Grandma's Confetti Cookies

Confetti Cookies dyed for 4th of July

When I was a child I spent part of nearly every summer at my grandparents' home in Tipton, Indiana. Grandma Sharp, my maternal grandmother, having only had one child of her own, spent her time herding my four brothers and me off to activities and church and cooking mountains of food for us - no small feat.

She had several specialties, one of which was Confetti Cookies, a recipe she had gotten from her cousin Juanita Searfoss. They are a delicate pink color filled with rainbow colored nonpareils, or confetti, and dusted with powdered sugar. My mother didn't make them so we always looked forward to having them at grandma's.

When I got older, I was given the recipe and started making them for myself and thoroughly enjoyed each batch. Just the aroma of them baking brought back happy childhood memories for me.

Just before the birth of my first child, a girl,  I was living with my in-laws. I had made several dozen Confetti Cookies just days before our daughter arrived. When my mother-in-law came to the hospital to visit with her new granddaughter, she brought along a container filled with those cookies and a note about "...pink cookies for your baby girl." As a first-time mom, and only 21 years-old, I was comforted greatly by that little bit of home she delivered to me.

Traditionally Colored Confetti Cookies

In the early 1990's when grandpa passed away, grandma was also ill and needed care. She came to Pennsylvania to live with my mom and step-father in their home. Part of grandma's illness caused her to not be able to eat many of the foods she loved. One of the few things she could tolerate, though, was Confetti Cookies. It was time for roles to reverse, and it was now my turn to make the cookies for her. I made them as needed over a 12-year period and was honored to bake and deliver them to grandma. The time visiting with her when I dropped them off was so special and she was so very appreciative; her face lit up each time I handed them to her.

Grandma is gone now, she passed in 2005 at the age of 97, but that recipe lives on. I make Confetti Cookies often for my 7 children, changing colors to suit the occasion, but they never taste exactly the same; they never taste just like the ones that grandma used to bake.

Confetti Drops
Mrs C.L. Searfoss
Printable Recipe

1 c spry (shortening)
2 c flour
6 T sugar
1/4 c milk
1 oz confetti candy (multi-colored non-pareils)
1 t vanilla or almond extract
1/4 t salt
red food coloring
powdered sugar

Mix shortening and sugar and salt. Add red food coloring to milk so it distributes well-ebough so the dough will be a pretty pink. Add extract to milk also. Add flour alternately with milk. Add confetti and mix well so it gets throughout the dough.

Roll into 1" balls and flatten slightly on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes. Do not let them brown!
The original recipe says to roll them in powdered sugar while warm but I always wind up with a sticky mess if I do this so I let them cool first.

Grandma's 'Sketti

Grandma's Sketti

This is another of my grandmother's recipes that was never written down and never submitted to a church cookbook. She made it very often when we were younger and it was such a favorite of ours that when she didn't make it one of my brothers would get upset about the missing 'sketti.

This is a true comfort food to me. Each time I make it I'm transported to Grandma's summertime kitchen. The chef in me wants to embellish it; add garlic and Parmesan. If I did that, though, the flavor would change enough that it wouldn't be Grandma's and the comforting effect would be lost.

This was beef-a-roni way before it was ever a boxed or canned mainstream product and I refuse to call it goulash, no matter what everyone else says.

Grandma's 'Sketti
Printable Recipe

1 small onion - chopped
1 pound ground beef
1 can (46 ounces) tomato juice (Grandma always used sodium-free because of dietary restrictions, I use the real deal)
2 cups uncooked macaroni (elbows) If you want specifics, Grandma used Mueller's.
salt and pepper to taste

Cook onion and beef together until beef is well browned. Drain any fat. Add tomato juice and macaroni. Cook over low heat, covered, until macaroni is tender about 10-12 minutes or so.

Serve with buttered bread and love.

Veggie Wednesday: Retro

This recipe card is one of a collection I have that belonged to my late great-grandmother. Grandma died in 1974 just before her 90Th birthday. The 1930's then, when this card and many of the others in the collection was written, was mid-life for her. It was also the time of the Great Depression.

When grandma and grandpa weren't off in a foreign country doing missions work, they lived in the parsonage of whichever church grandpa was pastoring at the time. Grandpa was always there, wearing a clean, long-sleeved, white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of suspenders. At a moment's notice, he could roll down the sleeves, add a tie and a suit jacket and be ready to preside over any ceremony necessary. As my mother told me, "You have no idea how many weddings he performed right there in the parsonage."

Being a pastor in those days often meant being paid in food, which was not so bad an idea, really. Grandma would have to entertain quite a bit and extra food certainly helped. Meat was a real commodity, though, so recipes had to be adapted and worked around what a person could afford. Grandma never served anything, even Creamed Peas and Carrots on Toast, that wasn't pretty enough to photograph.

Creamed Peas and Carrots on Toast

This recipe reflects the life of a preacher during the Depression better than any other in that stack of recipes.

Creamed Peas and Carrots on Toast
As written on the card.
Printable Recipe

Take equal parts of cooked peas and carrots. Make a white sauce; using

1 cup milk,
2 tbs. flour,
2 tbs. butter,

Add white sauce to carrots and
Peas and return to fire and heat.
Pour over toasted bread.

Heaven Rejoices Today

Ina J. Sharp
July 1, 1908-October 17, 2005

Grandma

I was going to post a recipe of my grandmother's the other day (and I still will someday soon) but today I am too sad for much cooking~My beautiful grandmother had a stroke this morning. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers if you would.

Grandma is 97 and my youngest child, Ian, shares her birthday, July 1st.

Ina J. Sharp

Grandma Barnes and Grandma Sharp

Mother and Daughter

Grandma on her 97th birthday with Ian on his 1st