Babe, These are not Cookies.

For Christmas, Chris and his family all head to the family seat in Rochester, NY. It's a house built circa 1950's (or 60's) by his grandparents, and its a week staying there with his whole family. It's a massive endeavor to cook Fish Sauce (Spaghetti Sauce with calamari) for Christmas Eve, and an even bigger endeavor to cook standing rib roast on Christmas Day. I'll let Chris cover those because it's more his purview than mine.

In addition, there is loads of cookie making. On Christmas Eve, Chris and I followed an old family recipe for what his father fondly recalls as "Wands" This may or may not be the technical name, and it may or may not be the direct or indirect interpretation of an unpronounceable Italian word that may or may not have meant wand, sounded like wand, or was spelled like wand.

The recipe must have come from a handwritten notecard (of which I saw many) but had already been entered into a computer. It follows here:

6 eggs (beat) 
6 tbl sugar
6 tbl oil 
1 tsp vanilla 

1-1/2 tsp baking powder
3-1/2-4 cups of flour - Do not add more. Add flour on board

Notes: 
These are deep fried or with honey or powdered sugar but not both. 

So Chris, and Jim (Chris' dad) and I are in the basement and we have all of the ingredients out and are ready to start mixing. Jim says "It could either turn into a batter, or a thick dough. I'm not sure which. Here's the pasta sheeter in case its dough. I just remember that it's deep fried strips." Then Erica ( Chris' mom) comes down the stairs and she and Jim decide they need to leave to finish some last minute holiday bits.

Leaving Chris and me in the basement with the ingredients and no idea what we were supposed to do. So we mixed everything together and it turned into a very very sticky dough. We floured up a board, and tried rolling it out, and the dough was elastic (similar to pizza dough). Chris tastes a bit - its like mild bread, not really much of a taste. We try to roll it through the pasta sheeter. Once. Twice. It turns into a tangled glutenous mess, very sticky, pulling lots of holes in it.  I yell at Chris because it's not a cookie, its fried bread, and its not even working. He tells me its a cookie. I tell him cookies taste good as dough. He says it doesn't taste bad.

I throw up my hands and go watch Doctor Who until Jim comes home.

Jim walks into the basement, runs a hunk of dough through the sheeter, and says "Oh guys, this looks great! It's doing exactly what its supposed to."

Turns out, the recipe, handed down between generations, hadn't included instructions that the dough needed to rest, for about an hour. After resting, it rolled out beautifully. Rolled into sheets about 3-4 inches wide, 1/8th of an inch thick, and then sliced into thirds, these "wands" are fried in oil, then drained on paper towels. Hit immediately with powdered sugar, or drizzle with honey.

They are lovely (if not a bit crunchy) the next day reheated in the oven before Church, intentionally or otherwise.