My Grandma's cookies

During holidays, birthdays

or special occasions

my grandmother

takes out the cast iron

cookie mold

that has been in her family

for generations

I help mix and roll the dough

there is a stove and oven in the kitchen

but for this special cookie

we light a fire outside

bake each cookie with care

one at a time

the cookie mold was heavy and hot

a lot of work to make

just one cookie

As I grew older

I stopped making them

It was too tedious

But one day,

I remembered the cookie

She gave me the recipe

but there were no measurements

no procedure

Just the 5 ingredients

I no longer have my ancestor's cookie press

but I made it anyway

I failed

It was not

delicious , warm or crisp

it was a ball of inedible mush

I gave up making it

I could not figure it out

While I was backpacking in Spain

In a tiny pilgrim souvenir shop

to my great surprise,

I found my grandmother's cookies

I found many variations

of my grandmother's cookies

Pizelle in Italian

Stroopwafel In Holland

waffle butter cookies in France.

What a joy to try each one.

I still have not

accomplished making the cookie

The one my grandmother made

I still have not figured out the

exact measurements

or the procedure

but I was already given

the 5 ingredients I know I need to make them

and I will continue trying.