Book Information: Sugar, Sugar
Sugar, Sugar
Every Recipe Has a Story
by Kimberly “Momma” Reiner, Jenna Sanz-Agero
Price: $29.99
ISBN-13: 9781449403584
ISBN-10: 1449403581
Format: Hardcover
Size: 7 x 9 in.
Page Count: 312 pages
Sugar, Sugar Reviews
” Sugar, Sugar offers 100 of the best cake, pie, cookie, bar, and candy recipes from two sassy Sugar Mommas, Kimberly Reiner and Jenna Sanz-Agero, who are on a mission to preserve America’s best sweet treat recipes and the even sweeter stories behind them. As the Sugar Mommas explain, “We drove down memory lane to discover our sugar inheritance, and then dug into everyone else’s past to find their dusty, torn, and butter-crusted index cards.” What the Sugar Mommas found was that every recipe has a story. From desserts that accompanied families through good and bad times, to treats perfected by domestic help, to never-before-transcribed sugar concoctions developed from wild imaginations, each recipe conveys the unique personality of the friend or family member who created it. With plenty of pies worth the lie, cakes to diet for, and better-than-nooky cookies, as well as an assortment of cobblers, crisps, bars, and other decadent confections, Sugar, Sugar is sure to satisfy any sweet tooth.” ––Cooks & Books & Recipes http://bit.ly/JnuaRX
“Fear not sugar lovers! The “Sugar Mommas” are on a mission to make sure sugar recipes stay available to everyone, all the time, in their new cookbook, Sugar, Sugar: Every Recipe Has a Story. Kimberly Reiner and Jenna Sanz-Agero (the Sugar Mommas) have added an interesting twist to their cookbook which makes it unique. As the title mentions, every recipe has a story and these stories breathe life into each instruction. Many stories tell of past generations making the same sugary creations that cooks make today. The Sugar Mommas have captured the magic behind the recipes included in the cookbook.” ––Portland Book Review http://bit.ly/AzE7DL
Cakies
—From Sugar, Sugar/Andrews McMeel Publishing
Submitted by Tiffany Lemons From her mother Bonnie Smith’s recipe, Tucson, Arizona
Tiffany Lemons’s three little girls stand in matching holiday dresses in front of their open closet preparing for the big event. Red, pink, and purple shoes sparkle at them from the shelves, but they carefully select the black patent leather shoes, along with pearl necklaces. Tiffany frantically completes the final preparations for the annual mother-daughter cookie exchange.
Tiffany’s mother, Bonnie, started this tradition in Arizona, where Bonnie hosted the annual event. Tiffany helped her mother make the Cakies, then dressed in her black patent shoes and pearls. Bonnie invited her girlfriends and their daughters. Each invitee brought three dozen cookies, which were arranged on the dining room table. Guests took platters around the room, collecting samples from every tray. There was the usual assortment of snickerdoodles, snowballs, peppermint bark, toffee, and chocolate chip cookies, but the Cakies were the most sought after. After enjoying some tea, coffee, or lemonade, and conversation, each mother-daughter set went home with three dozen cookies to enjoy during the holidays.
Tiffany moved to California and started the Cakies ritual when her eldest daughter turned two years old. Rules are rules, and according to tradition, this is a girls-only event. No boys allowed. She hopes that, in 20+ years, her daughters will carry on the Cakies tradition. She looks forward to the day her girls call her at midnight asking those familiar questions, comparing techniques, frosting the final batch, and anxiously arranging last-minute party preparations.
Makes about 6 dozen cakies
Oatmeal Carmelitas
—From Sugar, Sugar/Andrews McMeel Publishing
Submitted by Debbie Carpenter From her grandmother Vina Marie Post’s recipe, Madison, Wisconsin
Grandma and Grandpa Post traveled in their trailer each winter in search of warm weather and a golf course. During the summer, they settled the RV in a park near Lake Mendota. When the grandkids came to visit Madison in the 1960s, Grandma Post let Debbie and her sisters sleep in the motor home. Nothing could be neater to a kid!
In his spare time, Grandpa Post built bicycles, and the kids were always riding around the trailer park on funky-looking bikes he’d pieced together. Debbie’s favorite was the tandem bike he made with her older sister Kathy. Nothing quite matched the freedom the freckle-faced girls enjoyed while cruising around on bikes in the summer months without a care in the world.
In between adventures, Grandma Post and the girls would stroll over to the Piggly Wiggly to buy the ingredients necessary to make Oatmeal Carmelitas. Oozing caramel, chocolate, and pecans between layers of crunchy oatmeal, they instantly became Debbie’s favorite, and Grandma Post always had the cookie jar filled with them for the girls to enjoy.
Grandma Post was also skilled at knitting and crocheting. When Debbie was a teenager, she found a picture in a magazine of a knit halter top with a watermelon on the front. Grandma Post knitted the top and surprised Debbie on her next summer visit. Debbie wore that shirt to shreds. We can easily imagine Debbie riding a handcrafted bike in the spiffy yellow halter with a big watermelon on the front eating Oatmeal Carmelitas.
Grandma Post lived to be 99 years old. She passed away one month before her 100th birthday. Her Carmelitas are so good, we expect the recipe to survive well beyond another 100 years.
Makes about 2 dozen 2-inch square bars
Sweet Stories, Sweeter Recipes
Kimberly Reiner and Jenna Sanz-Agero, the “Sugar Mommas,” are on a mission to preserve America’s best sugary recipes and the stories behind them. Sugar, Sugar: Every Recipe Has a Story offers dozens of sweet recipes, including cakes, cookies, pies, bars, and more, presented with their rich backgrounds and traditions.
Sugar, Sugar contains recipes from across the country, each with its unique story. From cakes sent as a symbol of love to pies perfect for parties, the tales behind these recipes are as enticing as the concoctions themselves. Each recipe includes a nostalgic “ingredient” to convey the personalities and warmth of the friends or family behind it.
Sugar, Sugar offers a medley of cookies, cakes, crisps, cobblers, bars, pies, and tarts, including Buffalo Chip Cookies, Seaside Toffee, Pecan Pick-Ups, Molasses Construction Crumples, and Cape Cod Blueberry Pie. Scattered throughout are the Sugar Mommas’ helpful hints as well as bold, beautiful photographs of the decadent confections.
Sugar, Sugar preserves the recipes and customs of the past for today’s bakers and treat makers in a contemporary-meets-traditional format. Whether you love sugar or stories, Sugar, Sugar is sure to provide sweet satisfaction.
