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| Photo by Cookingwithgrace.net |
By Michelle Lulic
The thud of the glass jars hitting the counter
suddenly overpower the soft crinkling of the plastic bags. My older sister and
I quickly scamper into the kitchen to find just what we expected: the start of
the holiday season. Pretty soon our home would be whirling with the aromas of
butter, chocolate, peanut butter, ginger, almond, and raspberry. Each scent
teasing our tastebuds with hints of what seven cookies we might place on
Santa’s plate.
Every
year a variety of different flavors make their way into our mixing bowl. The
Scandinavian blood in our veins guides us through the recipes of seven
different cookies. Just as it has guided my Norwegian ancestors after they
skied home with all of their desired baking ingredients. Kitchens in my family
tree have continuously given life to traditional favorites — such as the
pepperkaker (the gingerbread cookie) and the kokosmackroner (coconut macaroons)
— however, each kitchen has also opened its countertops to flavors we have not
yet explored.
As
my sister and I start sectioning off the ingredients, we aren’t surprised to
see the jars of raspberry jam placed alongside the green and red food coloring
and the golden bags of chocolate chips. My grandma’s rainbow cookie makes us
salivate at just the mere thought.
The
recipe, although accredited to my grandma, was taken from two German sisters
she knew as a young girl. The three of them would play together and, one day,
the two girls took my grandmother to their family’s German bakery. One bite of
the baker’s rainbow cookie aroused my grandmother’s senses. She then begged the
sisters to share the recipe. The girls entrusted my grandmother with the secret
ingredients, thus weaving my Norwegian and Italian family with the German
tradition.
For
years my family has passed on the recipe from the two German sisters. But in
2011, the recipe surfaced where I least expected it. I was a freshman in
college and was just about to spend my first Christmas with my current
boyfriend of four years. He had insisted that his German mother made the best
rainbow cookies in the world. We bickered back-and-forth as I insisted that there
was no way it was better than my grandmother’s. We then placed each cookie into
the center of each other’s palm. At the count of three I lifted his mom’s
cookie to my lips and bit into the chocolate covering down through the moist
nutty texture of its three layers. Both our eyes widened as the cookie swooshed
around in our mouths. I can recognize that taste anywhere.
It
remains a mystery whether our recipes came from the same German baker. Either
way the cookie will always connect me to the love of my family and the love of
my life. While the seven cookies chosen each year continue to cycle through, I
can guarantee that one will stay on my list for generations to come: the
rainbow cookie.
Michelle Lulic is a senior at Rutgers University, studying
Journalism and Media Studies with a minor in Theater Arts. She loves to tell
stories through both writing and acting.
