My Grandmother's Cookie Recipe

Every year my Grandmother baked tons of cookies and stored them is really large cans and gave them as gifts during the holidays. I still carry on that tradition.  When she passed away a few years ago I was given her cook book where she wrote her recipes in. 

First let me tell you that the book is actually an account book which was to be used as a cash or day book journal.  So I find humor in that fact that she wrote in the front cover.  These are all very good receipts (instead of the word recipe)  She then wrote "This is grand-daughter Beverly receipt book after me."  HOWEVER, when she was mad at me once, she erased my name out of the book, then put someone else in, then erased them and put me back in.  Ah....fond family memories.

Anyway some of these receipts, oops recipes are really old, and sometimes use ingredients that I am not sure about.  A great example is the following recipe for - as she wrote it - A piece Christmas Cookies.  Actually Apees cookies are a cookie from the Philadelphia area and are of German, or Pennsylvania Dutch origins. 

So here it is:

1 cup of butter and 1 cup of Lard
2 lbs of Sugar
1 Large Can of Everyday Milk
2 teaspoons of soda
4 eggs
Pinch of salt, add flour to roll (which turns out to be a 5 pound bag roughly)   This must be rolled out and cut with cookie cutter.  Makes  1/2 to 1 can of cookies.

Let me tell you about the cans she used, they were huge potato chip cans (I still have one in the basement)  It makes a ton of cookies.  What I like about them, besides the taste is that they are easy to roll.  They make a thick cut out - they puff a little while baking.

Well all my cookies are packed up and ready to give away, but there are also some saved for Christmas Morning.  Plus I have one more batch to bake, chocolate chip that I will make Christmas Eve morning, for some reason we go through them fast.  Well, that's.....another day in Catasauqua.