As I have mentioned in an earlier post, my sister and niece taught us how to make royal icing cookies this fall. It's a skill I have admired for a long time and was so excited to learn. I am such a beginner and have years of practice ahead of me, but since practice makes perfect I just decided to dive right in. My first attempts were given to people who would forgive my feeble first efforts.
I made Christmas cookies for my neighbors.....
wedding cookies for Katherine....
and a batch for my Sunday school class.
Then I decided to try some for the Master Gardener's seminar. The only flower shaped cookie cutters I could find were very simple, like flower shapes from a preschool coloring book. The Master Gardeners are serious about their flowers, so I really wanted cookie cutters that produced a more realistic shape. After a little searching on the Internet, I came across Aunt Chick. Her cutters were so realistic there was no problem identifying them as morning glories, daisies, crocus, and more. But the real fun of discovering Aunt Chick was her amazing life story!!
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| www.toriavery.com |
Aunt Chick was really Nettie Williams McBirney. She graduated in 1913 from Stout Institute in Wisconsin with a degree in home economics. She lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma with her husband, a banker. At the end of the Great Depression, the Tulsa World newspaper asked her to write a column about cooking. They said they would pay her $15 a month. She agreed, but didn't tell her husband. When he saw her first article in the paper, he worried that it would start a run on the bank if the town thought the banker's wife had to take a job!!!
Nettie wrote cook books, designed cooking gadgets, and taught cooking lessons. Her cookie cutters were first produced in 1948 and made her really famous. A member of Great Britain's royal family even bought a set!
There's so much more to tell about her extraordinary life!!! Here is a site with the whole story:
It is well worth your time!!
Anyway, I bought a set of her flower cookie cutters on EBay. The details were amazing and, thanks to Aunt Chick, the seminar cookies were worthy of the Master Gardeners!!
Love ya'll,
Shelli
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