talkhealth Blog

I’d be telling a lie, which is chancy this time of year with Santa watching and all, if I said I love getting old.

Some say we’re supposed to not mind aging.  ”Age is just a number,” they tell us.

But wrinkles and saggy thighs and creaky feet can sometimes outshine the bravado that comes with aging.  So I look for that bravado wherever I can.

In honor of the season, I present you some upbeat cookie thoughts on getting old.

Cookie Aging Point One:

My menopausal eyes spotted this slick bottle in the baking aisle four days ago. A new kind of squirt icing!

I’m not sure how well it works, but being a lover of icing, I’m looking forward to giving  it a whirl and a swirl.

How cool to live long enough to see good, new stuff:  computers and other useful inventions,  medical advances, innovative works of art that reflect the times we live in, AND a new system for making dots and squiggles with frosting.

Cookie Aging Point Two:

It’s neat to have lived long enough to remember the stuff of yesterday:  the expression “neat,” record players, the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, troll dolls, wooden rings on our fingers, hip hugger skirts and poor boy tops, Almond Smash, AND our moms and grandmas rolling out cookies oh so thin and oh so delicious (and storing them in metal tins).

Cookie Aging Point Three:

Finally, how lovely to have recipes you make year after year, first given to you by a friend or relative.  That person abides in your thoughts while you cook!

Here’s my friend Cathy’s shortbread recipe as I wrote it down twenty-some years ago.

You don’t need squirt icing or cookie cutters. You don’t even need to grease the pan.

Take the shortbread out of the oven when it’s lightly browned.  Dust with colored sugar or confectioner’s or leave plain. Cut into squares or other shapes.

Neat-o!

Barbara Younger

Barbara Younger blogs from her home in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Along with Friend for the Ride: Encouraging Words for the Menopause Roller Coaster (http://friendfortheride.com), she writes books for children and adults. She lives in an old house with her husband Cliff. and collections of everything from dolls to buttons to bookmarks. She's the mother of two grown daughters and the grandmother to one adorable baby boy!