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We were trying to think of something to bake and take to our post-funeral gathering. I remembered the awesome date squares I used to have over at my in-laws' place. Did we have the family recipe? There was nothing like that in our recipe boxes. I remembered baking them fairly often in our younger days, but we hadn't baked any in at least ten years!
I thought back to the cookbooks we used a lot in our impoverished student days and remembered Caroline Ackerman's slim paperback entitled "The No Fad Good Food $5 a Week Cookbook: Cooking with Natural Basic Foods". Copyright 1974 by McClelland and Stewart. A mere 144 pages including the index, bibliography, shopping lists and food charts, the title is almost longer than the book itself! Sure enough, we still had it, a bit battered, bruised and stained, but still intact.
I looked up "date squares" in the index but it wasn't there. That's because in this particular cookbook, they're called "matrimony squares". The recipe itself is preceded by the following charming little editorial comment: A real Canadian cookie. Will marriage remain as an institution? An academic question. But Heaven preserve us if extinction befalls the Matrimony Square.
It's a good simple reliable recipe, one without any fiddly time-dependent juggling of different steps that could pose big challenges to a stressed-out baker. So that's the recipe we used.
As we were leaving the wake, our host remarked that she hoped our next get-together would be to celebrate a wedding. Which got me thinking. I don't know of any family weddings coming up in the near future, but we'll be celebrating our fortieth anniversary next year and what better way to celebrate a wedding anniversary than with a "matrimony square"? And maybe a few more of the classic recipes we used to make from that same cookbook? While we're at it, perhaps we'll get ourselves into a seventies groove for the day by watching 70s era movies like Rocky Horror and Outrageous and wearing 70s era clothing like wide-legged jeans, crocheted vests and platform shoes. Or maybe Dr. Scholl's "exersandals", water buffalo sandals or Roots Earth Shoes?
A number of the styles from the 1970s do actually seem to be coming back into style. Although they say if you were around for them the first time, you're probably too old to wear them again!
I thought back to the cookbooks we used a lot in our impoverished student days and remembered Caroline Ackerman's slim paperback entitled "The No Fad Good Food $5 a Week Cookbook: Cooking with Natural Basic Foods". Copyright 1974 by McClelland and Stewart. A mere 144 pages including the index, bibliography, shopping lists and food charts, the title is almost longer than the book itself! Sure enough, we still had it, a bit battered, bruised and stained, but still intact.
I looked up "date squares" in the index but it wasn't there. That's because in this particular cookbook, they're called "matrimony squares". The recipe itself is preceded by the following charming little editorial comment: A real Canadian cookie. Will marriage remain as an institution? An academic question. But Heaven preserve us if extinction befalls the Matrimony Square.
It's a good simple reliable recipe, one without any fiddly time-dependent juggling of different steps that could pose big challenges to a stressed-out baker. So that's the recipe we used.
As we were leaving the wake, our host remarked that she hoped our next get-together would be to celebrate a wedding. Which got me thinking. I don't know of any family weddings coming up in the near future, but we'll be celebrating our fortieth anniversary next year and what better way to celebrate a wedding anniversary than with a "matrimony square"? And maybe a few more of the classic recipes we used to make from that same cookbook? While we're at it, perhaps we'll get ourselves into a seventies groove for the day by watching 70s era movies like Rocky Horror and Outrageous and wearing 70s era clothing like wide-legged jeans, crocheted vests and platform shoes. Or maybe Dr. Scholl's "exersandals", water buffalo sandals or Roots Earth Shoes?
A number of the styles from the 1970s do actually seem to be coming back into style. Although they say if you were around for them the first time, you're probably too old to wear them again!
