Langley Family Christmas Langley Family Christmas
LangleyAdvance | Friday, December 4, 2009
RECIPE
Gramma’s ginger snaps Each Christmas I waited for my favourite package in the mail. After I graduated from journalism school and headed off to work in small communities, I would receive holiday boxes from my grandmother, Julain Quaife (in the photos above). It didn’t matter whether I was in northern Alberta, Prince Rupert, or 100 Mile House, they arrived containing her home baking, often some of her sewing and knicknacks. Assuming I was bored with the boxes, Gramma asked me one holiday what I wanted. Knowing that her eyesight was failing and time was not on her side, I said the only thing I would accept from her were the recipes of the treasures she had sent me every Christmas. She seemed surprised at my request. Like so much of her cooking, her holiday treats had the hallmark of a woman who had spent years on the farm and could whip up a meal for a threshing crew just as easy as scrambling an egg for one. A manila envelope, containing one of my favourite Christmas gifts of all time, arrived in 2000. It was filled with scraps of paper, grandmother’s handwritten recipes and cooking tips. And a note: “Hope you can get some good out of these. Baking is not cheap, but it’s nice to have some even for Christmas gifts.”
My Ginger Snaps (Juliain Quaife) 1 cup 3/4 cup 1 1/4 cup 1/2 tsp 1/2 tsp
white sugar shortening (I use butter) egg light molasses salt each of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves 2 scant tsp of soda 2 cup flour
Blend sugar and shortening well. Add egg then the molasses. (I mix the soda in with the molasses.) Mix spices with the flour. Mix real well. Roll in small balls, size of a walnut. (They will spread in the pan.) Dip the tops of balls in sugar and place about two inches apart in pan. Bake at 350ºF for about 15 minutes. I put my dough in the fridge till it sets and cools off. Can roll them easier.
The Christmas packages stopped around then, and Gramma died in October 2008. Her manila envelope sits on my shelves, along with the more than 100 cookbooks I’ve collected over the years at garage sales. Ever since I can remember, old cookbooks have held a fascination. People say get rid of cookbooks because everything is on the web. And yes, for modern fare, the web is helpful, but I still find I would rather thumb through yellowed pages for recipes like tomato soup cake or swiss steak or spiced rhubarb punch. I love the sociology of old recipes. They come from a time when people knew how to control a woodstove to coax the most out of leavened bread, or a root cellar to store fruits and vegetables much longer than some of our modern conveniences. Before I moved to Langley in January 2008, I stumbled across three little bound church cookbooks, two from Burnaby and one from Milner United Church women. I had never heard of Milner, B.C. Some of the space is devoted to advertisers who helped fund the cookbooks. Years later, they are as fun to look at as the recipes. In the Milner book, there are ads for Roger and Boyds Feeds, head-officed in Fort Langley, Duckworth’s Stores at 20500 Trans-Canada Highway, the Derby Drive-in at 9103 Glover St., and the Langly (sic) Hotel at 20340 Fraser Highway. The book gave me a taste of Langley before it became my home. – Heather Colpitts, Reporter, LangleyAdvance