To Life, To Life with Chocolate Chips

The week before I went to UMASS Memorial to have that surreal, I will never forget farewell, I got a call on my cell phone while I was at work.  Now if you don’t know me very well, you might not know how much I despise my cell phone.  How much I try to avoid using it at unnecessary moments, like work.  My friends still do call and text me… but are pretty sensitive to the fact that I work.  And of course I saw this call come up as I was wrangling with some annoying customer service person on the phone for work.  Some seeming disaster that actually eludes me now.  I just know my head clouded as I saw a friend’s name show on the caller ID and had to let it go to voicemail while I dealt with that other annoying matter.  But I made the callback… already with the sick feeling in my stomach of the news it was going to reveal.

It was just about a year ago exactly that my friend Lisa was given the grim diagnosis that her cancer had come back with a vengeance.  I met Lisa through theater – kind of appropriately considering the kinship and mutual love of social justice, feminism, politics, and art - during a production of the Vagina Monologues.  I can’t even remember which monologue was hers.  Maybe she was just part of the ongoing ‘chorus.’  But she wore a pink feather boa.  It’s one of the most vivid details about that show in my memory.

Lisa had a family and a full time job as a social worker.  She lived in Sturbridge.  I still lived out the Boston way.  But there was great opportunity for political empathies on Facebook… and the occasional run-in at a theater production.  Then somewhere in the Facebook postings and invitations, she found my supper club and wanted in.  Because I was having a pumpkin themed dinner.  Unfortunately her best intentions did not get her to that dinner, but she saved the bottle of pumpkin wine until she was able to come to a supper early last November before heading over to work.  

I think it is a curious thing – coincidence – timing –whatever that Lisa and my grandmother left this life within a week of one another.  They were both such dynamic women.  Full of love, love, love.  For their children.  For their spouses.  For their friends.  They both were genuinely interested in people… and in the world.  Smart, sassy women without whom this world feels a little empty.

Tonight the Sturbridge theater community is paying tribute to Lisa.  I am happily attending… but also happily contributing to the night’s refreshments.  When the call was put out to offer up baked goods, it seemed a perfect opportunity to bring together my love of these women.  

In honor of her love of pumpkin, I opted to make my own recipe of pumpkin chocolate chip bars.  I didn’t even think about this blog much as I got up first thing this morning and made a batch… so no pictures, I’m afraid.  BUT in spite of the fact this is not a Mary Brennan recipe, I will post it here.  I know these bars have visited her kitchen once or twice… and they are pretty good.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

Ingredients:
2 ½ c. flour
1tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
¾ tsp. cinnamon
¾ tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 c. butter, melted
1 c. white sugar
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375°.  Grease 13 x 9 pan (I use my favorite Pampered Chef stoneware brownie pan)
2. Stir together first six ingredients.
3. Blend butter and sugar until smooth.  Add pumpkin.  Add eggs, one at a time.  Gradually blend in dry ingredients.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Spread mixture evenly into prepared pan.
4. Bake 35-45 minutes.  Best served warm (with a cup of coffee).

(I did not take pictures of the making of or finished product before packaging them into pieces for sale tonight.  BUT I did think to take a snapshot of the crumbs I sampled with my morning coffee)

The second recipe for today’s blog is what I made for the reception after my grandmother’s wake.  It’s the first recipe I made from this recipe box.  I chose it, mostly, because it can be made without nuts.  In fact, that’s how I’ve made it – mostly because I haven’t had any in my kitchen.  But the mandate for tonight is no nuts.  It’s something I remember from that pantry closet – maybe even more vividly than peanut butter bars.  And while the recipe is Nestle, to me it is my grandmother because she was the supplier.

Original Toll House Pan Cooky (Gram’s spelling – she also gave credit where credit is due by inserting Nestlés underneath)
1 c. pls 2 Tbsp unsifted flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ c. butter softened
6 Tbsp. sugar *
6 Tbsp. brown sugar
½ tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 c. choc chips
½ c. nut meats  (I found this descriptive term amusing considering Gram and my mutual disdain for squirrels)

Preheat oven to 375°.  In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.  In large bowl, combine butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla.  Beat until creamy.  Beat in egg.  Gradually add flour mixture.  Mix well.  Stir in chips and nuts.  Spread into greased 9 in square pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes.  For crisper cookie, spread dough in 13x9 pan.  Bake at 350° 12-15 minutes.

*In case you’re wondering, there are 16 Tbsp. in a cup.  I doubled this recipe – so 12 Tbsp = ¾ of a cup.

(Basically in the end, you end up with a bowl full of cookie dough.  And you could make cookies, I suppose.  But they are easier to package as bars... and I actually like them better.)

As I went to pull off the pictures from my camera for this post, I found I still had one of Lisa and me at brunch raising our mimosas and smiling.  A woman with so much spirit and love.  She lived the mantra Carpe Diem, even through this last bittersweet year.  I am grateful for the visits I had with her in 2012.  And, this may be a tangential detail to this post… but I broke down and bought a device that will enable me to take pictures – mostly for this blog… but because of this blog, I seek to capture the stories of my day to day.  I had the option to inscribe it on the back.  I chose Carpe Diem.