Off the Shelf November 2026

I had forgotten about our new Off the Shelf topic after my first post in September, but thankfully Carole's wonderful post about her pie cookbook last Monday reminded me. So today I'm sharing a "sort of" cookbook that has an important place on my shelf. 

I have a small desk in my kitchen that is handy for paying bills and it also has a little shelf at the bottom that works well for cookbooks. I don't use them more than a few times a month, but they're the ones that matter to me and have survived multiple weedings. 

 

 

I actually added a couple of new ones last week, but I digress.

 

My mother wasn't particularly fond of making dinner day in and day out, and she eventually settled into a familiar rotation of meatloaf, spaghetti, pork chops, sloppy joes, and assorted casseroles. She may not have been much of a cook, but she was definitely the Christmas Cookie Queen. She started baking in November, making dozens of different kinds of cookies and storing them in multiple Charles Chips cans. My sister and I thought the man who delivered the chips was named Charlie, so we called them Charlie Chip cans. Mom baked so many cookies that we almost always had some left on Valentine's Day. 

  

Along with cut-out cookies, Mexican wedding cookies, chocolate chip, gingerbread, snickerdoodles, candy cane cookies, gumdrop cookies, and stained-glass cookies, she also made my absolute favorites: Magic Carpet cookies. The recipe comes from a Betty Crocker pamphlet published in 1957, and I still have my mother's copy tucked into a file folder on my cookbook shelf. 

 

They have a buttery shortbread base with confectioner's sugar icing. I tried making them once after my mother died, but they were so fiddly to put together and didn't taste anything like I remembered. I haven't attempted them again in several decades. Maybe this will be the year I finally give them another try and manage to get them right.

But even if I never make another batch, this little pamphlet will always have a special place on my shelf. It brings back memories of a very special cookie that my mother made year after year simply because she knew how much I loved them. Thanks for the love in cookie form, Mom.