Good Morning!! Today is December 4 2022, and it's my day for an Advent post. First of all, many thanks to Jo the Serendipitous Stitcher for hosting this blog hop once again. Visit her blog,
https://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com/2022/12/2022-advent-calendar-blog-hop.html
to open doors and visit others who are participating.
My Christmas stitch is Angels Abode by Goodflora Stitchwort, a Scots designer who has an Etsy shop by the same name, one whole word. I turned Angel Abode into a longish cube...
All I remember is the floss used is DMC on linen. It's a pretty design with an angel on top of a cloud, having gotten there by the ladder under the cloud, or maybe via her wings. The word Grace is scattered around the Christmas tree.
"What's For Afters?"
My family called it dessert. My parents weren't big on dessert. We were lucky if we had something sweet after dinner, and that may have happened 2, 3 times a month! For Christmas, however, it was a given. It was usually a lemon meringue pie as my dad loved lemon flavored sweets or chocolate pudding with dollops of whipped cream piled on top.
My parents have since passed, and for the last 15 years, I've made cookies. Mexican Wedding Cookies, to be exact. They go by several names, Russian Teacake being the next widely known. Others are polvornes in Spain, Swedish teacakes, moldy mice, pecan sandies, Danish almond cookies. They're made with crushed pecans (how I do it), and rolled in powdered sugar twice. They're my favorite cookie to bake.
Interesting to learn that they were widely known in the US as Russian Teacakes but that changed during the strained relationship with Russia during the Cold War! During and after, these cookies became more known as Mexican Wedding Cookies!
Funny how politics finds its way into the most unlikely subjects.
And that ladies and gentlemen, is my Advent post for Christmas 2022. I will once again bake 3 or 4 dozen Mexican Wedding Cookies on Christmas Eve and hope they last long enough in my presence for our After!
Thanks for visiting!
Those cookies look so delicious. I am going to look out the recipe and see if I can cook a batch for Christmas. Your Angel Abode is lovely. Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the angel stitch and your afters look like a continual pick one at each passing till all gone sort of "afters". always makes me smile the different names people call the same thing or indeed the same names we call something each would describe differently. For my mother a Master baker trained in England in the early 60s and my father who worked in a bakery Russian cake was made from the end trimmings of cakes or day-old cake that had not sold mixed with jam and pressed into a mould with a weight on top forcing it all together. I never liked the sound of it. They had no idea why that would be called Russian cake. Your cookies look much more appealing.
ReplyDeleteRussian cake just as described but usually these days added alcoholic flavouring to bind it all together, we all love it in our house!
DeleteNice angel, very elegant pattern. Lemon meringue pie are my favorite, so many tastes as gifts to enjoy. Love pecan too so those cookies could be on my table too. Thanks for sharing the cooking story. Joyeuses fêtes de Noël ! xxx
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking part in the Advent Calendar Blog Hop this year. I love your Angel cube finish, the little ladder is so quirky!
ReplyDeleteThe cookies look lovely but I would have shared the lemon meringue with your Dad. It's one of my favourite desserts too.
Those cookies look lovely. Are you eating them sitting at the dinner table or just put them out to enjoy at any point afterwards?
ReplyDeleteVery pretty angel design and those cookies look delicious.
ReplyDeleteYour cookies look delicious, I love lemon meringue pie. Your design is lovely, Merry Christmas
ReplyDeleteThis is such a lovely finish, Shelly--I've never seen that design before. Your tradition of Lemon Meringue Pie sounds wonderful! My mom called those cookies Mexican Pecan Balls, but my daughter-in-law who is Mexican American calls them Mexican Wedding Cookies. Whatever they are called--they are very tasty :) Enjoy your week ♥
ReplyDeleteI love Mexican Wedding Rings. I don't make them much as I can eat the whole batch myself!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely stitch and finish!
ReplyDeleteOh yum, lemon meringue is one of my favourites and I have made Mexican Wedding cookies before, they were pretty good.
Happy Christmas!
Huh, I've always known them as Mexican wedding cookies! Your story about their other name reminds me of how sauerkraut was known as "liberty cabbage" during WWI.
ReplyDeleteI love that pattern, and such a lovely finish.
Just getting around for the blog hop! Love your angel I have had Mexican Wedding cookies....delicious.
ReplyDeleteYour Angel is lovely! Pecan Sandies (my kids call them snowballs) are a staple Christmas treat for my family too. I did not know about the name change. So much better reason to give them a nice generic name! :) Pecan Sandies or Snowballs is perfect! I hope you will enjoy yours!
ReplyDeleteYour angel finish is lovely. That is a new designer to me. Those Mexican Teacakes look tasty.
ReplyDeleteYour stitchery is really darling! These cookies (I never know what to call them, they have so many names!) are one of my hubbies favorites!! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful stitching and finishing! It's really quite striking! I've never had Pecan Sandies though I have heard of them...I like any kind of nut so that sounds super yummy to me! Have a Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the bit of history too. These are the most delicious cookies and excellent finish! Merry Christmas!
ReplyDelete