My Cooking Mentor...

My mother would have been 84 on December 11. Happy Birthday, Mom! I still miss her. She's been gone 11 years. Time flies.

At parties people often asked my mother if she taught me to cook.

"Not like this," she'd say.

What she meant was she never taught me to be a gourmet cook. She never had the time or the audience to consume the kinds of dishes I serve at parties. She was feeding seven kids and a husband of Irish heritage who never wanted things too fancy. A good steak and a wedge of lettuce with Russian dressing was gourmet to my Dad.

My mother loved to come to my house for parties. She'd come a few days ahead and stay on through. She'd sit at the end of my kitchen counter and be fully entertained watching me cook. She never asked if she could help. I think she decided it was her time to observe, and I gladly appreciated her company.

Mom thought the parties I threw were gorgeous. She was so proud that she had given me the old China and crystal. When I was small, those things stayed locked in a cupboard so they would not get broken. She would tell people how happy she was to see me using them and repeatedly told me not to feel guilty if something got broken. She just wanted to see them get used. And get used they do. I still have 40 to 50 dinner parties a year or more.

Mom taught me so much about cooking she'd never acknowledge.

She taught me to never fear a crowd. She regularly cooked for over 20 people on holidays. I've cooked for as many as 232.

She taught me never to get flustered. Now I teach people that there's always "Plan B." You can take a failed crostini and turn it into dip. You can always find another way.

She taught me to enjoy the party and the preparation.

She never taught me to enjoy cleaning up, but since then we've invented the "Patented 10-Minute Clean-Up." Everyone helps, spurred on and entertained by the music and laughter.

There's more (much more), but we're all busy and must get on to our cooking for the holidays.

Thanks, Mom, for teaching me so much.

I promised you easy things to do for the holidays. No-stress cooking. I gave you palmiers and candy coated pretzels. Before that I gave you puff pastry straws. This easy molasses cookie recipe is perfect for winter. I love mine "medium rare"--aka soft--and I've gotten some letters from people hoping I could come up with a recipe so they could have soft molasses cookies too. So here they are, just in time for Christmas.

Enjoy your holidays--stress-free.

Molasses Cookies

1 cup molasses (unsulfured)
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup shortening, melted (do not use butter)
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp salt
3 cups white flour
Sugar for dusting

Put the molasses and baking soda in a bowl. Mix thoroughly by hand using a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. Add the shortening and the buttermilk. Mix again. Add the ginger, salt and flour. Mix all by hand until you have fairly stiff dough.

Now set this bowl of dough in your refrigerator. Leave it there for about 3 hours.

When you are ready to bake, grease your cookie sheet. Form the dough into one-inch diameter balls and roll the balls in white sugar. Place them on the cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 9 to 11 minutes. You can squish them down if you want but, if you truly like your molasses cookies to be moist, this is not necessary. They will spread while they bake and they will keep a moist center.

In between batches of cookies in the oven, I put the dough back in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

After they come out of the oven, let the baked cookies sit on the cookie sheet for a minute or two to firm up. Then gently remove them from the cookie sheet and set on a hard surface to cool. Your countertop will work well. You will find these to be divine warm from the oven, or you can store them for later.