The official Dancing Deer Baking Company Blog

COMFORT FOOD

From smallest girlhood,
well into teen years,
now with accelerating age,
cookies have comforted me.

My grandmother’s “receets”—
her only tangible legacy—
made chewy molasses cookies
a family legend.

Any self-respecting nutritionist
recommends a handful of oatmeal cookies
heavily laced with raisins
as a healthful breakfast.

Cookie-baking lessons are
the first for young cooks.
Holiday cookies decorated by small,
eager hands are treasured by all.

All chocolate addicts appreciate
that melting madness called “Toll House.”
At desperate times, some of us will
finish a batch from the bowl, unbaked.

Named “biscuit” by our British mothers,
accompanied by tea,
cookies are the highlight of a civilized day
or ought to be.

Children of careering mothers
will settle for an after-school
welcome—a treasure-hunting dive
into the cookie jar.

I’m still wearing on my small frame
the globular residue
of every comforting cookie
I ever ate.

Barbara J. Rios, Santa Cruz, California ©