAND BOOSTERS of RIPPEY, IOWA in 1954. Sponsors included Brooks-Fouch Chapel funeral home, also providing ambulance services. They could be reached by phone at 608.
In the same edition, Burk Auto Company offered Ford Sales and Service, including PHILCO TELEVISIONS. Their number was 2163.
I thought I was close to finding the recipe, as there was one for pin wheel ice box cookies, but it had chocolate in it.
A cookbook that has lost it front cover, indicating a lot of use, was published by the Rippey United Methodist Women in 1976. Those contributing now were using their first names, with an occasional recipe submitted as a remembrance of a woman within the community who had deceased.
The first Friends of Rippey cookbook published in the early 2000’s had not only recipe contributions, but in household hints, a section on “99 WAYS YOU CAN SAVE THE EARTH”.
My last cookbook to search was also printed by the UNITED METHODIST WOMEN of RIPPEY, IOWA but I was unable to find a date. Success regarding the DATE ROLL COOKIE! It was not submitted under my aunt’s name, but rather Hazel Lauver and Vera Heater, both who are now deceased. It called for cooking the dates with sugar, nuts, and water, making the dough, rolling it in wax paper, refrigerating and then baking at 425 degrees.
It will take an afternoon of preparation, but my family will savor those cookies on Christmas Day.
The sponsors in the recipe books I reviewed documented the community changes along with values in the lives of those cooks through the years.
Be aware of these dates:
Women were allowed to hold property beginning in 1900
Women obtained the vote in 1920 with the passage of the 19th amendment
Women gained the right to open a bank account in 1960
Women were allowed to finance real estate purchases in 1970, without a husband or male co-signer
Women could obtain a credit card in their own name in 1974.
WE ARE NOT GOING BACK: to dampening clothes and placing them in the refrigerator or using our husband’s name in our signature. We will maintain and retain ambulance services.
VIEW FROM MY WINDOW is by shared Mary Weaver, from her farm home near Rippey.
