Little Hands

My grandmother had a picture that hung in her kitchen until the day she died.  It was a framed, decoupage print of my 4 year old hands, dripping in blue finger paint.  Something my creative mother made for her as a Christmas present long, long ago.  Below the messy blue hand prints she stenciled this poem:

Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small,
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls.
But everyday I'm growing,
I'll be grown up someday,
And all these tiny hand prints
Will simply fade away.
So here's a final hand print
Just so you can recall,
Exactly how my fingers looked
When I was very small.

holding little hands last summer at the river that runs near our house

Throughout my childhood years I would frequently hold my hands up to the glass covering that picture, comparing them to the little hands in the frame.  I would watch, in wonder, as my tiny hands grew, until one day my finger tips stretched to the edge of the frame and I was grown up.
  

These days my house is full of tiny hand prints - on the mirrors, on the glass door, on my laptop screen, and on the window where they wave goodbye to daddy as he drives off to work.  Occasionally I clean them, when company's coming.  And I feel a little sad to see them go.  I know the day is coming when my windows and mirrors will no longer bear the marks of these little hands.  So, for the most part, I leave them be.  Tiny reminders of the little ones who fill this house with so much laughter and joy.

If there's one thing that little hands love most of all, it's little cookies.  Fresh from the oven, dipped in a glass of milk. (Is there anything that children do not like to dip in milk?)  These are one of my kids' favourites.  Chewy and soft, and sprinkled with a just pinch of sea salt.

I made them again last week, for the kids' afternoon snack.  You see, they're growing so fast, and their little hands spend most of the day at school, now.  And I miss them.  But no matter how big they get, they never get too old for a cookie.

Marble Cookies with Sea Salt

8 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup fine sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1  1/4 cup flour
1 oz good, semi-sweet chocolate
coarse sea salt

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in the vanilla, salt, and baking soda.  Add the egg and beat until combined.  Sift in the flour and stir until just combined.  Melt the chocolate in a medium bowl.  Add approx. 1/4 of the dough to the chocolate in the bowl and stir until smooth.  With your hands, form the vanilla dough into a mound.  Add the chocolate dough, in separate dollops, to the vanilla dough, and knead gently just a few times with your hands to create a marbled effect.  Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or until firm.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375 F (190 C) and line two baking sheets with parchment.  Scoop out the dough in heaping teaspoons and roll it between your palms to form balls.  Place the balls on the baking sheets and, with the bottom of a glass that's been dipped in flour, flatten them to about 1/2 of an inch thick.  Sprinkle each cookie with a tiny pinch of sea salt.

Bake for 7 - 9 minutes, until the edges just begin to turn golden.  Makes about 2 1/2 dozen small cookies.