Peabody 2-15-18

10 WEEKLYNEWS.NET - 978-532-5880 FEBRUARY 15, 2018
Remembering
Some tips on
making great
chocolate chip cookies
By Rosalie Harrington
Ray Ray
My Italian grandmother
- my Noni - was a big figure
in my life. With a mother
who was divorced when I
was quite young, Noni played
a big role in my upbringing,
and there were times when
my brother and I would live
with her. Looming large in
those memories was Joe’s
Five and Ten, just down the
street from Noni’s Beachmont
home. The store beckoned
me whenever I went for
a visit.
Around two in the afternoon
on one particular February
day, with my brother
engrossed in playing
marbles, I escaped to Joe’s
so I could fantasize about
owning one of the beautiful
dolls, and doll’s clothes,
that we could not afford.
While browsing, I was distracted
by the array of Valentine
cards to celebrate
Valentine’s Day. They were
so beautiful and their sweet
words seemed to capture
exactly the way I felt about
Paul Kelley, a boy in my second
grade class. They were
two for a penny, but I had
no money so I “took” one,
just half a penny’s worth. I
would color it in myself to
personalize it before I put
it in the beautiful box that
my teacher made with pink
and red crepe paper. Paul
Kelley sat in the front of
the class and when he got
my card he turned around
and gave me the most beautiful
smile ever. From that
day on he walked me home
from school and carried my
books for a very long time.
He was definitely my first
love. Going to confession
was not so easy. Telling the
priest about the Valentine
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when he said back to me
“You stole the card?” That
was not so easy. I was living
with Noni at the time, but
I don’t recall the incident
ever being discussed.
If Noni had been born
a century or so later, she
might have been one of today’s
entrepreneurs, making
it big in the sharing economy.
Noni loved the practice
of renting rooms, turning
the extra room in her house
into an extra five dollars
a week long before anyone
had a thought of computers
or AirBnB. Her Beachmont
house was a stone’s throw
from Suffolk Downs and the
spare bedroom was almost
always occupied by a trainer
or a jockey. If she could have
gotten away with it, she
would have accommodated
even a horse.
Noni had a great spirit.
Those were hard times, and
she worked endlessly running
the house, but she had
managed to have a laugh
over everything and everyone.
The wood burning stove
in the basement was often
simmering with a big pot of
sauce or soup, and she was
always excited when someone
would drop over and they
could be included for dinner
or, at least, a cup of her wonderful
coffee. Handfuls of just
ground coffee beans were
thrown, never measured, into
boiling water, where they
would settle just a minute
before being strained into a
cup. Between her friends and
the horse crowd there was
constant activity and I loved
it.
One of the great joys of
Noni’s later life was her
tenth and last born child, a
daughter. Rachel, known as
Ray Ray in the family, was
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Rosalie’s chocolate chip cookies
adored by everyone, but she
was extra special for me
because, though she was
my aunt, she was my best
friend, my virtual twin. My
mother and grandmother
were pregnant at the same
time and so my Aunt Rachel
and I were born the
same year and were in the
same grade at Louis Pasteur
School, a walking distance
away. For my Noni, I
suppose, the two of us were
inextricably linked.
When Rachel and I were
14, she was diagnosed with
Leukemia, and everything
in the family changed. I
didn’t see much of Noni over
the next two years as she
spent her days with Rachel
at Children’s Hospital, and,
of course, I’d lost my best
friend. Even worse, when
Rachel died, Noni could not
bare to have me around,
as I was too much of a reminder
of her loss and so I
was, along with cousin Marion,
shipped off to a family
friend for the summer in
Somerville.
After the funeral, all evidence
of Ray Ray was wiped
away, and her name was
not permitted to be spoken
again. Noni’s brooding face
became a full-time replacement
for the one that once
had offered such a quick
smile. The silence over the
loss of Rachel included ignoring
the repercussions of
that loss - no one in the family
thought about how it impacted
me, for example - at
least not enough to address
the issue directly. Perhaps
everyone in the family felt
the same, privately mourning
Rachel in their own way
but not allowed to discuss it.
Or, maybe, they had secret
conversations that I was too
young to be part of.
Over time, though, my
brother and I would be allowed
back in to her life, with
Noni taking care of us while
my mother worked. She
started taking us to the movies,
again, which she loved.
Noni had a sewing room
that had a closet that no
one could go near. For years
I wondered about its contents
and was told not to
even touch the door. One
day, just before I was married
and preparing to leave
to live in Chicago where
my husband would finish
his Masters, Noni and I
were having coffee and she
said she wanted to show
me something. I climbed
behind her up the stairs
into the sewing room. She
opened the closet door and
out came what seemed
like an avalanche of toys,
dolls, doll clothes, stuffed
animals, kids books and
games. We sat on the cot in
the room and she told me
that these were the presents
that Ray Ray received
in the hospital before she
died. We cried and hugged
for several minutes. We discussed
that the time was
right for them to be given
to the children’s ward at
the hospital. She asked me
if there was something I
wanted and I took the wicker
basket with the doll and
its clothes. It was meant to
be mine.
My first restaurant sign
was a heart. I have always
loved the symbolism of
the heart. For Valentine’s
– Allowing the dough
to rest makes for a more
richly flavored cookie,
according to the experts
often quoted in my book.
– Also, making them
on the larger size
gives the cookie three
textures from crisp to
chewy to gooey.
– You must add a
generous portion of salt
to the recipe, too.
– I usually follow the
recipe on the Ghirardelli
chocolate chip package
or the Nestle Toll House
recipe is nice, too.
– I make a large batch
of dough, remember the
rested dough makes a
more delicious result,
and bake some off for us
and place three quarters
of it in a jar so my grandkids
can experience them
hot out of the oven, when
Mom has the time.
Day I loved thinking about
a menu that embraced
hearts: hearts of palm salad
or for dessert, coeur
la creme - a heart shaped
dish with holes filled with
soft sweetened cheese and
drained overnight and
served with fresh raspberries.
I loved the calls from
guys who wanted to give
their girlfriends a ring that
night. “Did I have any suggestions?”
And did I ever!
Floating on top of the chocolate
mousse or the cheesecake
or how about the fruit
tart, her favorite? I still run
into people who like to tell
me about their first date at
Rosalie’s and I never tire of
the stories.
Chocolate Chip Cookie
Dough to Go (a perfect Valentine
present)
Who doesn’t like chocolate
chip cookies? Here are some
tips for making them great!
We stayed in a very nice
inn several years ago in Vermont.
The decor was tasteful
with antique furnishings,
a fireplace in the room, and
the property featured a creative
restaurant kitchen,
but what my husband really
loved about it was the chocolate
chip cookies delivered at
bedtime, still warm from the
oven.
If there is one person who
should be canonized (according
to my “N.Y. Times,
The Essential Cookbook) it
is the woman who invented
chocolate chip cookies, Ruth
Graves Wakefield. By taking
an ordinary cookie and
adding chocolate chips to the
recipe she changed baking
forever.