Chubby Bébé (& Garden Variety Wednesday #14)

As a toddler, I rivaled Al Capone with the racket I had going on. Strawberry blond ringlets & chubby cheeks to boot. Much more persuasive than a fedora and Gatling gun. Breakfast with mom & dad before work. Breakfast with grandma & grandpa after mom dropped me off with them. Lunch with grandma & grandpa. Grandma & grandpa hurried to feed me supper before I was picked up. Supper with mom & dad when we got home. Five squares a day! For a while no one caught on.

My dad called me his "chubby bébé." With good reason.

Oh. Did I mention grandpa also loaded me with treats? Fig Newtons were his year-round valentines.

Back then, it wasn't frowned on--showing love with food. Grandpa didn't have all the experts telling him about the dangers of food as reward. Or that he should give hugs, not cookies (grandpa did both, often at the same time).

Zoom in to today. My own child. I should know better. But sometimes the best way I can show love is with a hug...and a cookie.

Fig cookies today. Using the fig preserves (I'm on a kick, what can I say?) my mother-in-law made with figs from her mother's property. I'm in that limbo between summer and fall. The summer garden is gone, but too early to start the fall one. But I have lots of preserves.

Standard cookie making:

Cream butter, eggs, & sugar.

Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon.

Slowly add dry to wet.

Then mash up some fig preserves and mix into the dough.

Which will be thick. Very thick.

"No way this will work" thick.

But it will.

It so will.

Bake until tops are browned.

They look like little drop biscuits--something else my grandpa loved to make for me.

Store these ugly little things in an airtight container. The next day they will be chewy and packed full of fig preserve flavor.

Fig Cookies

from Cooking with Cajun Women by Nicole Denée Fontenot, recipe submitted by Claire Bonin

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 c sugar
• 3 c flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 c fig preserves, mashed by hand

Preheat oven to 375 F

Cream together butter, eggs, and sugar. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Then add the mashed fig preserves. Mix well.

Drop by rounded tablespoon on a greased and floured cookie sheet (I used a silpat). Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until tops have browned.

Makes about 4 dozen.

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This is the last Garden Variety Wednesday of the year. I'm thinking about starting a potluck link-up in the fall. I hope you will join in.

Thank you to everyone who participated in GVW! You made Wednesdays anything but "garden variety."