Wow! I'm surprised that this post popped up again after all these years - but it's timely and I'll tell you why. Last week, one of my cousins included me on a post that was going around that had some of Grandma's recipes. One of them was for her lebkuchen (actually her daughter's recipe) and I'm almost certain that these are the cookies I remember. One cousin said that they were always kind of dry and I said it was probably because Grandma let them dry out overnight. (Or maybe she didn't.) Anyway, I was just thrilled to have it. I'm going to make them this weekend and will report back on whether or not they're what I remember. (There weren't any directions, so you just have to use your basic cookie-making judgment.) Lebkuchen 1 lb. brown sugar (3 cups) 1/2 lb. of shortening (1 cup) 2 eggs 3/4 c. molasses 3/4 c. sour milk 1/2 teaspoons. each cinnamon, cloves, allspice & ginger 2 teaspoons baking soda 7 to 8 cups flour 1 cup of raisins 1/2 lb. nuts (2 cups) 1 box of citron

Here's a couple thumbprint cookies that are tried & true. Imake them every year. Chocolate Caramel Treasures Cookie type: formed These are another variation of thumbprint cookie. This recipe came from Gourmet Magazine, December 1999. Ingredients For the cookies: 1 stick unsalted butter, softened 2/3 cup sugar 1 egg yolk 1 teas vanilla 1 cup flour 2 tbsp whole milk 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1/4 teas salt 1 egg white, lightly beaten 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts For the filling: 10 (1 x 1/2 inch) plain caramels, 2 tbsp heavy cream For the drizzle: 3 oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped Directions For the cookies: Beat together butter, yolk, milk, sugar, and vanilla until well blended. Sift in flour, cocoa, and salt and mix until mixture forms a dough. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll tablespoons of dough into balls, then coat with egg white, and roll in nuts. Place balls 1 1/2 inches apart on a greased baking sheets. Press your thumb into center of the balls to flatten, leaving a depression. Bake until puffed slightly but centers are still soft, 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press centers of cookies again with a spoon. Let cool. Make the filling while cookies are cooling. Heat caramels and cream in a small sauce pan over low heat, stirring occasionally, until melted and mixture is smooth. Spoon into centers of cookies and cool completely. Make chocolate drizzle one hour before serving. Melt chocolate in a double boiler or a metal bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring until smooth. Cool to warm and pour into a heavy-duty sealable plastic bag. Seal bag and snip 1 corner to form a small hole. Drizzle chocolate over cookies and let stand until set, about 30 minutes. *I never bother with the drizzle. I also usually use walnuts and not hazelnuts. ***************** Austrian Jam Cookies Cookie type: formed My mom originally got the recipe out of a magazine years ago. I don’t know what magazine. These cookies nowadays go by the name thumb print cookies. I like to call them Austrian Jam cookies because they sound more sophisticated that way. I usually double the batch. A single batch will make about 15-18 cookies. A double batch, you will get closer to 3 dozen. Ingredients 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened (not melted) 1/2 cup sugar 1 teas vanilla* 1 egg, separated 1 1/4 cup sifted flour 2/3 cup chopped almonds** your favorite flavor of jam Directions Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla and egg yolk in a medium bowl until fluffy. Stir in flour. Gather dough into a ball, cover and chill for several hours. Roll level teaspoonful of dough into balls. Dip the ball into a slightly beaten egg white. Roll the ball into the almonds. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Space cookies 1 inch apart. These cookies will not spread very much. Press an indentation with your thumb in the middle of the cookie, careful not to go all the way through to the pan. Fill with jam. Bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. *Almond extract can be used in place of real vanilla. ** Generally, I think the almonds are a little too hard for the rest of the cookie. I usually use walnuts or pecans. I like using Polaners preserves for the jam centers. I have also used Smuckers as well as homemade jam.

How about a "bobbin" that holds as much thread as a spool does, or--better yet, an adjustable bobbin case or spindle that would take any of the three types of regular spools, just the way you can use different sizes and shapes of spools up top in your machine? I'd love to buy 2 spools of each thread, knowing that one will serve as bobbin and the other up top and they will pretty much last for the same amount of time. Something else I would like, which I think really doable, is metal-borders on all the rulers. If I am going to put a nick in the blade of a rotary cutter, at least the metal borders would keep me from gouging pieces out of the rulers.

First thing is I would love an automatic car that drives us and flies as needed. So that if there were people in the way in every direction the car would fly over all and not hit anyone! Or phase through it if we want to get even more science fictiony. I would also want something that washes and sorts all of the recycling into the right containers. I also want a matter reorganizer. if something is needed to be made it just makes it out of old material. Then just fixes the broken thing. For the big picture I would like something that eats and automatically sucks up all the plastics and microplastics in the world and disposes of them in a safe and useful way. Then it breaks them down with bacteria or organizes them into something else with zero pollution problems or or energy problems or cost problems.