In Pittsburgh, It's "I Do!" and Then Pass the Cookies

[hippywife]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/dining/16cookies.html?_r=2&em

[Phentex]

1. My in-laws were freaked out at the wedding reception...

the italian side of my family always passed around wedding cookies during the reception. Instead of making them, my aunts brought them down from a bakery in NJ. When my husband and I started walking around with the tray, my mother-in-law thought we didn't have enough hired help and was trying to find someone to take the tray from us! :rofl:

[hippywife]

2. I like that idea

even better than having a cookie table. That gives the bride and groom a chance to welcome and spend time with all of the guests during what are probably the most hectic and disconnected hours I've ever experienced in my life. LOL

[tigereye]

3. this is a very big deal here- but I had never heard of it until I went to a

colleague's wedding. I grew up in a small town north of the city and my parents were both from out of state. When I went to her reception, I was stunned - no booze, which is NOT a Pittsburgh tradition! and lots of cookies.

My SIL had a really large cookie table. Yum.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. In Rhode Island all Italian weddings feature WANDI

Now I must have some. I will begin a hunt to have some shipped to me. They are so fragile, I am sure they will be dust when they arrive. Maybe, just maybe I can find an Italian bakery within a hundred miles that makes them. It would be worth the drive


Wandi are a cross between a cookie and a pastry, they are bow-ties of a dough that are deep-fried and then sprinkled with powdered sugar. A tray of them is often placed right on each dining table, often wrapped in cellophane and tied with a ribbon from the bakery. They are so light I always think the cellophane is to keep them from floating towards the ceiling. Even the grocery stores will often feature them. They are usually either lemon or anise flavored, but very very subtle.

Must have Wandi

[grasswire]

5. fascinating article on wandi + recipe

http://ezinearticles.com/?Farfatelle,-Wandi,-Guanti---Different-Names,-But-Same-Delicious-Treat&id=3323659

[grasswire]

6. and there's a wandi recipe on this site

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.pagesintime.com/ri/baked.html&usg=__DHX3lpNwjFlsMspEhZg51-yeRNQ=&h=118&w=124&sz=7&hl=en&start=6&um=1&tbnid=Jljd46bnK893kM:&tbnh=86&tbnw=90&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwandi%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1%26ie%3DUTF-8

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

8. Thanks so much!

All the recipies for egg biscuits, wine biscuits, etc. are exactly the things my Italian mother-in-law would make on a regular basis. She never did Wandi, though.

The recipe looks pretty simple. I might try it. I did go to my Italian bakery and ask, but they don't make them. I'm starting a personal campaign. Oh, well, at least they make sfogliatelle! (Gourmet once featured a recipe for sfogliatelle on the back page. Hilariously the commentary was that they were one of the most difficult pastries to make and you were a fool to even attempt it.)

[hippywife]

11. Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCH0UnFXoEs&feature=fvw

[hippywife]

7. This is one of the cookies

my grandmother used to make, too. Lord, I don't know how she did it. She was very arthritic and looking at her ankles made me hurt. But every year she would have boxes and boxes of all different kinds of cookies for us. It must have taken so much out of her to do all of that. It makes me sad to think about how much she must have hurt getting all of that done, all by herself because she would do them during the week when everyone was working. I spent every Saturday with her for years and never saw her making them. They would be done and hidden on the shelf in the closet of the spare bedroom.

I really miss her more than any words can ever express. :cry:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

9. I know how you feel. A lot of my happiest memories involve food made by loved ones.

Very Proustian!

In memory of your grandmother and my mother-in-law :hug:

[grasswire]

10. my Aunt Dorothy was a real model in that same way

She kept the holiday cookies in tins on shelves over her washing machine, which was in a kitchen nook. Many, many tins -- hundreds of cookies. She was a Canadian married to an Englishman, so there weren't any Italian yummies there. But there were jam thumbprints and coconut islands and kiflings (similar to russian teacakes) and all the cookies Better Homes & Gardens was featuring that year. :-) We still make her cookies every year. Kiflings, coconut islands, jam thumbprints.

I mostly was with her prior to her sixties so I remember her as spry.

But I know the kind of woman your grandmother was. They can't NOT keep the traditions, you know. I hope I'll be that way. It's a reminder to stay flexible and healthy!

Now, I never intend to keep the tradition of my maternal grandmother Nellie. She made Christmas flannel pajamas for each of her seventeen grandchildren. Gah!

[tigereye]

12. I still miss my grandmother and it's been almost 30 years since she died

:hug:


she wasn't much of a cookie baker, but she made great birthday cakes.