Pfeffernusse, Anyone?

 A-Poem-a-Day Until Christmas...

Here's a plate of my homemade Christmas cookies

with two snowy white pfeffernusse in front.

A NEW RECIPE

 

I flip through a cookbook

and select, as I sometimes do

a recipe I’ve never tried before—

a cookie, full of aromatic spices

cinnamon, nutmeg, clove

even a pinch of pepper

 

I stir some dark, robust molasses

and the spices into flour

butter and sugar

then roll teaspoonsful

of the thick brown batter into balls

line them neatly in rows

on cookie sheets

and slip them in the oven

 

Gradually the kitchen

fills with an old, familiar fragrance

I can’t immediately identify

In a few minutes I remove a pan

from the oven, wait for the cookies to cool

then roll each one in powdered sugar

as the recipe indicates

 

One taste

transports me to childhood—

This is pfeffernusse!

that classic Christmas cookie

that spicy little gem I hated

the cookies that turned to rocks

clunkers at the bottom of the cookie jar

 

These were the cookies Mom offered

when there was no other sweet in the house

the ones that bobbed in her coffee cup

dripping as she ate them with a spoon

 

Today, all those mingled spices

the dash of black pepper

are pleasingly hot upon my tongue

the sweet sugar coating

the pungent aroma

are positive proof

 

the taste buds of my youth

have definitely

grown-up

 

Maude Carolan Pych

Here's a Christmas Gift idea...

"Behold the Lamb...poetically!"

by Maude Carolan Pych

is available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD, etc.

Website: www.maudecarolanpych.net

Email: maudecpych@gmail.com