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Every Little Thing by April Jeppson

I know you’ve been on the edge of your seat waiting to hear about my rosette experience. Well, wait no more, here it comes.

I looked through all my cookbooks to see if there was a tried and true recipe. I love old cookbooks, especially the ones put together by churches and communities. There’s something about seeing a name attached to a recipe that almost guarantees it’s going to be good. I mean, I wouldn’t want to attach my name to something that wasn’t tried and true and delicious.

When my grandmother was alive she told me to go through her collection of cookbooks and take what I wanted. I sat in front of her bookshelf and thumbed through the pages. She had probably 30 of these fundraiser-style books. What was I looking for? I wanted to find the ones that had her or her mother’s handwriting in them.

I love those personal notes that people add to the side of recipes they’ve tried. “Makes closer to 3 dozen,” “This was good, but very sweet,” “Double the batch, everyone loved these.” It becomes very personal when you read something handwritten.

Everything is typed nowadays. I send countless texts and emails each day. Most of my friends probably have no idea what my handwriting even looks like. I’m sure that I have some co-workers that can pick out my script based off of my obsession with sticky-notes. (If you ever want to give me a gift, brightly colored sticky notes are always the right choice.)

So back to my original story, I wanted to find a rosette recipe in one of these books. I looked through everyone I had, but nothing. It bummed me out a bit. Perhaps if I searched further and inquired with my family, they may have a book with one in it. But it was really cold out, and I was with my children and we wanted to make some treats ASAP.

I looked online and read through a few variations. I didn’t bother with watching any of the video tutorials because I kind of wanted to figure it out on the go. My irons came with a recipe and basic instructions, so I used that as my guide. My children weren’t sure what it was we were making, but they were excited to have me home and “playing” with them.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever made these thin, crispy treats, but they are not easy. There is definitely a learning curve, and I have a long way to go before I’ll be selling these at the farmers market. The upside is, that even the partial, imperfect ones still tasted delicious when dusted with powdered sugar.

I also cooked up some chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons, and my son found a recipe for chocolate chocolate chip cookies that was really good. I’m not sure if I’ll tackle any of the other Scandinavian treats anytime soon, because honestly I want to try my hand at those rosettes again. How cool would it be if I became really good at it? I could pass that skill onto my children and then the tradition continues.

Albert Lean April Jeppson is a wife, mom, coach and encourager of dreams. Her column appears every Saturday.